Depending on age and sanction your kid is playing in, I would remind you to take note of bat restrictions. Some require USA certification and others are USSSA. And PG recently banned -5 bats for 12U while 13U is required to swing a -5, IIRC. While 14Maj has to swing BBCOR.

Yes…ha, I feel like I need a spreadsheet to keep up with all of these bat changes!

He is 12U…currently using a Drop 10, but wanting to move to a Drop 8. USSA mostly with a few PG tournaments on the spring schedule. We live outside of College Station so our go-to is Academy. We have to run to Austin so I thought we'd check out some other options.

https://triple-s-sports.com/

This is in Waco and is the best baseball store I have ever been to. We go there every year.

Awesome…this is great to know. We are in Franklin, so very easy to get to. Thanks!

Rawlings Icon for drop 8.

You will not be disappointed. Between it and the baseball card shop down the street(which is probably the best baseball card shop in Texas) my son ranks Waco up there with Paris, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, New York, etc. I mean a destination trip.

Baseball Bat Bros Drop 8 vs. Drop 5

Great video comparing drop 8 to drop 5. Granted he shouldn't be swinging either, but I'd guess once the drop 8 is broken in it will yield as good or better results than the drop 5. Also, Will probably isn't getting any improved performance from additional bat speed like a normal 12 year old probably does from swinging the bigger drop.

I think this pretty much proves what we all thought before, banning drop 5's at 12U isn't going to do anything.

One of my son's former teammates from league is having Tommy John tomorrow. He is 13.

agsalaska said:

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One of my son's former teammates from league is having Tommy John tomorrow. He is 13.

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Man that sucks for the kid. Hoping for as speedy of a recover as possible.

Do you know much about the background of what led to his injury and needing TJ?

And as an update on my oldest- he's 13 weeks, post ACL surgery tomorrow. Started jogging on the treadmill about a week and a half ago. Been cleared to jump rope for about 4 weeks now. Also cleared to do half-speed agility stuff (like speed ladder drills). He should be able to jog on the track on his own pretty quickly- as soon as he's up to a mile without stopping on the treadmill. And should start being able to sprint in another 3-4 weeks. Then the legit, full-effort agility/lateral stuff starts and he can start doing more explosive movements like power clean/hang clean in the weight room, box jumps, plyometrics, and so forth.

He's really working his ass off too. Four days a week he has to be at school at 6:30 for "treatment" with the trainer which is really just an extra weightlifting and rehab work session. Then the football team usually lifts in 7th period so he does that too. 2-3x/week he has PT. And he's out with the football team for meetings & practice getting the mental reps while doing work on his own to the side. The coaches have been awesome about keeping him involved. They have insisted that he's part of the team and be at all the practices & workouts and do everything he can so he's stays engaged because rehabbing an injury can be a solitary and lonely situation that separates you from your teammates and saps your desire.

We have 3 freshmen teams and the coaches told him that even though he can't play they're putting him on the "A-team" roster because they respect his work ethic, they know what he's capable of when healthy, and they have high expectations for him when healthy so they want him to stay with the teammates of a similar caliber and expectation level. They didn't have to do that- they could easily have thought "he's injured and can't play" and just shunted him off to the side with the B or C-team rosters or even worse, not allowed him to really participate at all. So that generates a lot of loyalty from me and the kid too.

Also, he's definitely been putting on good weight. Just turned 14 a month ago and is 6'1" 180# and still as lean & rangy as ever.

Any tips on training to increase accuracy on throws? Both regular and pitching

redline248 said:

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Any tips on training to increase accuracy on throws? Both regular and pitching

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It's 100% about mechanics. Break it down to the individual segments from the ground up to the finish/follow through. After that it's just reps.

Glad to hear your son is improving. Amazing what the body can do at that age.

Make sure he is put through complete return to sport testing prior to getting back to sport activities. Many times they release a kid from PT after ACL rehab without proper testing and wonder why they injure it again several months later.

aggiederelict said:

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Make sure he is put through complete return to sport testing prior to getting back to sport activities. Many times they release a kid from PT after ACL rehab without proper testing and wonder why they injure it again several months later.

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That's already been discussed from the surgeon's office and how it's a requirement. The whole "return to play" testing was either covered in our first consult before surgery when they laid out the plan or might have been the first follow up a few days after surgery and initial PT appointment. They're definitely on top of things. Have a follow Tuesday the 10th with the surgeon.

If you're anywhere in the Houston area and need ACL reconstruction try to get in with Dr. Walt Lowe, he's the man. The top ACL guy in the area, if not the country. He's the ortho for UH, the Rockets and was for the Texans. Also consults for A&M sports. We personally know 5-6 other people who are all D1 athletes who have had their ACL repaired by him and they're all back playing and all rave about him.

Kid had a follow up and some functional testing with the surgeon this morning. He said he's doing great and a little ahead of schedule. Range-of-motion & strength are great. Still needs to build up strength but he's a little ahead of where they expect athletes to be for 14 weeks after surgery.

Cleared to jog on the track but not on grass yet. Can start throwing on flat ground and hitting in the cage. No live/game ABs yet. Can also start fielding drills but has to be stuff hit or thrown straight to him. He should be able to sprint and do all the agility drills (lateral, plyos, box jumps, etc) again in 6 weeks or so. "Return-to-play" testing in 6-8 more weeks. Said that he should be cleared to throw off the bump around Thanksgiving.

Poor management in my part - but does anyone want tickets tonight?

Anyone have info on the teams in the Georgetown/Cedar Park/Round Rock area? Thinking about maybe jumping out of rec ball, soon.

Yes, what age group?

redline248 said:

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Anyone have info on the teams in the Georgetown/Cedar Park/Round Rock area? Thinking about maybe jumping out of rec ball, soon.

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aggielax48 is in your area IIRC so he'll have better info but both of my boys have played teams from the Lonestar and Sun Devils organizations and every team they've played has been good. Solid, well-coached teams, and kids/parents who didn't act like jackasses.

At a young age the families are almost important as anything. You want like-minded parents who aren't going to be obnoxious and have similar goals. And those goals should be centered around development and learning to love the game while playing it the right way more than worrying about winning $4 rings.

Turns 10 in March

So you're looking for a 10U team. Lots of options.

The big organizations:
Canes (teams all over, but they have teams playing out of Leander)
Lonestar (the north teams play out of Hutto)

Others
Action (Leander)
THZ (Round Rock)
Tritons (Pflugerville)
Tejas (Georgetown)
Austin Wings (North Austin)

I'd just suggest going to all their tryouts. See which teams you make, see which ones felt like a good fit. But I wouldn't worry too much about it, I'd be willing to bet this won't be the only team you ever play for.

There is probably other independent teams or groups I've forgot about.
If you have Facebook this is a good page...https://www.facebook.com/share/g/ZisEs7ELMd61DdDu/

Thanks

TarponChaser said:

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PhatMack19 said:

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PG just banned all -5's for 12u. Now we have $700 worth the bats we can't use….

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I'm struggling with the rationale behind this.

Is a 12U kid swinging a -8 more or less likely to be dangerous than a kid swinging a -5? Wouldn't the -8 generate more bat speed and exit velo thus more dangerous?

I'd really like to see the math behind this to understand their position here.

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My unscientific observations after a few practices. We play our first tourney this weekend.

The -5 he swung all 11u is a good bit hotter. I can't really tell a difference in bat speed, but he really has to get ahold of one to get it out on 225' fields with the -8. With the drop 5, he hits some out that he didn't square up.

Maybe it will be different batting off kids throwing harder, but the -5 is a lot hotter hitting of me throwing puss from 30' away. On another note, watching 12u Select Fest from last year, most were swinging -8 which surprised me.

PhatMack19 said:

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TarponChaser said:

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PhatMack19 said:

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PG just banned all -5's for 12u. Now we have $700 worth the bats we can't use….

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I'm struggling with the rationale behind this.

Is a 12U kid swinging a -8 more or less likely to be dangerous than a kid swinging a -5? Wouldn't the -8 generate more bat speed and exit velo thus more dangerous?

I'd really like to see the math behind this to understand their position here.

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My unscientific observations after a few practices. We play our first tourney this weekend.

The -5 he swung all 11u is a good bit hotter. I can't really tell a difference in bat speed, but he really has to get ahold of one to get it out on 225' fields with the -8. With the drop 5, he hits some out that he didn't square up.

Maybe it will be different batting off kids throwing harder, but the -5 is a lot hotter hitting of me throwing puss from 30' away. On another note, watching 12u Select Fest from last year, most were swinging -8 which surprised me.

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Maybe it's not a weight thing but the bats are engineered hotter in -5? I don't know all the physics behind it but I suppose that could be a thing.

TarponChaser said:

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PhatMack19 said:

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TarponChaser said:

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PhatMack19 said:

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PG just banned all -5's for 12u. Now we have $700 worth the bats we can't use….

---

I'm struggling with the rationale behind this.

Is a 12U kid swinging a -8 more or less likely to be dangerous than a kid swinging a -5? Wouldn't the -8 generate more bat speed and exit velo thus more dangerous?

I'd really like to see the math behind this to understand their position here.

---

My unscientific observations after a few practices. We play our first tourney this weekend.

The -5 he swung all 11u is a good bit hotter. I can't really tell a difference in bat speed, but he really has to get ahold of one to get it out on 225' fields with the -8. With the drop 5, he hits some out that he didn't square up.

Maybe it will be different batting off kids throwing harder, but the -5 is a lot hotter hitting of me throwing puss from 30' away. On another note, watching 12u Select Fest from last year, most were swinging -8 which surprised me.

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Maybe it's not a weight thing but the bats are engineered hotter in -5? I don't know all the physics behind it but I suppose that could be a thing.

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Based on how the baseball bat bros talk about larger drops, I think this might be the case.

Farmer1906 said:

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My 8 year old joined a new team last May/June. They started playing tournaments in mid-July. I have been helping out with practice and coaching 1B. We have some rough, ROUGH games. Last weekend we went 2-2 in the bracket and finished 4th out of 10 teams. We beat the team that finished 3rd and another team that clobbered us in pool play. I know it's just a silly 8u tournament, but I was so happy seeing those kids' hard work over the last few months pay off with some actual victories.

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We're not good now, but the improvement keeps happening. Made a silver bracket finals and lost. Then played the team that beat us in the finals in a round-robin 2 weeks later to get a little revenge.

We went 1-6 in the summer, then started 0-11 in the spring. Since then we've gone 8-9.

I am proud of these kids' dedication and work ethic.

Farmer1906 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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My 8 year old joined a new team last May/June. They started playing tournaments in mid-July. I have been helping out with practice and coaching 1B. We have some rough, ROUGH games. Last weekend we went 2-2 in the bracket and finished 4th out of 10 teams. We beat the team that finished 3rd and another team that clobbered us in pool play. I know it's just a silly 8u tournament, but I was so happy seeing those kids' hard work over the last few months pay off with some actual victories.

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We're not good now, but the improvement keeps happening. Made a silver bracket finals and lost. Then played the team that beat us in the finals in a round-robin 2 weeks later to get a little revenge.

We went 1-6 in the summer, then started 0-11 in the spring. Since then we've gone 8-9.

I am proud of these kids' dedication and work ethic.

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That's great and what it should be about.

Too many folks at the young age see it as being about winning rings vs. development.

https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/houston-youth-baseball-injuries-19753043.php

Bassmaster said:

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Got back from Cooperstown yesterday. My son played at ASV and we got beat in the semis for our only loss of the tournament. His team has been up and down all season playing 12u major in Houston, but it all came together for them last week and it was fun to watch. We got beat by a major team from Cali who is nationally ranked. We had runners on base every inning, but just couldn't push them across. Lost 8-3. After the game, we packed up my son's bunk and he was real quiet in the back seat and a little emotional, and I've never seen him emotional over baseball. I told him they just got beat by a better team, no shame in that. He said "it's not about that, I'm just sad it is over." It was an awesome experience for him. When deciding which team to join this season, we wanted two things (1) play good competition, and (2) go to Cooperstown. We got both of those. If any of you have younger kids, I highly recommend finding a team going to Cooperstown when they are 12.

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I think my son's team was there the same week your son was. That Cali team was crazy good, I think their run differential for the pool games alone was 100+ to maybe 5. My son's team at the time wasn't great so they didn't go very deep beyond the pool games but, in reality, the overall experience was fantastic either way.

Cooperstown was an incredible experience and I will echo your comments to other baseball parents, if you have the chance to go, don't miss it!

lil99chris said:

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https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/houston-youth-baseball-injuries-19753043.php

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Chris & Tarpon, what teams are your boys playing with currently or in the spring? It sounds like we might be crossing paths at tournaments...

aTm 99 said:

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lil99chris said:

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https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/houston-youth-baseball-injuries-19753043.php

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Chris & Tarpon, what teams are your boys playing with currently or in the spring? It sounds like we might be crossing paths at tournaments...

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My youngest is playing up in 11AAA. Houston Legends. We are not a good team. At all. The coach has a 20-year history of coaching select ball and the last group of kids he coached before this fall are HS sophomores now. He doesn't believe in AA, says it's "league ball with nicer uniforms" even if we're getting our teeth kicked in. But he's got a reputation for really knowing baseball and developing kids for HS. He played at UH and in the minors.

All of the kids are making the jump from AA or in a couple cases straight from league ball. There's lots to learn and he's got a rep for pushing the kids and coaching them hard which is what we want. That being said, while the guy is extremely instructional on every single rep I do think he could be more demonstrational if that makes sense. There are times when he's teaching something and the boys look at him like he's got 2 heads because they're coming from daddy-ball teams with minimal instruction playing AA but "hey, we're a select team." The struggle will be to keep a positive attitude and motivated.

Oldest is a freshman in HS now. He's been busy working his ass off rehabbing from ACL reconstruction surgery on May 30th. He's started jogging a couple months ago and been really running and doing sprints for almost a month. He's been cleared for a lot of baseball activity (no live ABs, no pitching off the mound, minimal lateral movement) and has the first round of "return to play testing" on the 29th. After that he should be cleared to go balls to the wall on everything with the only restriction being any pain (and his pain tolerance) or swelling. That means he can do all the stuff he's been restricted on- plyometrics, box jumps, lateral work/cutting, and Olympic weights.

It's a bummer that he's missed freshman football and fall baseball but he's been working his butt off and is a rangy 6'1" 190 now. I really couldn't be prouder of how he's handled this adversity and his work ethic in doing his rehab. I also can't rave enough about how awesome the football coaches have been- they were very adamant that he's part of the team, lifts with the team, goes to position meetings, and takes part in practice even just for mental reps. The head varsity coach even told him directly they were putting him on the "A" team roster because they know what he can do when he's healthy and what they expect out of him. They could easily just shunted him off to the side and left him isolated.

Four days a week he's at the HS at 6:30 for "treatment" with the trainer which is really just an extra weight lifting session. Then in 7th period athletics he lifts weights again with the football team and after school does practice, which for the last couple months has mostly been running and jumping rope. Plus, he's got PT a couple times a week after football practice.

And since his September 10 follow up when he was cleared to start swinging the bat and throwing he's been doing both a couple times a week to build up his arm. We went out to a field this past Sunday that's got 290' fences and were doing long-toss, he was probably 15' short of the fence and I was standing on home plate. I had him just uncork it a couple times and he had like 3 throws that went over my head and hit the backstop 20' behind home on the fly so he probably made throws that carried almost 300' in the air.

Anyway, he still won't be 100% for tryouts for summer ball but he's been offered a spot with a certain Houston org known for having a bunch of "sponsored" teams and is starting to practice with them to do what he can. HS tryouts are in January so he's geared towards getting ready for that.

Currently on 13u Houston Colts.

Also picks up for TX Freedom and Fairfield Ducks. Hoping Los Gallos forms again for a few tournaments in 2025. It was a group of kids from different organizations having fun.

I doubt we'll cross paths with your sons on the field at 11UAAA or 15U Tarpon but it's certainly possible we would square off with the 13U Colts Chris. We were recently seduced to the dark side and will be moving to the 13U Banditos Deleon for the spring but have started practicing with them already. It's going to be a tough transition for my boy but they really practice/play a different level of baseball over there....

aTm 99 said:

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I doubt we'll cross paths with your sons on the field at 11UAAA or 15U Tarpon but it's certainly possible we would square off with the 13U Colts Chris. We were recently seduced to the dark side and will be moving to the 13U Banditos Deleon for the spring but have started practicing with them already. It's going to be a tough transition for my boy but they really practice/play a different level of baseball over there....

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Is that the Banditos team with big Leyland? If so, that's definitely a team on another level. Those boys can mash.

Best of luck.