2023 youth baseball/softball check-in

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PhatMack19
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In reply to TarponChaser • 1:38p, 12/9/23
AG
TarponChaser said:
Piranhas main location is Beaumont. Former Aggie OF and major leaguer, Jason Tyner, coaches their top 14U team and I think owns/started the organization but I could be wrong there.

They also have a Houston franchise based out of Baytown/Mt. Belvieu.

Tyner still owns the Piranhas, but gave up coaching this year. He coaches at Kelly Catholic High School, so he's not allowed to keep coaching the kids when they get to UIL/Tapps age.

We have around 20 teams all ages and skill levels. Every team is ran individually, so it really depends on the coach. Not sure what Piranhas team you watched hit, but it wasn't mine.
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Baseball Is Life
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In reply to PhatMack19 • 2:03p, 12/9/23
PhatMack19 said:
TarponChaser said:
Piranhas main location is Beaumont. Former Aggie OF and major leaguer, Jason Tyner, coaches their top 14U team and I think owns/started the organization but I could be wrong there.

They also have a Houston franchise based out of Baytown/Mt. Belvieu.

Tyner still owns the Piranhas, but gave up coaching this year. He coaches at Kelly Catholic High School, so he's not allowed to keep coaching the kids when they get to UIL/Tapps age.

We have around 20 teams all ages and skill levels. Every team is ran individually, so it really depends on the coach. Not sure what Piranhas team you watched hit, but it wasn't mine.


This team:

https://www.perfectgame.org/PGBA/Team/default.aspx?orgid=26394&orgteamid=157187&Year=2023

I saw them in Cooperstown, so I am sure the roster was even more stacked than their usual PG roster. They crushed the baseball and probably hit 40 to 50 homeruns during their run.
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JmacAg07
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10:52a, 12/20/23
AG
TheAggiesAreWe, I can speak a little more about the Twelve and the South Coast Cream.

My backgound, I've been one of the coached for my son's little league and select teams since he started Tball, and we are now up at 9U. We were an independent "select" team for all of 8u and started playing 9U tournaments in what would have been March of our 8U season, awesome learning experience and we did well, considering most of our guys are playing football as well.

The Twelve "recruited" us to come be their Maroon team and I was pretty dead set against it, but the other coaches viewed it as a good move. it's been an awesome experience having their facilities, coaching resources (Including Aggies own Andrew Vinson), and name to fill out the last 1-2 spots we needed to on our roster. We had an excellent fall season and have had a very good experience with the Twelve through the fall at their Katy Facility. Like many have said, it's all the coaches you get. I've been lucky to be coaching with the same 2 guys that both played college baseball, and we've kept our core together since about 6U. The 11u teams at the Twelve seem fairly strong at the top, but I haven't had much interaction with them at all. I'm not naive enough to think our core will stay together through all of select ball, but its been a fun ride I hope we can have for another year or two at least.

The South Coast Cream are a new organization, I believe started by Ryan Crew. I grew up playing with him and he was extremely talented and by many accounts a very good instructor of the game. He played at UTSA, and then got drafted in the late rounds by the Brewers. I believe he got his start coaching under Sean Danielson at the Hunter Pence Baseball Academy. Since he lives in Richmond, and when his son was old enough to start playing select, he started the South Coast Cream. Brian Rike is another one of their coaches I grew up with, was taken in the 2nd Round by the Rockies, and that guy flat out knows how to hit. I know a few of the other coaches as I started playing with them when I was 7 years old, they are good guys and were incredible players in their own right. They are just starting out so they are probably behind the 8-ball with regards to talent at the older levels, but I can see that organization becoming very good in a few years as they develop their 8, 9, and 10 year old teams. If we lived close to the Diamons at Daily, I would give them a look for sure.

Our next door neighbor plays for the 12U wildcatters Major team. He's a tiny 6th grader that isn't much bigger than my 8 year old, but he can pitch, catch and play anywhere on the diamond and he can hit and is fast. It's funny watching him out there with all these boys that are a full head taller than him. They've enjoyed their experience there so far.

It's all about the coaches, and getting with hopefully good parents that make the ride enjoyable. The best part of all this is the Margaritas after a late game with parents and families, or team pool party at your house after you get lucky and have the two early games on a Saturday in June. It's all about finding out where your son wants to be, and if he's having fun. I wouldn't do any of this if my son didn't beg me to play and love it nearly as much. I had my go round at baseball, and I loved it, but it's his life, not mine. We just have a deal that playing at an organization is a privilege, and not a right, if he doesn't want to put the work in without being asked, we don't have to do it. It's all on him and what he wants to do. But most nights I have to pry the bat out of his hand as he's doing Tee work in the garage when I pull in from work.

Good luck with the search and tryouts, its overwhelming but try to do everything you can to have as much fun as possible. The days are long, but my son is only 8, and his first two years flew by entirely too quickly.
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Dr. Doctor
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In reply to DBill • 1:18p, 12/28/23
AG
DBill said:
Little bit of a vent session here so bear with me!

9u team where almost all of the kids have been together since t ball and up. We have made some additions along the way, but the bulk of the team has been together for many seasons. I am the head coach of the team and have been since day 1 with these boys.

We recently moved leagues, 1 year ago, to be in a more competitive environment and have mixed in some USSSA tournaments as well. We have always been in the mix and have finished middle of the pack in our competitive league the past 2 seasons. We came from a very rec league over to a league where it's team registration only. We held our own, but didn't win any league championships.

I just got word that 2 of our better and more seasoned players are moving to another team in our league for next season. One of the players, the dad has been a coach with me for 2 years. I asked both parents why they are choosing to move and they said because they want to be in a more competitive environment. The team they moved to, won 2 more games than us in the regular season (out of 14) and got run ruled first round of end of season tournament.

All of these boys are 8 and 9 years old, and playing at a high level for their age.

I grew up playing baseball, played competitively and have seen a lot of "ring" or "win" chasing. They are still developing and gathering skills.

I knew we would get to this point some day with parents, but dang, didn't know it would be this early!!!!!!
I realize this is a little later, but we are on our 3rd team in 3 seasons of select. We made the jump after a bad season of little league and wanted at least some level of committment from players and parents and kids who actually wanted to play. Nothing against LL, just when 1/2 the team doesn't show up or care to be there, it gets annoying. This turned out a little longer than I thought, but wanted to highlight what happened to us (and another kid we knew) and why we jumped teams so much.

The first team started out well, but as the season went on, turned into more dad-ball than actual 'lets develop and win'. Like, beginning of the season, would switch out players to outfield from infield if they made simple, routine errors (missed fly ball, ball between legs, not running to get ball and missed easy out). By mid season, no more changes and the player with the most errors ALWAYS played third. Like 3-4x more erros than the next listed player on GC. So after an abmissal WS (9AAA ball), we decided to bounce off the team. WS wasn't expecting to go far, maybe halfway, but got bounced in the 2nd round because he left a kid who never pitched in until he almost hit his pitch count. In the 2nd inning. :-|

The fall season was with a team that we were supposed to be on from the spring, but didn't make because 4 kids left (10 then to 6, so we bounced and ended up with the team above). The coach was a friend of the program director who played in HS and had no kids but was good at developing players. Dropped down to AA, but since we were playing actual 10AA instead of 9AAA, it was not really dropping down, to a degree. But this team needed 2 new LL call-ups to fill out the 9 man roster (1st warning sign). The LLers were just that, warm bodies. While everyone has to start somewhere, these did not have the basic training. A few times they threw to the wrong base or stared at the ball before moving to try to catch it (being in outfield; missed it by 2-3 seconds due to staring at it). After another knock-out in the 1st round in the fall tournament, we played one additional tournament. We magiked somehow a 1st round seed, only to lose in the 2nd round (1st round bye) because out of 10 kids on the roster, we pitched 9; the one that didn't pitched was being 'saved' for the championship game (the next game). Who was that kid? Mine.

I will say my kid is not the best on any of the teams so far. Started out 2nd worst, moved up to top 1/3 on 1st team. This is looking at GC stats (I'm an ENGR, so numbers and I get along and provide a pretty good idea of how kids play). 2nd team? Easily top of the team at the end. Batting 200+ points above everyone. Taking out 3 high scoring games (out of 11), and he's accounting for like 40+% of the runs. But fielding and pitching? Don't know, because we practiced on the field with the 2nd team a total of like 6 times the whole season. Weather had nothing to do with it. And when we practiced, it was for maybe an hour then we left.

TL;DR: my son I think is decent, but we've moved to 3 teams in 3 seasons due to lack of development and 'good' playing time. Do I want to move teams? No. But is my son getting developed and playing and (as someone else said) getting 'good reps'? No. So off to a new team we go. Hopefully this season turns out better overall.

~egon
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Lightning Dexter
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In reply to Dr. Doctor • 7:55p, 1/5/24
I read your post and thought I would share some unsolicited advice I have learned over the years, so feel free to ignore it. This post isn't meant to imply that you aren't doing these things, I just thought I would share what popped into my head.

I would find a team that is interested in developing more traits than just baseball skills (working hard, being a good teammate, good attitude, etc.). If the focus is only on winning tournaments, then that's probably not the right team. High school coaches do not care if you played A, AA, or AAA. I suggest finding a team that matches your son's skill level. When his skill level begins to exceed the players around him, then move up. There is value in playing at the higher levels, but not until they're ready for it.

Don't rely on the team for player development as an individual. If your son wants to get better, pay for individual hitting and fielding lessons. There just isn't enough time for quality one on one coaching in a team practice environment.

I would not use statistics as a measure of performance when kids are this age. There are many variables that can make these stats unreliable. I think game changer is great for keeping track of pitches and which kids throw the most strikes, but the hitting stats can be misleading. If you and your son want to use stats to measure his development, I suggest looking at the Quality At Bat stat and keeping track of it yourself.
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PhatMack19
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3:36p, 1/12/24
AG
We need a new thread for this year. How many of you hit the portal during the break? Best of luck to Timmy


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TarponChaser
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In reply to PhatMack19 • 8:51a, 1/13/24
PhatMack19 said:
We need a new thread for this year. How many of you hit the portal during the break? Best of luck to Timmy




My older one was offered a spot with a 14U major Wildcatters team but chose to stay with his Mizuno org to also play 14maj.

Our youngest is also a summer birthday so while he's 9U by age he's in 4th. We planned on moving him to playing with his grade level in 6th grade but the same Mizuno org started a 10U AAA team and he made that. Plus, there had been a bunch of BS and drama with the old team. So both boys are with the same org for same practice days and location. The 10U team actually has like 5-6 kids who have older brothers playing 14U and/or on the HS teams.
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Farmer1906
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2:28p, 1/16/24
AG
8u rec league here. Our coach volunteered because his kid was waitlisted. He missed most of the tryouts/evaluations and it shows. He's not even fully aware of the 8u rules yet. We'll be lucky to win a single game this season. womp womp.
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Dr. Doctor
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In reply to Lightning Dexter • 2:16a, 1/17/24
AG
Appreciate the advice. That's what we've been focusing on.

It's funny, because the first season, none of the practices were in the cage. All field work. My son's hitting was decent, compared to the team. Towards the end, we started actually having cage practices and his hitting went down (OBP was still constant thought).

Fall season, this team lierally spends all the time in the cages (or very few field practices) and his hitting goes way up, but don't see progression/improvement on fielding.

The interesting thing, for me, is that 1/2 way through the first season, we moved up from 9AA to 9AAA. But we only ever played in like 2 total AAA tournaments. So he mostly faced 10AA pitchers and didn't do so hot (did better with 9AA). But in the fall, we're 10AA and facing 10AA pitchers.

But his new team has been practicing with all 9 and above kids together in the cage. So he's starting to see 10, 11 and 12U pitchers, which I think will be great for his development.

~egon
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agsalaska
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9:38a, 1/20/24
AG
I have been waiting to post this until I was comfortable enough that he was going to make a full recovery. And sorry for the long post. Consider this a cautionary tail.

Several of yall have seen my now 12 year old son play and sorry not sorry for bragging on him. Kid is driven and he can flat out play baseball(and football). There are not a lot of teams that he would not start on and pitch on Sundays.

My son has not thrown a ball of any kind since June 12. He came out on a Sunday morning in Kyle and threw a one hit shutout, then sat out the next game which we lost. This ended a successful season for our boys who won their first AAA level tournament and also lost in another final. Our boys have, for the most part, been together since t ball. Advantage of a small town.

Anyway we went the next week to Omaha and had a blast watching the Frogs and Tigers and ORU and the Gators, but his arm would not loosen up. To make this part of a long story short we came home, went to the doctor, and he was diagnosed with Little League Elbow.

Little League Elbow is a very serious injury that if not handled with extreme care can ruin an arm and have lasting effects as an adult. It is essentially a broken/inflamed/torn up/beat up growth plate, specifically where the UCL meets it. EVERYONE involved in youth baseball needs to read up on little league elbow. It is strictly an overuse injury that can only be treated by rest. Out for three months.

He was doing much better and was cleared by two doctors to play football as long as he didn't throw, and we all agreed to sit out fall ball. HIm and his RB switched positions, and he started at RB and DE. Unfortunately the contact, which he craves, reversed his progress, and after six games we decided to shut him down and take the drastic stip of putting him in a cast. Five weeks. Came off the day before T-giving.

We have spent the last six weeks in physical therapy with Dr Brett Gardner in Temple who has been amazing. We are about to begin throwing again and would have this last week but this weather sucks.

A full recovery is expected and he should be able to return to baseball by Spring Break. He will play one game a day, but no outfield(our kids for some reason fight over the outfield.) 1B or 2B only. He can DH or PR or whatever in the other game and obviously if the first game is a blowout and he never touched the ball he can play in the second AS LONG AS the games are back to back.

I will continue my thoughts on the next post.
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agsalaska
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9:52a, 1/20/24
AG
The mental game and lessons learned.

The hardest part has been the mental side making him see that the world was not ending. We went to Game 1 and were about 40 feet or so from the game winning homer in the 10th. That helped. But the day to day grind of constant soreness and pain knowing your friends are playing and moving on was extremely difficult for him. Kids are also mean. He told me one day he couldn't wait for middle school football next year so he could teach some bully kids a lesson. The cast also helped. It immediately took the pain away and freed him up to not worry about it.

The frustrating thing is we are VERY careful with our pitch counts, catchers innings, etc. We are MUCH more cautious than pretty much every other team we see. We do not pitch our catchers and we strictly follow the MLB guidelines for youth pitchers. But it still happened. And it happened to our best player. The problem is kids do not understand how to handle their bodies outside of the game and my son is no different. He would swim, shoot hoops, play whiffleball, etc all day every day in the summer and this happened two weeks into summer break.

Lessons- We ended up playing most of the season with 10 players because of one defect and one other injury. But, AND IF THIS IS THE ONLY PART YOU READ, ten is not enough. Carry 12 kids. At least. Rest your pitchers. Don't throw a kid 60 pitches then put him at third three hours later. That kind of **** kills arms. I understand that parents want their little johnny on the field, but its your job, our job, as coaches to educate parents on arms. Hell give them my number and I will talk to them. And for love of god do not sacrifice a kids health for a ring.


Last- according to our doctors the worst thing is warming up multiple times in a day. Having an 8am game, then a 1pm game, then a final at 5:30 is borderline criminal. My son will play one game a day this year. We also joined the Franklin League where two games a day, most often back to back, is the norm. And fortunately we don't have the little Johnny problem because all the parents know what my son has experienced.

Anyway I hope yall read this. I was going to create a thread but I knew it would just draw criticism of Select Baseball which would just piss me off.

Everyone have a great season and be careful.
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TarponChaser
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In reply to agsalaska • 2:26p, 1/20/24
Glad to hear he's doing better. Keep up the rehab and arm care. Good luck this spring.
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JmacAg07
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10:14a, 1/22/24
AG
Sorry that y'all had to experience that and I'm very glad he's doing better.

We had our 9u spring ball zoom team meeting last night, and I shared this story with our team as a cautionary tale that we can do EVERYTHING right, and arm trouble can still develop. We have some parents that want their kids out there every inning over every game, even if they threw 60 pitches in a game, and hopefully this helps curtail this attitude. We also preached we play every other weekend for a reason, that off weekend is meant for the kids arms to rest, not go out and throw a bullpen or throw 100 balls to first base practicing.

Thanks again for sharing your experience and providing the advice, it is very much appreciated. Please keep sharing any and all experience via this thread, it has been extremely helpful.

Good luck and I hope your son has a healthy spring once he resumes and rest of his baseball career.
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TarponChaser
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In reply to JmacAg07 • 10:42a, 1/22/24
JmacAg07 said:
Sorry that y'all had to experience that and I'm very glad he's doing better.

We had our 9u spring ball zoom team meeting last night, and I shared this story with our team as a cautionary tale that we can do EVERYTHING right, and arm trouble can still develop. We have some parents that want their kids out there every inning over every game, even if they threw 60 pitches in a game, and hopefully this helps curtail this attitude. We also preached we play every other weekend for a reason, that off weekend is meant for the kids arms to rest, not go out and throw a bullpen or throw 100 balls to first base practicing.

Thanks again for sharing your experience and providing the advice, it is very much appreciated. Please keep sharing any and all experience via this thread, it has been extremely helpful.

Good luck and I hope your son has a healthy spring once he resumes and rest of his baseball career.

FWIW- the idea of "resting arms" isn't so much to take time off from throwing altogether but to take time off from pitching. I've mentioned it before but Tom House consistently states that kids today "pitch too much but don't throw enough." He actually advocates throwing virtually every day. Now, the intensity varies in that you don't always have them throwing full intensity and it's not always throwing a baseball but he says, "go throw a football, throw full-court basketball passes, go skip rocks, Just throw." He talks a great deal about how kids go all-gas on the mound but don't throw enough to build up the muscles and strengthen the ligaments & tendons that support their joints so they're more susceptible to injury.

It's a big reason why he's an advocate for resistance training as part of the routine. Obviously that would vary for younger kids in terms of exercises but my youngest is 9 and his teams spend 10 minutes before practice and 10-15 minutes at the end doing bands, pushups, and other exercises to get stronger.

Unfortunately, once the kid develops LL elbow (or shoulder) really all you can do is shut it down and rest. Though I have heard about kids going to a sports-oriented PT type place that does Airrosti or similar and it helps. I know it's helped me with tendonitis in my shoulder from swimming and when my oldest broke his wrist it helped his rehab when he came back by working out scar tissue and improving ROM.
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JmacAg07
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11:04a, 1/22/24
AG
Our program has the first 30 minutes before practice working with Bands, pushups, agility to get stronger and more flexible as well. Through the fall, I saw it pay off for my son.

I'll agree with you on spending a little more time throwing and time off pitching. I'll do a little more reading on the subject as well. Once again, this thread just continues to deliver on advice.

I think light long toss stretching the arm out is very good for recovery and building up arm strength. Unfortunately, what we've realized is unless we get very Black/White with our parents/boys, they'll have their kid out there pitching 2-3 bullpens a week going max effort then go hit their kid 200 ground balls/fly balls with them going full bore throwing to the plate, or across the diamond. Also, my 9-year-old has one speed, full bore. It's hard to teach him to step off the accelerator, no matter how much he or the other coaches remind him.

Hopefully the type of knowledge and maturity come sooner rather than later. This is supposed to be fun and an outlet for these boys, so I want to educate myself and prepare our boys as much as possible to avoid arm trouble. I can't imagine how much it stinks for a kid to have to miss an entire fall then the beginning of a spring season and watch his buddies going out there playing the sport he loves. It would drive my son and me as a parent insane.
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agsalaska
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In reply to JmacAg07 • 12:36p, 1/22/24
AG
I appreciate your comments and you sharing the story. That inspires me to make this a separate thread to get more people to read it and just deal with whatever nonsense shows up on it.


To Tarpon's point, my sons doctor and PT both agree with House. It is absolutely the pitching. Virtually all of the arm problems they see in young players are kids that pitch. According to them the issues are.
  • Just pitching too much without resting enough as a general statement
  • PItching year round. His advice to us was not let any of our top pitchers(as in number of pitches) to pitch in fall ball. We did that this fall. We only played ten games(my son played 0) and our top three pitchers in the fall were our bottom three in the spring. Did it cost us some wins. Sure. Who cares.
  • Warming up multiple times in a day. Unfortunately we cannot do much about that.
  • Not understanding how to warm up but especially how to cool down
  • And the biggest one which goes back to the first- playing too much in the field before but especially after pitching.

And to the last point, with ten players trying to play 25ish innings a weekend that is just impossible. He made the point to me that when our high school goes to a tournament they bring 18 kids. t.u. and A&M play a weekend series they take 24 or so. Why in the world do we only take ten? Generally it is because of pressure from parents.


Last- and this is a tough one, don't worry about AA or AAA or majors. Worry about developing as many pitchers as possible so no kid overthrows. Understanding it still happened to one of our kids, We absolutely pitch more kids than any other team I follow. and we could probably be majors if my son and two other kids had each thrown a few more innings. And maybe they could have. But if I had it over again they would have all thrown less.
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AustinCountyAg
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In reply to agsalaska • 12:50p, 1/22/24
agsalaska said:
The mental game and lessons learned.

The hardest part has been the mental side making him see that the world was not ending. We went to Game 1 and were about 40 feet or so from the game winning homer in the 10th. That helped. But the day to day grind of constant soreness and pain knowing your friends are playing and moving on was extremely difficult for him. Kids are also mean. He told me one day he couldn't wait for middle school football next year so he could teach some bully kids a lesson. The cast also helped. It immediately took the pain away and freed him up to not worry about it.

The frustrating thing is we are VERY careful with our pitch counts, catchers innings, etc. We are MUCH more cautious than pretty much every other team we see. We do not pitch our catchers and we strictly follow the MLB guidelines for youth pitchers. But it still happened. And it happened to our best player. The problem is kids do not understand how to handle their bodies outside of the game and my son is no different. He would swim, shoot hoops, play whiffleball, etc all day every day in the summer and this happened two weeks into summer break.

Lessons- We ended up playing most of the season with 10 players because of one defect and one other injury. But, AND IF THIS IS THE ONLY PART YOU READ, ten is not enough. Carry 12 kids. At least. Rest your pitchers. Don't throw a kid 60 pitches then put him at third three hours later. That kind of **** kills arms. I understand that parents want their little johnny on the field, but its your job, our job, as coaches to educate parents on arms. Hell give them my number and I will talk to them. And for love of god do not sacrifice a kids health for a ring.


Last- according to our doctors the worst thing is warming up multiple times in a day. Having an 8am game, then a 1pm game, then a final at 5:30 is borderline criminal. My son will play one game a day this year. We also joined the Franklin League where two games a day, most often back to back, is the norm. And fortunately we don't have the little Johnny problem because all the parents know what my son has experienced.

Anyway I hope yall read this. I was going to create a thread but I knew it would just draw criticism of Select Baseball which would just piss me off.

Everyone have a great season and be careful.
sounds like you knew it was coming anyway. Kids do not need to being playing baseball year around. Period.
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agsalaska
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In reply to AustinCountyAg • 1:04p, 1/22/24
AG
I agree with that and so do his doctor and PT.

Our top two teams in our area played all of 9 fall ball games, all during the weeknights, in a local league that is the closest thing to a beer league that kids can have. We borrowed players, kids coached the bases, etc. and just had fun. This was a direct the result of what happened to my son. We didn't play a single competitive game and don't plan on ever doing it again. Before this we played a full fall schedule.


By criticism-I meant the ******bag stuff that would never be said without the anonymity of the internet. There is plenty to be critical about. I wish we all still played rec just like we used too.
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AustinCountyAg
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In reply to agsalaska • 1:11p, 1/22/24
agsalaska said:
I agree with that and so do his doctor and PT.

Our top two teams in our area played all of 9 fall ball games, all during the weeknights, in a local league that is the closest thing to a beer league that kids can have. We borrowed players, kids coached the bases, etc. and just had fun. This was a direct the result of what happened to my son. We didn't play a single competitive game and don't plan on ever doing it again. Before this we played a full fall schedule.




I'm going to leave this thread alone now

. My feelings on this are very strong and I know will ruffle feathers. Hope your son gets better and that baseball injuries acquired when he was 12 don't impact him when he gets older. Sucks for him
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agsalaska
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In reply to AustinCountyAg • 1:16p, 1/22/24
AG
Thanks and me too.
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Bassmaster
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In reply to agsalaska • 4:09p, 1/22/24
AG
Hope he gets better. My son's old team had 2 kids get little league elbow at different times and one of them has had it multiple times now. That particular kid is a small framed kid but generated incredible whip with his arm and threw at a velo much higher that what a kid with his size typically throws. The downside is you could tell he was going to have arm trouble and probably always will with those mechanics. The other kid who had LL elbow would attend our 2 practices per week, pitch on the weekends, and then attend two pitching lessons per week. That's on his dad who has no baseball background and thought he was doing the right thing. Our coaches had no idea until after the injury that he was doing the pitching lessons as well.
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agsalaska
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In reply to Bassmaster • 1:42p, 1/23/24
AG
I can understand, obviously, that there are lots of different scenarios where a kid gets it once. My kid seemed to be more prone to it than others Some get it like what happened to the boy in your circumstance. After all we do push these kids in all sports. But multiple times is inexcusable. That is directly on the parents and coaches.

As I understand it generally speaking kids can get it once and if treated properly will recover fully(as I believ my son will), but it is an overuse injury. Meaning the kid did too much. And you have to adjust your behaviors or it will happen again and again. And multiple injuries to your growth plate will end your career before high school and ensure you have problems the rest of your life. That kid is probably finished unless he stops now and gets the physical therapy that he needs.

Would also add that the other common athlete that gets it are young gymnasts. 10-14 year old girls. Them and pitchers.

Last-I started a separate thread to raise awareness and get this one back on topic. Just an FYI for anyone reading this one.

Thanks
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10andBOUNCE
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2:40p, 1/23/24
AG
Not sure if this has been covered or not, but is there an overall opinion on weighted ball training as a youth player? I never used them growing up, but I know the big velo programs all use them. (The goal in my mind is overall arm health, not building up velo.) I have 6 and 8 oz balls, so these are just marginally more heavy than an actual baseball. Right now I am working with my son on mechanics, so I wouldn't even attempt anything weighted until I was happy with where he was at. When the weather is nice, we typically go out back and go through an easy, short distanced throwing progression, so that would kind of be the nature of it, eventually.
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AggieJ2002
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1:28a, 1/29/24
AG
Ok not sure where to post this so I'm going to put it here. My daughter is a high level softball player and has been playing great and led her team to a top 5 finish this weekend in a huge national tournament where she it 3 HR and just tore it up offensively and pitched/fielded (glove-wise) really well. With all that said, over the last month she has developed the yips on easy throws. It got really bad the last 2 games today and it really burned us. She made hard diving plays and throwing from the knees to get outs, but she is spiking the ball on routine throws or overcompensating and air mailing the easy throw. She has some D1s looking at her and is going for camp visits soon in the next week. I'm at a total loss for how to fix this (and quickly). Trying to not make a huge deal of it as i know adding more pressure is not going to help, but it is clearly weighing heavily in her mind. Anyone dealt with this issue and have tips for how to get through it?
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AustinCountyAg
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In reply to AggieJ2002 • 8:00a, 1/29/24
take a week or two off and completely forget about the game.
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TarponChaser
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In reply to AggieJ2002 • 11:41a, 1/29/24
AggieJ2002 said:
Ok not sure where to post this so I'm going to put it here. My daughter is a high level softball player and has been playing great and led her team to a top 5 finish this weekend in a huge national tournament where she it 3 HR and just tore it up offensively and pitched/fielded (glove-wise) really well. With all that said, over the last month she has developed the yips on easy throws. It got really bad the last 2 games today and it really burned us. She made hard diving plays and throwing from the knees to get outs, but she is spiking the ball on routine throws or overcompensating and air mailing the easy throw. She has some D1s looking at her and is going for camp visits soon in the next week. I'm at a total loss for how to fix this (and quickly). Trying to not make a huge deal of it as i know adding more pressure is not going to help, but it is clearly weighing heavily in her mind. Anyone dealt with this issue and have tips for how to get through it?


Seriously though, that's tough. I really don't have a good answer because that's such a tough situation. Maybe a couple weeks off will help. But maybe, get her out making the throws but while she's doing it force her to carry on a conversation or something. Do long-division in her head, something. Just anything to get her mind off throwing and let her muscle memory and training take over because the yips are caused by overthinking so try to make it so she's thinking of something else.
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10andBOUNCE
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In reply to AggieJ2002 • 2:40p, 1/29/24
AG
My advice would be to focus on what she can control. Her effort, attitude, focus, etc. All of those attributes will help her stand out. Baseball/softball is a hard and mental game, this will be something that makes her stronger on the other side. Stay positive!
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AggieJ2002
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3:08p, 1/29/24
AG
Thanks for the tips guys ... Some time off may be what's needed once we get through this last bit of recruiting season. In the meantime, I'll try some of the suggestions to get her mind coming up with something else while she throws so maybe she thinks about that instead of hyper-focusing on the throw. Hella frustrating, but I know she's not the first to go through, and she can come out the other side even better and more mentally tough hopefully.
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agsalaska
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10:41a, 1/30/24
AG
I could not be more excited for our boys this season. 12u AAA. We picked up two new boys this year to make 12(see other posts). Both are local boys that came out of the rec league they all grew up in and had gone on to play Select on different teams but came to us for this Spring.

7 of our boys go to the same middle school and the youngest is a grade behind(5th) but will be at that school. That's pretty neat.

And fortunately we are only playing one Austin PG tournament this year. We avoid PG like the plague) We have USSSA tournaments in CS , Waco, and at ScrapYards in Houston. Then the five weekends playing in the Texas Premier League in Franklin.

And the end of the year trip to Omaha!!


I do not see any reason why my son will not be ready to play one game a day by March. He is feeling pretty strong.
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AgBanker
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In reply to agsalaska • 11:00a, 1/30/24
agsalaska said:
"Then the five weekends playing in the Texas Premier League in Franklin."

Is TPL four or five weekends? We are playing in the 13u and thought it was four.
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agsalaska
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In reply to AgBanker • 11:41a, 1/30/24
AG
AgBanker said:
agsalaska said:
"Then the five weekends playing in the Texas Premier League in Franklin."

Is TPL four or five weekends? We are playing in the 13u and thought it was four.


It is. We are also playing in the end of season tournament. That makes five.

Awesome place. Have you ever been there?

Wish we would have found it sooner. We all knew after going there for that tournament last year that it was the right environment and what we were looking for.
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Jbob04
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In reply to agsalaska • 12:01p, 1/30/24
AG
We are switching to all perfect game tournaments this spring. Lots of traveling for us and dealing with the crappy PG organization. Hope our small town boys are ready for big city ball. We normally play usssa in the Waco area and some of the small town select tournaments but the coaches are wanting to challenge the kids more. We didn't have too much competition last spring and fall. This is 10u.
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agsalaska
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In reply to Jbob04 • 12:22p, 1/30/24
AG
Good luck with that. After two years of dealing with that BS we had to do something better. And it had nothing to do with wins and losses. We won plenty.

Your kids will have fun. Don't get me wrong. But they will also see kids, coaches, and parents say things to umpires that would never fly in Waco or in Texas Teenage. And get ready for that beefed up drunk father from the other team to yell at your boy. Also get ready for two game breaks and sore arms. And you could be in Taylor but you could be in Dripping Springs. F that.

It is too late now, and I'm not sure how far you are from Franklin, but the Texas Premier League is hands down the best youth baseball atmosphere I have ever seen. We snuck in the postseason tournament last year and knew halfway through the first game that this was going to be our teams home turf from here on out. It's all about respect, encouragement, and love for the players and the game. I encourage y'all to reach out to the league and see if you can get in the postseason tournament. After that you will join if you're close enough. It's about an 1:10 minute drive for us. If you need a contact let me know.

Edit to add-don't get me wrong. We had a lot of fun playing PG and will play there once and maybe twice this year. Some weekends are great. We just felt it's not the best environment for our sons. There is a better way.
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Jbob04
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In reply to agsalaska • 12:37p, 1/30/24
AG
Thanks for the info. We aren't far from Franklin at all and I
Love the ranch facility out there.
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TarponChaser
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4:51p, 1/30/24
It always fascinates me how certain parts of the state or country are dominated by one governing body or another like PG, V-Tool, USSSA, NCS, Grand Slam, etc.

In Houston USSSA used to be top dog and then the old Nations was lower tier. Then the guy who was the regional director for USSSA was basically bought by PG and overnight USSSA disappeared here. And then Nations was bought by V-Tool. USSSA has made a small comeback at the younger ages around here but they usually don't have anything but AA. V-Tool is damn near dead here except for HS level.
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