What To Do When It’s Over
If you’re not done with the season, you’ve probably only got a handful of games left. Depending on how many games you’ve got under your belt, you may be ready for a break. I’ve gotten a few parents looking to do some lessons through August and into September, but I’ve told them to wait and see how their son’s hunger for more baseball was. I wanted to spend just a minute and communicate the advice we give to youth baseball players in the off season. Keep in mind, the older you are, the shorter the off season will be.
Off Season Tips:
- Whenever your season ends take some time off from thinking about baseball. For me, I needed a couple weeks of no baseball followed by keeping myself in shape. I enjoyed the mental break mostly since my mind was constantly around baseball. I have worked with some college hitters in the past and I’ve had to nearly demand they take some down time after the season. Breaks are healthy. It’s a time where you can clear your mind and plan for the next season. Without this down time you’ll never have a chance to step away from it all and evaluate what part of your game needs to improve.
- Watch some MLB baseball games. I know when I was heavy into the games during the summer I didn’t get to watch a lot of baseball games. When the off season late in the summer came, I always enjoyed watching a few games. Just watch in general how the athlete’s go about their business. How is their mound presence? How do they handle themselves at the plate? Just observe. You learn many things by watching.
- When it comes time to work again, ease back into your game. One of my favorite hitters, Carl Crawford, starts his preseason routine very early by working on his strength and speed. He’s not working on all parts of his game, but selects pieces that he wants to improve. For you, maybe you need to work on getting stronger, improving flexibility, your mental game, etc. Make a list of two or three things you want to improve and plan out when you will be working on them. It makes all the difference in your efficiency this off season. Of course if your plan is to improve your mechanics, there is no better resource than our 4-disk DVD series. It will take all the guess work out of your mechanical development.
