Conditioning

I think the key for off-season conditioning for 11-12s is to keep the sessions brief but frequent, and fun. My 12-year-old and I stretch and do pushups and crunches together several times a week. We also began using the rubber tubing from SPRI last fall, used it all winter and throughout the spring. It worked wonders. He calls them magic tubes. During the off season, he and I did a 15-minute session every other evening using the tubes. We use many of the exercises illustrated in Tom House's book. They work, even for old guys like me. I was able to pitch batting practice to the team this spring (20 pitches each to 12 kids = 240) with no soreness or stiffness. And my son's arm has never been healthier, even though he's pitched in one league and played shortstop in the other, making many hard throws almost daily.

I'd stay away from heavy weights in the upper body. Last summer, my son went to the weight room with me and, even though we stretched well, he became very tight and inflexible. Boys in that age group tend to lack flexibility anyway, but the lifting made it worse. The one exception is squats. My son does them at high reps with relatively light dumbbells, and they have improved his leg strength, balance, and endurance. Great for pitching and for hitting.

I believe in sprints, not distance running, for pitchers. Once a week or so, I set up a relay race between us. It's a version of the old suicide drill we learned in basketball, where you sprint to the nearest line and touch it, sprint back, then sprint to the next line, sprint back, etc. If you space baseballs out on a field instead of using lines, you can sprint to the ball, pick it up, then sprint back and put it in a bucket, then race to the next ball, etc. We make a race out of this, using two rows of spaced balls, and he loves to beat me. It's not only good for conditioning; it also teaches kids how to plant and pick up a ball when they're in a hurry.

As for hitting, my son doesn't seem to get tired of practice so long as I keep the sessions brief and mix them up. He averages about 50 swings five days a week. We do this in the evening, when I'm around to supervise. Some evenings, he uses the tee, hitting into a bedspread we've hung from an old swing-set frame. Other evenings, I toss him golf-size wiffle balls. I throw live BP to him about once a week, on the weekend. Sometimes we use a cage, but often we do this on a field, because it pleases him to see how the ball carries and where it lands. About once a month, we go to a machine-pitch batting cage.

I don't push him very hard. At this age, I'm trying to make sure that we're both enjoying these exercises as much a possilbe. So we clown around some, and make everything a game.