What to do in the off-season?

What does everyone do during the fall/winter?  Batting cages and grounders in the basement?  My 7 year old son and I practice almost every night after the season ends, but once it gets cold, we head inside and then I spend the first few practices trying to knock the rust off in the spring.
What are some activities we can work on indoors?  Should I be happy with soft toss and hand eye coordination or am I missing something important?  Are there any indoor practice facilities in or around Gardner?

Thanks,

Robert

I would say at that age, just some catch and cages every now and then should be good.  But then again, I am not an over the top got to do this 24/7 365 kind of guy.   Older kids or you could do it as well could setup a T and net in the basement or garage.  It's all about muscle memory
http://www.naturalbaseball.com/ is in Olathe  You could also check http://mokanbaseball.com/index.php?topic=32.0 which has some listings

Thanks for the reply.  We generally play catch every night after dinner and I mix in some grounders and popflys and then go through a couple of buckets of balls with live pitching on the weekend.  He has finally started to get his throwing mechanics in shape and I hate for him to have to take the winter off.  I may send him to a holiday camp around Christmas if he wants to go.
I am also not an over the top, 24/7 fanatic, he is the one who asks to throw every night and what kind of dad would I be if I said "No"? 

Robert

You are one of the lucky ones then:)
Good luck with the offseason, sounds like a great kid.  You never know, maybe we will have another winter like last year where there really are not too many bad days.   You can always shell out the money for a tunnel every now and then just to keep throwing. 
If all fails, my older kid used to line up a bunch of pillows in the basement and throw tennis balls.  Did not make his mom happy, but we were

We would hang an old blanket from the ceiling in the basement and hit off a tee into it! Works great

Thanks for the suggestions.  They will help keep him from getting rusty and wont cost me anything!

Robert

What to do in the "off season"?  How about NOTHING! Every study I have read says your child should take at least a month or two off completely from throwing a baseball.  You are setting your son up for tommy john surgery by age 16...  As far as hitting, if he wants to hit off a tee in the winter go for it, although I'm not convinced he will any more ready / a better hitter the next spring compared to if he had taken at least a few months off.  Time away is a healthy thing mentally and physically...

Do you have a reference to these studies?  I am curious if they are talking about a kid throwing 100+ pitches a day for 10 months or a kid playing catch 3 nights out of the week?

Robert

Try a google search on "take two months off from throwing" and let me know what the experts say.  He really needs at least a 2-3 month break each year from any overhand throwing motion.

Thanks, I will check it out!

Robert

Here is a place that is in New Century:  tripleplayacademy.tripod.com

Last season our team practiced once a week for about an hour or two, to keep up on our hitting and work with our pitchers, whether it be a pitching lesson or just getting 30-40 pitches in or so.  I don't feel that this is over doing it by any means and it showed on the playing field.  It also allowed them to play their other sports.  I'm wanting to say there is another facility out there but not positive.

Thanks for the reply Baseball24, I didn't know that place was so close.

Did you get my message?

Robert

Honestly it depends on the seriousness of every kid. I hear its the off season take it off thats what its for and i cringe. Somebody needs to tell the boys in California that lol because they push kids to the next level every year and they go all year around. He is young so if you really want to make sure he is headed in the right direction as a hitter or pitcher the off season is a great time to find an instructor to help him develop mechanics throwing/hitting. Do your research before you jump into a situation with a instructor there are many in the KC area that will send your boy in the wrong direction mechanically. I was a kid that was 24/7 baseball by choice and was lucky enough to have parents that were baseball junkies as well. Not every boys dream is to play professional baseball and thats why i say it all depends on how serious and how passionate a kid is to what he does in the off season. By the way the off season is not a time to increase the pitch count of pitchers but it is the time to fine tune mechanics to prepare for the winter workouts before the season. Glad to hear your boy loves the game so much he wants to throw every night that is where it starts my advice is continue to allow your boys passion for the game to grow it will only develop the kind of work ethic it takes to play at the highest level.

There is an off season?

Seven is maybe a bit young, but there are a number of facilities that offer hitting leagues (teams hit off tees or machines for points-think bowling league for young ballplayers). That makes it fun and slightly competitive. Also a few offer 4 on 4 leagues where each team plays 4 'innings'. Pitcher, Catcher, Two Fielders. Less pressure on the kids yet still a challenge.