FUTURES

Development for the next generation of #BDGbuds

BDG FUTURES PROGRAM

Year-Round High Performance for 12u-15u

WHAT IS FUTURES?

The Futures Program is a scaled-down version of our flagship off-season development program designed for High School, College & Professional players. The program also runs year-round.

Designed for 12u-15u players, the Futures Program specializes in preparing players in this age range acclimate better to the demands of the growing dimensions of the field, speed of play and physical/emotional maturation. The program also seeks to utilize gamification to create a positive and fun atmosphere instilling a life-long love of baseball training.

As a Futures member, athletes can choose to attend either 1, 2 or unlimited weekly training sessions where they will be guided through their training programs for throwing, hitting, and introductory strength and conditioning.

Similar to High Performance, sessions will be ~2 hours with the first half focused on skill development and the second spent in the weight room for strength training.

Training Times

Monday to Friday – Evenings starting at 6pm

Saturday/Sunday – Afternoon *October to April Only*

*Specific Times Outlined in Forms*

ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Futures Program athletes will be taken through a condensed version of our Assessment Process on set dates throughout thhe program. Collecting basic strength & arm care metrics, perform jump testing several throws on PitchAI with use of a radar gun to track velocity and swings using Blast Motion HitTrax and/or Rapsodo.

Click the image on the side to view an example assessment template used in past years of the program.

AGE-APPROPRIATE PROGRAMMING

Building off the assessment or the athlete’s first two weeks of training, our coaches will use our findings to help guide each athlete through their program including pitching, hitting and introductory strength&power training.

Athlete programs and instructor feedback are designed to aid the athlete’s with their specific areas of need, exposing them to basic drill work, basic movements and skill concepts used as the foundation for our High Performance athletes.

FUTURES TRAINING PROCESS

1. CARs & Dynamic Warm-up

Futures athletes begin their training day by completing their Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs). These develop general range-of-motion and act as a daily check-in giving our athletes the understanding of how their body feels each training day.

Next, athletes will perform a dynamic warm-up as a group to get their body prepped for the demand of their training day ahead. This will include movements that promote general mobility, body control, core stabalization, balance, power & speed.

This section of the training day takes athletes ~20 minutes for athletes to complete.

2. Skill Development - Pitching/Hitting

The next step in our training process is the development of the athlete’s skills. Here, our professional pitching & hitting coaches guide the athletes through their training day to tackle the areas outlined on their assessment, by taking them through a variety of drills, accompanied with visual, audio and other forms of feedback throughout. After their drill work, athletes will refine specific development of each skill such as technique, velocity, pitch-design, command and situational IQ for pitching and technique, bat-to-ball, pitch-recognition, swing-decision skills and situational IQ for hitting. Training days are prescribed based on the workload of the athlete, time of year and goals so not to over or under-train.

All Futures athletes are treated as dual players (pitchers & hitters) so will complete their prescribed training program for that day in both areas, unless requested otherwise. Skill work typically takes our Futures athletes ~1 hour to complete.

3. Strength & Conditioning + Arm Care

To wrap up their training day our Futures athletes will complete a prescribed lift and arm care exercises guided by our S&C staff based on their training load and findings of their assessment.

Lifting is periodized, age/level appropriate and made to develop body control, core stability, strength, speed & power.

Arm care exercises are utilized to develop the weakest areas outlined by the assessment and are pivotal to maintain the health of the throwing arm year-round to keep up with training/playing demands. These are generally split into shoulder, upper/lower arm focuses.

Lifting and Arm Care typiclly take ~40 minutes for athletes to complete.