School ball, or practice?

General Pitching Topics
#1

OK, here is the situation, I am trying to figure out what I should do. My options are playing school ball, or practicing till probably fall ball and then probably playing fall ball.

I am leaning towards school ball, but my school really sucks at baseball. My coaches really don’t know how to coach. I don’t think I will gain that much throwing velocity, “I really need to”, and I just don’t know if I will really get much better.

I am a sophomore and know I throw super slow. Last year I jammed my heel really bad into first and missed legion because of it. I then had time to come on here and learn what good mechanics was all about. I Only recently have I been throwing and have changed my mechanics to were they are pretty good, but I am still lacking in velocity mainly just because of lack of practice, “I think.”

I was recently clocked at 69 which seems really slow because that’s what I was at 2 summers ago when my arm was thrown out, and at age 12 I was at 65. So I think I might just need to tweak something small to be in the low 70’s.

My background,
Age: 16
Weight: 160-165
Height: 5’ 10’'
Last clocked at 69 mph pitching
Bat speed is low 80’s
Home to first with a simulated swing: 3.84 sec.
Position: Outfield, but work on pitching mechanics.

The main reason I am considering skipping school ball is to pursue conditioning and making money. I am planning on buying setpro and trying to up my velocity and bat speed. I was also planning on doing isometric leg exercises for running speed and the ■■■■■■■■■■■ stuff for core work. I really believe I can hit low to mid 80’s doing these types of workouts and eating right within the next year. The only problem is, I need more money to also buy a year membership at the local baseball place where I can use the batting cages and pitch during the winter.

Sorry for the long post, but my parents think I should do school ball. I am afraid I will not get good enough in the sense of throwing speed and hitting ability if I don’t get a ton of practice.

#2

Go with what your instincts tell you.
If you feel that school ball stinks on hot ice—if you’re convinced you’d do better with intensive conditioning and getting ready to play in the fall—then do it. The “setpro” sounds like a good idea.

#3

I will throw out another concern that you may not have thought of.

How will your teammates feel if you ditch them this season? Assuming you have friends on the team, how is that going to go over with them? I know that if one of our players on my team decided to skip the season, I would be pretty ticked. So just consider this as well when making your decision.

#4

Kid makes a good point here. Every decision you make has ramifications that will impact your future, you may be surprised and find that your skills are a difference maker and could go on for a fairly decent run.
I’d also consider that good or bad you can potentially get seen…I’ve mentioned in the past that my son…playing as a sophmore, got his first real look by scouts because of who his team was playing not for anyone on his team.
Lastly…play the game man…getting injury paranoia will only cause more injury…
Well ok 1 more…check your attitude. I know you to be a decent person, but that first paragraph is harsh…it may be true…but it sounds kind of like one of the reasons I advocate against travel ball for pitchers before 18 under time…which is that travel tends to jade a player to thinking that the skill level of travel, “trumps” high school ball (Which, time and again I’ve seen cause a real concieted, generally negative attitude), it may do that in certain instances but the rewards of High School play “generally” outweight the negatives. Worry about you, being the very best ball player you can be…that includes leadership and being a good team mate.
I’d really like to hear you telling me how you improved something than your assessment as to how bad something is…if you get my drift here.

#5

[quote=“Corsairkid”]I will throw out another concern that you may not have thought of.

How will your teammates feel if you ditch them this season? Assuming you have friends on the team, how is that going to go over with them? I know that if one of our players on my team decided to skip the season, I would be pretty ticked. So just consider this as well when making your decision.[/quote]

I never thought of that, but I am actually homeschooled. I don’t have any friends at all on this team. I don’t think any of the players would care if I played or not.

#6

Jose Reyes runs a 3.9
Pierre runs a 4-flat
(Who's the fastest?)

Anyway, I’d play school ball and see how it goes.

#7

Ichiro supposedly does mid 3.7’s. Mine was timed on grass, earlier in the year I was timed 3.92 on dirt, but my running speed and bat speed are really the only things I am very good at.

#8

I would imagine that your school season doesn’t run that long so, in the worst case, you’d only be delaying practicing on your own for what - maybe 3 months?

Practicing on your own might be more focused if all you’re thinking about is pitching but it doesn’t replace live play with respect to other aspects of the game.

My opinions.

#9

I’d go with school ball. Like said before, it won’t really delay your practice for that long. It would last only till May? If you’re not playing summer ball, you got june and july to get ready for fall ball. And IMHO, i think experience can outweigh personal practice. Like said before, practicing and conditioning, etc, doesn’t simulate live games.

#10

[quote=“ICEMAN”]OK, here is the situation, I am trying to figure out what I should do. My options are playing school ball, or practicing till probably fall ball and then probably playing fall ball.

I am leaning towards school ball, but my school really sucks at baseball. My coaches really don’t know how to coach. I don’t think I will gain that much throwing velocity, “I really need to”, and I just don’t know if I will really get much better.

I am a sophomore and know I throw super slow. Last year I jammed my heel really bad into first and missed legion because of it. I then had time to come on here and learn what good mechanics was all about. I Only recently have I been throwing and have changed my mechanics to were they are pretty good, but I am still lacking in velocity mainly just because of lack of practice, “I think.”

I was recently clocked at 69 which seems really slow because that’s what I was at 2 summers ago when my arm was thrown out, and at age 12 I was at 65. So I think I might just need to tweak something small to be in the low 70’s.

My background,
Age: 16
Weight: 160-165
Height: 5’ 10’'
Last clocked at 69 mph pitching
Bat speed is low 80’s
Home to first with a simulated swing: 3.84 sec.
Position: Outfield, but work on pitching mechanics.

The main reason I am considering skipping school ball is to pursue conditioning and making money. I am planning on buying setpro and trying to up my velocity and bat speed. I was also planning on doing isometric leg exercises for running speed and the ■■■■■■■■■■■ stuff for core work. I really believe I can hit low to mid 80’s doing these types of workouts and eating right within the next year. The only problem is, I need more money to also buy a year membership at the local baseball place where I can use the batting cages and pitch during the winter.

Sorry for the long post, but my parents think I should do school ball. I am afraid I will not get good enough in the sense of throwing speed and hitting ability if I don’t get a ton of practice. [/quote]

Interesting, you sound a lot like me, outfielder who pitches sometimes. Well just play school ball, you’re lucky you have it, we don’t have school ball in Wyoming. If you work at baseball and dedicate yourself you can improve no matter what the coach’s are like, if you know what you’re supposed to do, do it!

#11

school ball can be your practice
way it sounds you would be the best one
(wait even Varsity sucks)

#12

Because I am in a similar situation, I will chip in and try to help.

My High School team is not very strong at all. Because it is a very small private school, not enough kids have any interest in baseball. There is not jv or freshman ball, and we usually take 7th or 8th graders on our team. Now, I could practice and condition all spring for my summer and fall season on a good AAU team, but I have chosen to play on my highschool team fo a few reasons.

If your school is as bad as you say, and you feel as though it would be a waste of time, try to look at it this way: You have a real chance to develop your leadership skills. Set a good example… make a difference out there.

Also, try and take advantage of practice. Find a kid who you can play long toss with and increase that arm strength! Get as many swings as you can. Do anything you can to get better.

You never know who is watching man… anything positive you do could make a difference.

And game experience is a valuable thing!

I understand your concern about money and conditioning, so maybe I am way off base, but I wanted to give you a few different things to consider.
good luck out there!

ps - I walso homeschooled at one point and time :slight_smile:

#13

[quote=“kelvinp”]school ball can be your practice
way it sounds you would be the best one
(wait even Varsity sucks)[/quote]

Well last year it was mainly all seniors, and there was one game where we lost 32 to 1 :oops:. Needless to say we didn’t win very many games.