Spring Training for Youth Players in Chicago

by Justin Stringer Owner, GM of Chicago Mudcats

Whether you are sending them to DIRB for one of our instructors to provide them with training, or throwing them batting practice at a local park, they must start getting in successful repetitions now if they are going to replicate good muscle memory this summer. Most of our players have spent all winter dribbling a basketball or skating on the ice and they need to rebuild the pathways of nerves to throw the ball and swing the bat effectively.

The professionals in the MLB spend 8-10 weeks of spring training working on those successful repetitions in order to get ready for their season. They probably each swing the bat 500 times a day and throw hundreds of times in order to get their bodies ready to recreate the same movements over and over during the season. Your son or daughter will not get that luxury, but that doesn't mean they cannot work hard to get in as many repetitions as they can.

Here are some fun ways to get repetitions in:

- Football Passes with a baseball and glove

*Have player run out 10 yards and then cut left or right, throw the ball out in front of them so they have to track a moving ball while they are moving, like the will when they catch flyballs in a game situation. There are many variations to this drill that can include: different routes and throwing to a "cutoff" man after the catch.

- Off the Wall

*A game that many of us grew up on to pass the time before the influx of video games. Go to a brick wall with a tennis ball or rubber ball and work on throwing the ball to yourself as many times as you can. You can work many types of groundballs with the speed and angles you throw it off the wall to yourself.

- Pepper

*Another old school game that many kids have never played but are easily hooked on how fun it is. Can do this with as little as 2 people. Video