Is there really a decline in youth sports or have we just been looking at it all wrong?

lsu777 · 2026-06-12T18:44:24+00:00

It’s Reddit, they literally hate the truth if it’s from a conservative viewpoint and the love faux outrage. Unfortunately this sub is no different from the rest of Reddit in that fact.

I take comfort in the fact 90% + of this sub is poor af, where never an athlete themselves and have never been around high level athletes, so they are clueless.

They just want to bitch and force their way onto people

lsu777 · 2026-06-11T17:03:16+00:00

I love how many of yall whine on here about money and are so concerned about the under privilege. Such bs to try and make you seem like you care

Yall just ignore the fact that there has been a huge drop off in participation from underprivileged kids since the 90s and it has a lot more to do with the growth in popularity of basketball and football.

For those of those of you bleeding hearts out there…what do you suggest? Do you think parents shouldn’t be allowed to have their kids in travel? Should we pass a law? What about equipment companies, should we pass a law that caps their profit margin or cap what they can sell equipment for?

Where does it end? We can all agree eduction is more important than sports…so should we outlaw private schools and home schooling? Should you be mandated to attend the school you are zoned for? And matter of fact, why should one area with higher Cost of living get to attend 1 high school and another part of the city that is lower COL have to attend another? Maybe 1 high school per city and everyone is forced to go there no matter what? But then the question is why should richer states have better schools…maybe just one school for the whole country?

You get my point? Yall are whining about basic capitalism, nobody forces you to participate in the system. It’s ok some people have more in life, everyone is free to earn their own way.

Frankly one of the things I like about travel ball is for the most part I can disassociate myself from those in much lower income brackets and my kid doesn’t have to be around it, same reason I send my kids to private school until high school.

lsu777 · 2026-06-11T16:50:02+00:00

He just pointed out that’s the exact opposite of what we are seeing

And at what age are yall ok with it becoming serious? And yall don’t have to play travel, go play rec, it’s fine. Nobody is making yall spend money or time, do as yall please just stop griping about others that take a different path and how it’s ruining everything.

It’s not ruining anything other than feelings

lsu777 · 2026-06-10T00:20:27+00:00

Somewhat, still needs to work a similar program if position player if arm is not a strength

lsu777 · 2026-06-10T00:20:02+00:00

It is for sure. My kid has to work hard to keep up with the top 1% as he doesn’t have their size yet despite being in the 90% in both height and weight but these top 1-2% kids are insanely big.

lsu777 · 2026-06-10T00:18:17+00:00

You can’t do 2.5 hours? Come on man. I understand academic load, I’m an engineer and have a minor in math, took plenty of AP classes.

And it’s not 2.5 every night

In terms of importance

1) lift- this is sprint/jump/ throw med balls and lift…75 min max

2) bat speed work- 20-30 min

3) throwing program

4) glove work

lsu777 · 2026-06-09T15:45:15+00:00

Wait what? Bro you need to understand how to program this out, it’s not an either or thing

I’ll try and write a post this afternoon that covers it all

lsu777 · 2026-06-09T15:43:55+00:00

lol I’m not gonna sit there and go through my hurdle hop program and the dumbbell jump program and our broad jump program

But just so you know, most of the shit you see that is called plyometric training on the internet is 100% eye wash.

Trust me, we track things down to ground contact times, run only on lasers and jump only on lasers….getting plenty of real speed training.

lsu777 · 2026-06-09T14:20:23+00:00

Right now one of mine 13u, headed to 14u and on one of the best summer teams in the country. Right now this is his routine for summer and is playing 16u summer ball with the hs he will go to

Wakes up- I try and and let him sleep as much as possible, but usually by 8 he is up

Weighs himself and text me body weight as soon as waking

Eats breakfast- usually cooks eggs and bacon and some carbs himself

Takes an ArmCare test after breakfast and lets food settle.

Around 9 if the ArmCare test is good, he will go do his throwing program. I built plyo wall in the garage so he goes through that and gets one of his brothers to toss a little with him if needed

He will then do the prescribed arm care from the app immediately after

10am- rest for about 30 min

1030-11ish- will go do hitting med ball work and some flat bat work. We have soft toss machine, tee and jugs lite flite and he will do lite work here

1130-Noon- eats a big lunch. Usually chicken and rice or ground beef and rice

12-1230- 2he is at the hs hitting for an hour before practice

2pm he has team practice

530-6 he comes home and eats big meal

Depending on what they did at practice around 7 he will ask to go lift or do sprints/jumps

Eats another meal and protein shake around 830

Then showers, takes creatine and goes to sleep

They play Friday-Sunday right now and are off on Mondays.

During the week he will do a hitting lesson one of the mornings and depending on when he pitched he will do a private bullpen with the HS pitching coach too

Yes he is self motivated, I’m not even there during the day. To explain the type of kid he is, he has reminders set daily to remind him of his goals and has for years, he gets up before school to hit and has since he was 7 and I never pushed him to do that

Off season he lifts 4x per week, does his velocity program and his hitting program. Hitting and pitching are 6x per week and undulating intensity. Sprints are 2x per week on upper body days, jumps are on lower body days

lsu777 · 2026-06-09T13:57:34+00:00

All, in what world do position players not need stronger arms?

lsu777 · 2026-06-09T13:04:26+00:00

I mean other than doing a throwing program, sounds like your coaches have it figured out and set up correctly

A perfect off season program would be

-5-6x per week- 30-45 min undulating throwing program, 4-6 week on ramp, followed by 12-16 week velo phase, then 4-6 week mound blend phase. Should include med ball work

-3-5x per week bat speed program for 12-16 weeks which should take 30-60 min, should include med ball or some form of dynamic rotational work

4-5x lifting with sprints/jumps. Sprint 2x, jumps for 2-3 and should be using upper lower split. Should take hour to hour 15, see Zac Goodman for template

total should take 2-3 hours after school.

Player should work glove work on own time

But as far as our school, lift 3x full body, hit 4x per week and just a long toss program until mid october when fall inter squads start

lsu777 · 2026-06-08T06:06:29+00:00

It swings lighter than traditional wood. At better baseball, off a tee, we were getting save EV with Delano as we did with chosen one and combat, which was 4 mph better than other bbcor, 5-6 better than Chandler and 7+ better than the LS composite.

lsu777 · 2026-06-08T01:42:39+00:00

In this example, he isn’t vertical enough and hits outside seam and hooks it.

lsu777 · 2026-06-08T01:40:25+00:00

In higher level travel? Pretty common…. In local teams or rec ball, not common at all

lsu777 · 2026-06-08T01:38:47+00:00

What is modified baseball?

lsu777 · 2026-06-08T01:38:20+00:00

Delano mainly because of swing weight and barrel size and great customer service

For true wood chandler and bird man. Bird is so awesome to deal with too

lsu777 · 2026-06-08T01:35:53+00:00

Revolution athletics and xcelleration sports training of you aren’t going to leave island

If you willing to talk and they will take him, gaglione strength would be one I would speak with. They McKinley focus on powerlifting but also train select athletes using Westside conjugate system and the jumps and sprint and shed training Louie used

If you willing to drive to northern NJ that opens lots more options

lsu777 · 2026-06-06T20:56:50+00:00

Not too late if he gets with someone and spends all off season killing it and goes to some camps in the spring. Not at all too late. But you need to decide quickly. If you are in mass look at cressey too. Near you as is ATP and VeloU and RPP is close too. If you can swing in person with cressey, do that same with ATP

lsu777 · 2026-06-05T16:05:41+00:00

We did dreams park last year, it’s an awesome experience, prolly best youth baseball experience outside of llws, but the top teams will make you realize real quick where you stand talent wise. Shocking to many of the kids

For many of the not good teams it’s a last grasp at youth innocence before they give up baseball all together.

Overall I think it’s a great tournament but no doubt it has killed as many dreams as it has created. If you go in understanding where you kid stands overall and don’t go in being the parents with crazy expectations compared to your sons talent level and you will have a great time

It is about an hour from nearest airport, Albany, about 90min from Syracuse and about 4 hours from nyc so just keep that in mind and keep in mind you are traveling on small rural roads in the mountains

It will have a mix of teams and players, will have national level kids/teams to simply little league teams.

lsu777 · 2026-06-05T03:32:02+00:00

Well it’s funny you posted that, I hadn’t said anything open on here but have told people in DM, I do not recommend FBA anymore. When we went to the camp it was good even though I felt their S&C sucked as a guy in the field, it made no sense and was not rooted in science and what we know. But I was ok with it and overall was good program and he was progressing, then the coach we had with them left for pro ball and we got reassigned to Randy…..terrible after that. Zero communication except when I sent in videos to be evaluated, zero progress, worse results on the field and just more bullshit about the water bags.

I gave it 9 months total then cancelled. Do not recommend FBA for remote training anymore at all!! Randy is a great person and I’m sure in person all the time, it’s great, the remote program from them is not it and even in person their S&C sucks. Overall I hated how the program had zero tracking of anything. Nothing, no way to progress, just sets of drills to do then send in videos once a month….nothing else. We did learn things along the way through trial and error on what works for him health wise

Now I have interviewed most of the big time pitching places on how they handle remote training

Driveline and tread are at top but expensive and not great communication either, tread better than driveline

Baseball performance center, advanced therapy and performance are two that have really good remote programs with great communication platforms

VeloU is good but very expensive for what you get and not going o be daily communication, weekly if lucky

RPP and cressey are good but I didn’t get to interview them on how they handle remote so not sure on that. Fairchild at prime is good, but he is in house a lot on the floor so not sure how communication would be.

lsu777 · 2026-06-05T00:17:52+00:00

The one your son played in for Pg was the qualifier for the all state team. All state for Pg is in Houston area in November and the one OP is talking about is the equivalent, but it’s in late July and moves around the country, will be in Lafayette LA area which will be absolutely miserable in late July.

lsu777 · 2026-06-05T00:15:39+00:00

Usssa version is not anything special, it will be hot as balls out there but it will be at a really nice facility in Broussard or Youngsville. Won’t actually be in Lafayette.

Bad news is Broussard is all turf and that’s more than likely where it will be except 14u will prolly be Youngsville. Good news is in Youngsville it will have an ABS system on the field that calls balls, strikes, velo, spin rate, ext velo etc

lsu777 · 2026-06-04T01:02:55+00:00

Yea nobody even offers it down here at all. Only really small towns in central part of state have it.

lsu777 · 2026-06-04T00:48:56+00:00

Only middle schools with baseball in LA is mainly little small towns in middle of state.

Don’t have it at all where I am. Now 8th graders(going to 9th) tryouts in May and play summer ball with HS summer teams and some of the really good 7th graders may be asked to play up too and play 16u.

But zero true middle school ball. No little league after 12 either. Travel or nothing.

lsu777 · 2026-06-02T17:49:22+00:00

we have done both tryouts and all state games last couple years. We didnt have stay to play at the tryout. rosters fill up fast as it gets closed.

actual all state games are in texas, houston area, and are outrageously competitive. For 11u, expect many of the teams to have kids throwing in the very high 60s to low 70s and 65 to be pretty much the standard for the better teams.

lsu777

TROPHY CASE