Are Youth Baseball Players Playing Too Many Games?

High school baseball is in full swing across the country, and while the players’ main focus is on bringing home a league championship or state title, summer baseball is certainly on the mind as well. The calendar for June through August is filling up—probably with games.

A badge of honor seems to be the ability to rattle off the immense number of games played in a summer. Teams often bounce from tournament to tournament without ever practicing, so players make the same mistakes game after game. True player development gets lost. When are players getting better?

Certainly, valuable lessons are learned from games, and competition and production matter, but a break from the game environment is necessary for legitimate development.

Taking the pressure off, eliminating the speed of the game, even taking the ball out of the equation at times, allows a player to isolate an area of concern. It lets the player make improvements and build up to a better game-ready skill. An issue in a swing or pitching delivery that hinders success will rarely be changed playing game after game, but investing some hours of proper practice repetition and better movements and mechanics are ingrained.

We believe strongly at Baseball Factory that player development needs to be the priority.

Take the time in a controlled practice setting to work on skill development and athletic improvement. It is amazing what that will do to game abilities.