Summer Time Blues

 

I’ve got some bad news for you. Blink your eyes and summer will be over. You think just because school got out that you’ve got days and days of summer leisure ahead of you? Think again. It passes all too quickly.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in school or you’re the parent of someone in school, it will be gone before you know it. The rest of us? We hardly notice anything.

I mean, football preseason starts in July. That’s NEXT MONTH! You think you’ve got a lot of time? Nope. Not much at all.

If you’re an athlete, this is not the time to take a break. For most of you, everything about your sport is ramped up. It’s just the school part that is missing.

And that’s OK. You’ve got to look at it as an opportunity.  An opportunity to get better. An opportunity to get stronger. An opportunity to learn new things.

Camps are available for every sport you can think of. Those allow you to practice basic skills from coaches whose sole job is to help you master the basics. Camps are never about winning championships.  And everyone participates.

As you get older, camps are an opportunity to get noticed by college coaches. Many of those camps are on college campuses, featuring college coaches. The coaching network is often vast, and if a coach thinks you might play for someone else, they will often give that other coach a heads up.

If you are interested in becoming a college athlete, attending a camp at a school you’re interested in is important. Make sure that your skillset matches the level of play at the school. Your own coach here can help you with that.

It’s definitely time to hit the weight room. No longer trying to fit it in among school and practice and all the other things you do when school is going on, you have tons more time to work on strength, flexibility, agility, speed—all the things.

Of course, many of the travel ball teams are on the road during the summer. Tournaments for baseball, softball, soccer, and volleyball are everywhere. Those have become a real tourism thing.

I joined my son and granddaughter last month on a road trip for soccer that took us to Buffalo and then Pittsburgh. I do have a problem with the fact that this kind of travel imposes a tremendous financial burden on parents. There are plenty of events close to home.

With that being said, some of my fondest memories when my own kids were growing up were some of those trips with travel ball. We would pile up in a couple of vans and travel to wherever we were playing, staying four to a room and eating cheap.

Flexibility, fitness, and all those things that go into making a well rounded athlete should be your summer focus.

But here’s my summer tip: attend a concert and read a book. I highly recommend local author Joe Swann’s The Early Life and Times of David Crockett in East Tennessee. It should be required reading.

With the obscenely high concert prices these days, you don’t have to the big venues to enjoy some really great music. “Songs by the Brook” at Springbrook Park in August and September provides a wonderful opportunity to enjoy free music.

Swim, hike, paddle, bike, do all the things that you don’t have time for when school is in. If binge watching your favorite series is your idea of a summer event, then you’re going to find out that when school rolls around again, you just aren’t ready.