Baseball practice in winter?

[BrooklineBiker]

Hi everybody,
I live in New England where winter & snow are fast approaching. I'm trying to find an inexpensive/free place for my 10-year old to practice baseball skills (hitting, throwing, fielding) in an indoor environment over the winter. I'd also like her to get individualized coaching because her technique needs work. (I  have access to a good quality, very inexpensive coach.) Our town apparently doesn't have any space for baseball practice for little ones. (They save the town's cage for high school teams.) A privately-run batting cage complex in a nearby suburb strikes me as pricey. There is another cage complex nearby that is also expensive. Can anyone recommend cheaper options I might be overlooking?

[LiveLean]

I'd keep looking. The culture of one-sport specialization on steroids has long since swept the nation. Even in a cooler climate, I'm sure you won't have to look far for a travel team or a group that trains year-round -- even in New England.

[BrooklineBiker]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. To clarify, I'm not looking for a team. I want a warm place where my 10-year old can get one-to-one coaching on her swinging, throwing and fielding technique until she gets good muscle memory. (I have the coach already.) Without continued one-to-one coaching for a few more months, she's going to be stuck playing in "minors" & not move up to "majors." She got into some bad habits &  needs a venue where she can work on breaking them. Unfortunately, a team won't solve that.

[Fishindude]

Friend of mine bought a pitching machine & cage and set it up in his barn.
Get with other parents and maybe between the group you can pool resources and do something like this.

[I'm a red panda]

Friend of mine bought a pitching machine & cage and set it up in his barn.
Get with other parents and maybe between the group you can pool resources and do something like this.

Our neighbors have a batting apparatus and a pitching net in their garage.  The garage is about 35 feet, so it is shorter than her pitching distance, but she accidentally broke the ceiling when they used to have her pitch in the basement.

[GuitarStv]

I don't get it.  Why does it have to be baseball?  What's wrong with playing winter and indoor sports in the winter?  Skiing, tobogganing, figure skating, hockey, martial arts, basketball, etc. should all be pretty easy to find and do in the winter months.  A ten year old just needs to be active.

[I'm a red panda]

I don't get it.  Why does it have to be baseball?  What's wrong with playing winter and indoor sports in the winter?  Skiing, tobogganing, figure skating, hockey, martial arts, basketball, etc. should all be pretty easy to find and do in the winter months.  A ten year old just needs to be active.

Because the US kids sports system is insane. If you don't practice and get specific coaching over the winter, you won't make the teams in the spring.

[GuitarStv]

I don't get it.  Why does it have to be baseball?  What's wrong with playing winter and indoor sports in the winter?  Skiing, tobogganing, figure skating, hockey, martial arts, basketball, etc. should all be pretty easy to find and do in the winter months.  A ten year old just needs to be active.

Because the US kids sports system is insane. If you don't practice and get specific coaching over the winter, you won't make the teams in the spring.

Are you telling me that there are no longer recreational sport for kids, it's all competitive?  If so, that is insane.

[I'm a red panda]

Are you telling me that there are no longer recreational sport for kids, it's all competitive?  If so, that is insane.

Well, there are some- but especially as the kids get older, like past 7 or 8, it gets rarer.  The quality of the activity really drops if you are just in "recreational" because everyone has moved on to "select" or "travel" or whatever the league is called.

[ingrownstudentloans]

MY dad was my coach for little league and he used to get the local elementary school to give us access to their gym for practice.  The drills were mainly fielding, base running and sliding (we used an old sleeping bag on the gym floor to practice sliding technique...to this day I am a really good slider ;))  hitting involved just soft tossing balls from the side and hitting into gym matts while working on mechanics (mike to ike, squish the bug, transfer weight, etc..). 

[asiljoy]

Back when I was a youngin' in Nowhere, MN, my Dad would take me to open gyms* and we'd practice doing hitting drills with things that wouldn't damage the floor like plastic golf balls, tennis balls, etc into one of those pop-up golf nets using a thunder bat. There's lots of fielding drills you can run with tennis balls that won't hurt the floor too.

To practice pitching, we'd lay a bunch of mats on the floor in front of one of those fake falls gyms have to divide up gyms into smaller sections, then if he missed a catch, it'd just go into the plastic wall and not hurt anything.

*The school district would rotate which schools opened their gyms on nights and weekends during the winter to give kids a place to go. I think there was a nominal fee, 2/3 bucks to go per person. The city I live in now does this too, don't know if it's a national thing.

[BrooklineBiker]

Hi,
Open gyms are few & far between in our town.

[LiveLean]

This conversation has gotten ridiculous. I used to be a full-time baseball writer. Here are a few examples:

1. Hall of Famer Tom Glavine, whom I believe grew up in Brookline, played hockey in the winter. If your kid is a pitcher like Glavine, you don't have to worry about year-round training other than arm-strengthening exercises.

2. Billy Wagner. Long-time, recently-retired relief pitcher, threw 100 MPH. Grew up poor in rural Virginia. Threw a ball against a barn. A lot.

3. Countless examples of three-sport athletes. They still exist. Carl Crawford was offered scholarships for baseball, basketball, and football to Division 1 schools.

If you really think your kid needs to play year-round, especially if he is a pitcher, read the book The Arm by Jeff Passan. This will cure you of your insanity.