Let me see your calendar
October 19, 2017 by Coach McCreary
Filed under Off-Season
You say you are a serious ball player with aspirations to play in college or the pro level? Yeah? Prove it. Let me see your calendar.
Playing college or pro baseball is not something you can just wake up and decide to do when you are 20 or 25. It takes a lot of work and planning over many months prior to getting to college or being eligible for pro ball. It doesn’t mean that you have to be all baseball all of the time from age 7, though. In fact, that would probably work against you if you did. It does mean that by 11th grade or by the beginning of your 12th grade year at the latest you have made the decision to go for it and have developed a game plan on how to get there.
Unfortunately, most players just coast along and basically do what their team or teammates do in the off-season. They show up and workout when their coaches tell them to and enjoy their rest in between. Maybe they get two or three baseball related workouts per week. Maybe less. Their horizon for planning might be a week out.
But most players don’t play college and pro ball.
The special player schedules out his days weeks and even months in advance. They pencil off the first day of practice and work back from there mapping out their entire workout and improvement plan. Lifting, running, agility training, throwing, mental training, and new learning. It’s all included. Even a significant amount of rest days are scheduled in advance to make sure they get proper recovery time for their body and to avoid burnout.
There are about four months before the first pitch of 2018 is thrown. What does your next 120 days look like?
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As a father… very proud of my 11 year old on this subject. He has to tell me he wants to practice every day before we head out to the field.
Summer – off from school (Not a single word from me)
Mon- Fri –
wake up, run 25 minutes on treadmill (usually between 6-7mph)
Do agility work (ladder, cones and sprints)
Take short break and come and get my truck keys in my office.
Set up T and Toss hitting in side yard.
Hit 75 to 100 balls
Take break until after lunch.
Asked to go to field. Would spend from 1-ish until 4 at field doing glove work, throwing, live batting, etc etc etc.
Tuesday and Thrs – 1 hour of cross-fit
Weds – 1 hour of Kung Fu and Team practice (2.5 hours including 1hr conditioning)
Friday night – 2 hour Team practice.
Sat and Sunday – rest (Whew…. THANK GOD!! — Well until Sunday Games started)
Now in school
Everyday after school 2:30 until 4 we are at the field. Mondays tend to go until 5 or 5:30 until my 55 year old body just cant move any longer. — And he is complaining that “we are leaving”
Tuesday and Thrs – 1 hour of cross-fit
Weds – 1 hour of Kung Fu and Team practice (2.5 hours including 1hr conditioning)
Friday night – 2 hour Team practice.
I could set my watch by his schedule. HIS schedule… not mine. If he wants to play/practice he has to drag the equipment out of the truck, put it in the cart, drag it out to the field, help drag the field and repair the mound and batters box. He dictates what he wants to work on. He tells me the drills he wants to do, whether it is agility ladder or hands drills on his knees, or catching balls in the dirt at 1st base or it is a day of pop-flys and pitching. I ask him what he wants to work on and we work and work and work.
Coach, you are right on point that is is the special player that does these things. As a HS coach and now a travel ball coaching assistant (I dont want the job of managing!), I am proud that my kid is one of these because I see so many that only do the “minimum.”