What do baseball young players do in their off season?

This post has to start with a disclaimer : I am quite willing to accept that my boys think in different ways to your average child! Their baseball-obsession is at times completely alien to the general population.....I realise this, and hope that this post either entertains it's readers, or that MAYBE I find some other people in our zip-code that understand what I am talking about!

SO...the question of the day is.....What do young baseball players do in their "off-season"?

Let me first explain a little : My oldest son regards the summer months as his "off-season" - at this time, he is NOT enroled in baseball, and does not have an official baseball team that he is a part of. Interestingly enough, he also does not want to be involved in baseball camp either.....it doesn't work for him that you could be "doing baseball", when it is supposed to be your "off-season". With that being said, both him and his brother find a way to play baseball just about everywhere they are :

Trip to the beach : "wave-ball", where they were practise swinging at waves
BBQ at the bay : "bubble baseball" - a complicated arrangement where someone was blowing bubbles, and the other on was somehow hitting or catching them....
Backyard : a thousand combinations of pitching/catching/throwing/swinging/hitting.....and our yard is only a franction bigger than a postage stamp....
Bedtime : For the five or so minutes they are allowed to talk before sleeping, they discuss MLB players, and
how well they play, what their strengths and weaknesses are, who deserved a spot in the all star team, who the strongest players of each position are...
Any down-time where there's grass: Short toss/long toss/ practising fielding/pop flies.
Ipod : baseball apps, and baseball trivia apps
TV: MLB network, MLB games, Baseball tonight - at age 8 the oldest one was able to work the DVR and schedule recordings for Prime 9, hotstove, baseball tonight and other baseball shows he was unable to stay up and watch, first thing in the morning, that's what he's watching.

As you can imagine from reading this list, it's very rare that what we're doing does NOT involve baseball, but on those rare occassion when it doesn't......well......being a child development proffessional means that in my regular job, I am paid to design a program where I set activities for young children to develop certain skills - fine motor, gross motor, social skills etc, the list goes on. As the baseballmomster, I apply my child development training to the world of baseball....

 A trip to the park is not only fun - the gross motor skills used in their "play" are also beneficial in their baseball game - when the boys play on this particular play structure, and hold onto the moving handle, their upper body strength and shoulders are being worked on, which during baseball season will be assist in greater throwing and hitting distance.

Other play equpiment too seves similar purposes - climbing walls are EXCELLENT for both upper and lower body strength, added to which the climber really needs to tune into how to control his body as a whole in order to best accomplish his climb. Translated into baseball skills, a player who can finely control his actions can become more accurate in his throwing, and is able to fine tune his stance/swing or pitching motion as his coach directs.  

Swings work on the legs muscles and the balance, other equpiment needs co-opperation with others, and teamwork in order for it to work correctly. Other park games require co-ordination and accuracy - frisbee, bocce ball, throwing a football - all these encourage transferable skills to baseball, and add a well-rounded component to all young sports players. Riding bikes and scooters are great cardio, swimming or just PLAYING in the pool is great for over-all fitness.

And who could forget....the importance of SHOUTING....gotta be able to call out those plays, right?!

Not to be discounted also, is ample time for watching games, both live and on TV - the "big people" example for young players is HUGE. Watching, observing, soaking in all of the skills, the game-situations, the choices, the good and the bad, and being able to have fun discussing it with Dad or Mom or another significant person - these are all another building block in that baseball-wall! At young ages especially, kids are like little sponges, and if they are WANTING to soak up something, and hungry for more knowledge in a certain area - FEED IT!

I wish everyone reading this post a blessed, restful and fun summer - I would love to hear from anyone else who has any similar tales of baseball obsessions while out-and-about!