You hear many youth baseball organizations claim to focus on player development. It is one of the most important things; however, I honestly believe it is a term so loosely used. Using games at youth ages to validate development is not the most practical way. Games are very chaotic environments with so many uncontrollables. Young players have not yet mastered a skill set that is needed in a game that prides itself on being one of the highest skilled sports to master. Simply put, it takes time! Years and years of doing repetitive movements while also training the mental side. This is not an overnight success story if the window of perspective is only 1 season. That is why we at 706 Baseball take the long-term athletic development approach (LTAD). I’d like to outline our plan for athletes in our organization:

Fall: 

• Every player will receive a 3 day per week lifting plan. This is not required but can be a great tool to promote LTAD and start developing the body to produce higher rates of force safely. Attached below. You can print the sheet out and write in weight used for tracking and accountability. If doing these, I would like to have check-ins to assist the players in this. I can also explain any lift and provide a demonstration if needed. You can message me on stack for assistance. 
• Players will also receive a diet/nutrition guide that has been approved by a dietitian and inspired by the successes of local programs. Am I asking them to immediately jump on a 4000 calorie diet? No, but I am helping expose them to what they may hear at the next level and if they start taking it into consideration now, they may just start gaining an advantage and setting them up for success in the future.  Attached below
• Brief season to allow the main focus to be motor learning and skill developing. Limited pitch counts. 

Winter: (2 Days per week on Tuesday and Thursday starting in November)

• Sprinting: Athletes need to sprint at least 2 days per week. During our sessions we will incorporate speed work.
• Arm Development sessions with Robert Tyler and myself. These are intended to ramp up, develop, and maintain arm conditioning for the upcoming middle school season for safe integration of play. 
• Individual Defensive Skill Development: after throwing, we plan to put gets into positional groups. This will allow us to drill them and provide repetition.

For us to offer the most effective LTAD plan, we hope to differentiate ourselves from those that claim development by providing quantitative metrics for athletes with a player reporting system. We are currently working on a system that will track performance indicators and give a snapshot of his progression while also allowing us to establish goals. Metrics will include power tests, sprints, throwing velocity, and exit velocity. If we can track and show progress on these KPI’s, we can then ensure your player is in fact on a LTAD plan that sets him up for success down the road.