I hope school is off to a great start and that your boys are working hard in whatever sport they're active in right now.

While the youth sports world slowly (and sadly) moves more towards specialization at a younger and younger age, I would recommend that you resist the urge to pick focusing on only one sport for your son. Playing multiple sports throughout the year allows your athlete to work different muscles, rest over-worked muscles from the previous season (specifically throwing arms in baseball), and gives them a mental break that will help avoid single-sport burnout.

After Summer Camp ends every year, I look forward to taking a couple weeks off from baseball. That short break from the field not only gives my body a few weeks to recover but allows me to "miss" the sport so that when I return to the field I'm excited and motivated to be back on the diamond. Emotional burnout at a young age is a very real thing and is completely avoidable by taking some time off.

I am completely in favor of playing other sports and my Fall Ball League intentionally features a reduced time commitment to allow players to participate in non-baseball sports.

That said, we don't want to completely forget all the skills we learned in lessons during the Spring or at camp over the Summer. So, even if you're active playing soccer, or football, or volleyball, or whatever this Fall, I think finding a few minutes a week for baseball is absolutely beneficial. I would recommend:

* Play catch once a week for 10 or 15 minutes. This shouldn't be anything too intense like really long-toss or active pitching from the mound, but a short game of catch once a week can remind the arm how to work properly while not over-working it in anticipation of a long Spring Season.

* Take swings once a week. Whether off a tee, down at the park with other kids from the neighborhood, whiffle balls in the backyard, or dry swings in the driveway, taking 5-10 minutes of swings per week will help maintain many of the correct mechanics developed last season.

* Take some ground balls and catch some fly balls. Finding some grass to field some ground balls and see some pop-ups off the bat every couple of weeks will help ease the transition back to the diamond in January.

Again, I am fully supportive of baseball taking a backseat to other sports this Fall - let's just try to find about 20 - 30 minutes a week to stay close to the game in order to maintain some mechanical familiarity while not having to worry about emotional burnout.

Have a great season and I'm looking forward to seeing you at Winter Break Camp in December when it's time for us lucky enough to play ball in Southern California to start kicking it into high gear!