Spring Training's Fall Ball season wrapped up on Sunday and with Day Light Savings robbing us of what little after-school outside time we have left, it's officially the baseball "off-season" in Southern California.

So with that said, here's a little advice on how to approach the next 2 months.

First, GO PLAY OTHER SPORTS!

The myth that being a single-sport athlete early on in life will give your son or daughter a leg-up on the competition has been conclusively debunked.  All available research, both clinical from physicians and anecdotal from college and professional coaches, concludes that being a 1-sport athlete is 100% detrimental to personal, mental, and physical development.  Anyone (I'm looking directly at YOU High School coaches with year-round club teams) who tells you to focus only one sport and play it year round does not have your son or daughter's best interest in mind.  They are either willfully misinformed because they haven't bothered to study youth development, and therefore in my opinion disqualify themselves from being an authority on anything sports related, or they are aware of the research and are choosing to lie to you.

Here's a few things you can read to get the informational upper-hand on any coach who tries to tell you sport-specialization is the way to go:

https://positivecoach.org/the-pca-blog/impacts-of-early-sport-specialization/

https://sportdev.org/USAB/Blog/Benefits_Playing_Multiple_Sports.aspx

Second, while your athlete is active in other Winter Sports, I think it's a great idea to try to play catch once a week.  The big exception here would be any 10, 11, or 12 who pitched a lot during the 2019 season, Summer, and/or Fall. If your son has been a regular pitcher since last January, I would recommend him not even picking up a baseball until late December.  Pitcher's arms need proper rest in between outings in addition to true "off-season" rest when they don't throw at all for many weeks in a row.

Third, taking hacks when there's available time (whether off a tee, soft toss, in the cages, or even just dry swings in the driveway) is a great way to maintain positive muscle memory that was developed during the Fall months.  There is no risk of physical harm in hitting during the off-season.

Fourth, it's going to be hard to get on the field for live defense because of how early it will get dark, but fielding some groundballs and chasing down some flyballs every once in awhile is a great idea.

And finally, if you can't find time with everything else going on to play baseball until tryouts...THAT'S OK TOO!

Let's always try to remember that despite the fact that youth sports in this country is getting more and more competitive and more and more serious at a younger and younger age, these are just kids and everything is going to be fine if they just take some time off.

Which is exactly what I'll be doing until Winter Break Camp.  I need to recharge my batteries, get away from the game for a few weeks (after the Nats win the World Series of course), and then as always, that hunger to get on the field will come roaring back and I'll have the physical energy and emotional bandwidth to go hard for another 10 straight months in 2020 - my 16th year coaching in PV!

Looking forward to seeing everyone back on the field soon.

GO NATS!!!!!!