What you need to do first in your young career is focus one becoming an exceptional athlete. Scouts are looking for players who are talented athletes with little wear and tear. This is true with any recruiters out there. They do not want damaged goods. So the less time spent on the mound, at a young age, and the more time spent improving your athletic performance, the better. Play every position if possible and if you get to varsity baseball in high school and you want to just focus on pitching, then I would so, “OK, Do it!”

This doesn’t mean you should NOT practice pitching mechanics before high school. Start learning proper pitching mechanics as young as possible because proper pitching mechanics mean proper throwing mechanics. Proper throwing mechanics also produce proper hitting mechanics. This is because a Coach who knows how to train proper mechanics, understands how to train the athlete and not just a pitcher or hitter. This is also why I encourage young athletes to play as many sports as possible, without them overlapping. This is because, once again, we must train the athlete and not just one specific talent.

To prove this, just look at Professional sports. Pro sports are full of multi-sport athletes. Greg Maddux is a great golfer, along with John Smoltz, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffy Jr. Cal Ripken loved to play a lot of basketball in the off season. Tom Glavine was drafted in the NHL back in 1984. Michael Jordan retired from basketball to play minor league baseball. Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan, to name a few, played at the same time for the MLB and the NFL . The list goes on and on.

So, stop trying to fit yourself in the perfect mold of a pitcher at 14. Focus on your competitive edge and learn everything you can about the sport and all the positions. I always tell my pitchers, “Train the athlete first and then you can train the pitcher.”

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