Calendar
The following is a calendar schedule of our Extra Hacks hitting workouts. The names listed are the coaches that are planned to host. We try to keep a pretty regular schedule with coaches to provide players some consistency, but this is always subject to change.
Monthly Schedule Summary
Extra Hacks was established in the Fall of 2022 so at this point we have a pretty good idea of when our popular times are and how to structure each month. Here is a month by month summary of the trends we've had and how we've structured the past couple years.
January
For our high schoolers, we structure this to be a high rep, preparation month for upcoming tryouts and first practices. Per CIF rules, high schools are NOT allowed to host official practices during January (the official start date for 2024 is February 3). They are only permitted to host "4 on 1's" in which coaches are not technically allowed to instruct. This tends to be a busier month for us as most players take the holidays off and are looking to start back up in the New Year. In January, we only host weekdays as it coincides with CCB Winter League.
Youth players, we try to treat this more like offseason still. Little league won't start for a couple months and there is no reason to be playing games every month of the year (even though we can in California), so we still allow this time for bigger adjustments.
February
February is tricky for young high schoolers (freshman) to navigate. This is when you start high school practice, but you have no idea what to expect schedule wise. What we have done in the past is told those players to go to their high school practices for a couple of weeks and then figure out what they need hitting wise. We've even taken a couple weeks fully off in the past to let everyone get their high school routines down before continuing in mid-February. Based on this, February is normally lighter attendance wise. We would host late enough for players to attend high school practice and still come hit late at night. We can also add a weekend day in February for those that want it.
Little leagues are normally hosting their tryouts in February and some of you that are playing travel ball might start playing games toward the end of the month. We start doing more live at bat work and game situational hitting vs. mechanical work.
March - May
"No matter how well a high school structures their practices, you will not get all the individual work you want by just going practice." By March, the freshman high school players find this out and if they took time away from us, are back. March is when we start "Extra Hacks" by it's true denotation. It's not about overhauling your swing at that point. It's about making minor adjustments and refining your craft to make you as successful as possible in games.
March - May we also include Sunday hitting. Everyone's game schedule will be different, but most of you will either be set up with a Tuesday-Thursday or Wednesday-Friday league schedule. We try to make the schedule to accommodate everyone, but I would also highly recommend hitting after games. Game days you normally don't get a lot of swings because in high school you're not allowed to take real batting practice before games. You get to hit whiffle balls as a warm up and that's all. It's sometimes good to get in after a game just to feel yourself move a little bit and hit a hard ball, whether you hit 3 line drives or struck out a couple times that day.
March - May is truly baseball season for everyone, so the youth players and high school players are on the same in-season plan.
June - July
High school playoffs wrap up and summer ball starts in June. Also, everyone gets out of school so a lot of families go on vacation. Because of this, June is generally priced down a little bit with the expectation that some of you will be out for a week. It's very similar to the first couple weeks of February where players are trying to learn their summer routine as well.
July is normally the heavy lifting of summer ball, which means a lot of players will be traveling for events. However, all the events are the big ones so players are trying to hit as much as possible. In the months of June and July last year, we offered hitting at some location every day Monday - Thursday. There were some players who came to every single session. Obviously, we don't host on the weekends as all players are playing games on both Saturday and Sunday.
August
August should be post summer ball and is a great time to take a break. I am TOTALLY OK with players taking breaks, not just from games, but from practices as well. However, we do host sessions for players that don't want to take any time off. At this point in the year a lot of players have been playing since January so the physical and mental fatigue is high. Also, school now starts in early August for most players (which is crazy), so it may be a good time for a break.
September - October
September - October is when we start our off-season hitting. Most players are playing some sort of fall baseball. Fall baseball should be about individual development more so than team success. To that end, the results of your at-bats should not be of paramount importance. This is the time of year to make the bigger adjustments you have identified from earlier in the year. During September - October we normally host 3 weekdays/week and no weekends as it coincides with CCB Fall Ball. Players involved in other fall sports can also participate as we host late enough at night to accommodate. This is normally one of our busier times and most players are focusing on individual development.
November - December
We always combine November - December into a 6 week program. This is also considered "off-season" hitting. We take Thanksgiving week off to allow players to travel for the holidays and end the weekend before Christmas. During November - December we host 3 weekdays and every Saturday with Saturday being a lower instruction day. This is normally our busiest session as we get the fall sport athletes wrapping up their seasons and wanting to get back into baseball.
All sessions are monthly with the exception of the combined November - December one.