I have a Junior that plays baseball as his #1 sport. I have always encouraged him to play for himself (not his parents), play for fun, and to play multiple sports. I pushed multiple sports for the cross training and for the down time on his throwing arm. In high school he has played s****r and now this year he is playing football as well. During S****r, he hardly touches a baseball and totally engulfs himself in the current sport. During baseball, he never touches a s****r ball.

After his Sophmore baseball season he wanted to get on a travel baseball team. He tried out and landed a spot on a very good fall league team. But while waiting to hear if he made it, he committed to football. So now we are in the predicament of him throwing himself into football, and trying to perform every other weekend against great baseball competition.

He is totally enjoying football and the newness of it and has a renewed spark in his eye. He is really having fun which is what I always asked him to do. But it is really hard for him to practice baseball. We went through a lot of effort (and money) to land a spot on this fall baseball team and now he isn't as sharp as he should be due to lack of practice time. I have forced a few baseball practices on him, but it hasn't been fun.

On top of all this he is an excellent student (better than 4.0) and is staying out of trouble.

I don't know if I should be pushing him more towards baseball or just letting things happen. He definitely has a chance to play college baseball, but I feel like he is now hurting those chances by playing multiple sports. I have heard of studies that suggest that multiple sport athletes are more likely to go on to play college sports. Any one hear of a similar study or have any input into this subject?

Any others on here experience this kind of dilemma.

Welcome:

This was the first question I posted here and I received some great advice. Shortstopmom hits it right on the button "play both sports until the competition convinces you otherwise"

My son (in his Soph year) has decided to again play basketball and he makes it a year to year decision. He knows it impacts his baseball some, but up to now not enough to not play two sports. (he sounds similar to yours; baseball #1 with the ability to play beyond HS, basketball OK but will never play above DIII...if that) In the end it is not important what I want, it is important what he wants.

Cost and commitment aside your son will have the winter to get ready for the baseball season.

My personal opinion is that you only go through HS once and in reality very few kids have the ability to play (and compete and get playing time) at two or more sports - so if he is having fun and doing well let him play....and BTW let him make the decision. (with some guidance from you of course)

Good Luck!

My daughter played volleyball, track and softball in high school. It's a large classification school. Each coach expected her to be dedicated to their sport. She made it very clear soph year softball was the priority. She played on a travel softball team and trained for softball ten months of the year. She never worked on track off season. She played pickup two-man volleyball in the park and on the beach when she had time. She played two years of college softball before chosing a prestigious DC internship.

My son is now a high school soph. He's playing s****r, basketball and baseball. He would have the same issues with coaches except he's been clear from the beginning baseball is the priority. All three coaches want him playing their sport in the summer. The s****r coach grabbed me in the parking lot tonight after practice. He was adamant my son has a future in s****r if he plays select. I told him he's already playing select baseball. It's where he wants his future to be. He plays and trains baseball ten months of the year. He plays a lot of pickup basketball. He doesn't touch a s****r ball out of season.

My kid's schedules took/take a lot of dedication. My son is playing s****r and fall baseball on the weekend. When my son came home from his s****r game last night he hit the weight room before starting his homework. Tonight he'll go to the cages to hit after his homework is done. They're open until 11pm. He's either on the tee or at the cages three weeknights during fall ball. Starting in January he'll be at baseball practice for 90 minutes before school (5:45 to 7:15am) two days a week during basketball season.

It has to be up to the kids what they want to do. A few years ago a football stud at our high school gave up football after soph year to focus on baseball more. He was drafted in the seventh round. Someone on this board has a great quote on the bottom of their posts about playing them all until you can't. I agree. As long as it doesn't affect grades.

quote:

Originally posted by BOF:

My personal opinion is that you only go through HS once and in reality very few kids have the ability to play (and compete and get playing time) at two or more sports - so if he is having fun and doing well let him play....and BTW let him make the decision. (with some guidance from you of course)

I agree. Imagine getting to college, washing out in baseball and thinking back to high school having made the decision to pass on the enjoyment of other sports.

Here is your dilemma. Your son wants to play fall baseball. He also wants to play football. Now he is playing baseball with and against other guys that are concentrating solely on baseball and he is playing two sports at once. He is not as sharp as the other guys because of the time issues with playing two sports. He is probaly a little tired on Saturdays and Sundays playing baseball because of the game on Friday night and the practices during the week. You ask yourself "If he was only doing baseball he would be doing so much better." Yes he probaly would be. But at least he is still playing. I think you have to leave these kinds of decisions up to the kids. They will eventually make a good decision. He will either decide that its just too much to do both and drop one or he will battle through it and be just fine.

I coach a very good fall team with four or five guys that also play hs football. These kids show some fatigue during the games on Saturday and always on Sunday. They are not as sharp at times at the plate and tend to get worn down. But it still comes down to the player. You only get the chance to do this one time. If a kid really wants to play then of course let them play. Encourage them to play if its what they want to do. It will sort itself out over time.

When THEY decide that its best for them to do this or that then support that decision. I have never believed you should force a kid to play anything. Sports should be something they do because they love to do it. It should never be used as a tool to make them better in another sport. It should never be used as a tool to do anything other than what it really is. Play and have fun and work to win. It will all take care of itself. These kids are alot smarter and wiser than we think they are. When they believe they need to drop one they will speak up.

quote:

Originally posted by Coach May:
... fall team with four or five guys that also play hs football. These kids show some fatigue during the games on Saturday and always on Sunday. They are not as sharp at times at the plate and tend to get worn down.

Football and fall ball is a tough combination. My son quit football and returned to s****r for the reasons you mentioned. There were two weekends in middle school he couldn't grip the bat properly after getting his hands banged up playing football. He figured it was just going to get more physical in high school. Ironically, this year he missed a weekend of fall ball after getting injured in a s****r game.

My son played football, basketball and baseball all fours years of HS and enjoyed each sport. His senior year he also played on a fall scout baseball team and had less then a steller performance as most the football games were on Saturday. He never practiced except for some occasional bp at school.

In retro-spec, I am pretty sure the only change he might have made would be to skip the scout team, although he got to play with a lot of good players who are now in the minor leagues

You should not force him to practice etc, it needs to be something he wants/chooses to do. If you must talk him into it...........

I think the bigger issue is that you cannot serve two gods - and you cannot serve two coaches. My son committed to a fall travel team, and a week after school started, showed up to play on the JV football team. Now, he's tired after coming home from football practice at 7 and misses some weeknight baseball games and practices. Luckily, he doesn't have football on the weekends, so it is all baseball, and luckily he hasn't gotten hurt.

During the winter he will play basketball. That seems to work better - the conditioning is unbelievable and he still has time to hit in the cages. No complaints there.

Does he love it? Absolutely. Is it the best for either sport? The jury's out.

I think you'll see the results vary by individual. Some players are able to play two or more sports while others can only play one. Some are even able to manage to play multiple sports in the same season.

I played baseball and football in the fall during junior high and played baseball while running track in the spring. In high school, I played baseball, basketball, and football. Each of these were played during their respective school seasons. In the summer, I played all three.

The biggest key, IMO, is the player should make the decision. If he enjoys it and it's not a health concern, let him do what he wants to do.

Life is short.
Make the most of it.

quote:

Originally posted by CollegeParent:
My son played football, basketball and baseball all fours years of HS and enjoyed each sport. His senior year he also played on a fall scout baseball team and had less then a steller performance as most the football games were on Saturday. He never practiced except for some occasional bp at school.

In retro-spec, I am pretty sure the only change he might have made would be to skip the scout team, although he got to play with a lot of good players who are now in the minor leagues

If he was on a scout team he certainly had someone's eye, if you could look back, would he have gotten drafted (or possibly higher if he was) or been picked up by a good 4 year school if he had had not played one or a couple of the other sports and played baseball 100 % of the time when they were seriously looking at him.

Some teams like players to have the ability to play other sports as they are good athletes but also want them to have the refined skills they needed.

I agree with play both sports until the competition tells you otherwise.... BUT...Not at the same time!

My sophomore plays football (QB), basketball, and baseball. He is also doing fall showcase ball on weekends. Yes, he is tired on Saturdays and as Coach May said especially on Sundays. But he is getting a few extra hits and pitches and fielding in.
I was about ready to suggest him giving up the fall stuff until last weekend. Rough game on Friday night and got hit a lot at QB. He was tired Saturday morning but we went anyway. He hit okay Saturday. On Sunday morning, he was to face one of the better 17U teams in the area. He pitched 81 pitch complete game with only 2 hits and 2 walks. Went 3/4 at plate with 2 doubles. He came home excited and ready to go again.
Football is #1 during the week and baseball is just to stay sharp on weekends.

Jeff

How does a sophomore stay sharp in baseball if he is a QB getting hit on nearly every play in the FRiday nite game ?---also keep in mind that a HS soph is still not physically mature---sure he comes happy after a game but what is he doing to his body?


I would be careful--the damage may not show for a few years

I think most BB players were and are capable of playing multiple sports. My son loved volleyball and basketball. He even stayed back for an extra year of HS to play BB before going to college. I was concerned about injury but it was his choice. He was possibly putting scholarships on the line if he got seriously injured.

My son quit playing HS basketball and football after his soph year. However, during the baseball off seasons he played cyo basketball 2 nights a week, ran at the HS cross country practices, lifted weights with the rugby team, coached middle school football, and played racquetball.

Is there a difference between being involved in that way, versus, being on "the team"?

IMHO just because your sons name is not a roster, or his teams scores are not in the paper, does not mean he is only a 1 sport athlete. At times I think parents and some HS coaches get hung up on that. Bottom line is you stay involved in sports to a degree that you are not a determent to a team or your baseball health, and at the same time staying focused on your baseball goals. In the end you may have some detractors but you will stay true to yourself.

Multi-sport athletes tend to pick up or catch up in their game and conditioning quicker than single-sport athletes because they're better athletes.

If they can juggle two sports ant the same time, then it should be no problem.

I do agree that athletes who play football that double up on fall baseball tend to be more worn down or not as sharp then if when they play baseball exclusively in-season because they're focused on football.

My son plays football. Team rule is no other sports during football season.

I looked at him last Saturday, sore and bruised everywhere after a dogfight of a game Friday night, and thought: "you couldn't play a baseball game today even if you were the DH!"

For him, it works best to concentrate on one sport at a time. But he is a catcher in baseball, noseguard in football. For othe position combinations it might be easier.

quote:

Multi-sport athletes tend to pick up or catch up in their game and conditioning quicker than single-sport athletes because they're better athletes.

zombywoof,
That goes to my question. Do you have to actually play on a varsity team to be considered a multi-sport athlete? I will stick my neck out and say that many athletes who play one sport but train year round and participate in an intermural fashion will go into a season in better shape than the "multi-sport" player. because they are dedicated athletes.

I bite my tongue hearing players and parents chastize 1 sport athletes when their own son who plays 3 sports hardly got his fanny off the bench in a game and watches the starters get more reps during practices. It's all about how you use that time.

quote:

Originally posted by gamefan:
Does he love it? Absolutely. Is it the best for either sport? The jury's out.

My son is in the same boat. We think about this. The answer is probably not. But it's been a great high school experience so far.