CBA Playbook: Diamond Allegiance, Summer Development, & Recovery

I hope this message finds you well. The purpose of this message is to catch up all of our CBA Members on what is currently in the works for our players and families. Since our inception in 2013, our organization as worked to provide for our players the best products and resources available. During this time, we have tried things that have worked a few that haven’t, but for as long as we are at the forefront of amateur baseball we will continue to pioneer new ideas with the benefit of our players and families in mind. Some sections are geared towards SoCal Players only, but the majority of what is being communicated below is relevant a to all players. It is in your best interest to read this email in its entirety.

Player Development for 2024-2028 Grads (Summer)

This portion of the email is primarily for SoCal High School Members. We have already started the “Pre-Season” Workout Schedule on Sundays where we are working on individual fundamentals. There has been some rain, but we are working around that.

Beginning in May, we will begin moving away from individual fundamentals and our on-field workouts will begin reflecting more team fundamentals. By this time, all players will be expected to elevate their catch-play, baserunning routine, & physical conditioning. High School Hitters will be expected to be on time to hit 85-89 mph fastballs hard. Pitchers will be expected to throw secondary pitches for strikes, and catchers will need to understand our receiving stance routines. Please make sure you get to the weekend workouts.

Once we begin playing in outside competition (Memorial Weekend), the plan will be to continue hosting our High School On-Field Workouts on weekends where we will continue to focus on the things we have worked on up until then.

During weekdays we will continue to host regional workouts where we focus on individual skill work: Pitching, Catching, & Hitting. During our pitching days, we will be prioritizing our focus on building individualized plans for each of our arms to promote better arm-health, effortless delivery, and increased velocity.

*ALL Pitchers: If you have not completed your part of the onboarding process for Mustard, please reference the Mustard email that was sent last week and do so ASAP.

Player Development for Youth Teams (Summer)

This portion is for all youth players (8th Grade and Lower). If you are not prioritizing strength & speed training, by the time you get to our high school program, you will be left behind. This is meant to motivate you to get started with this if you haven’t done so yet. I really hope you take this part seriously.

Diamond Allegiance:

For All Players in All Regions: Many of you have been made aware of our partnership with Diamond Allegiance. This has been in the works for about 2 years now. We are finally at the point where the 3 primary objectives of the partnership are being met, which include the following:

Player Development Technology (led by Clemson University Head Coach, Erik Bakich)
Reduced Costs
Club Baseball Scholarship Opportunities

There are some others that are currently in the works, but we have been working hard to make sure this gets rolled out correctly so nobody falls through the cracks with this. There will be more information on this to follow.

Summer High School Training Camps

Prior to key events, we are planning on hosting training camps dedicated to the players who are rostered for those events. Please prioritize these workouts as well. If you are a player outside of SoCal and cannot attend these events, please let me know once they are scheduled. There will be no additional cost to attend these as long as you’ve completed sign up for the event it precedes.

WIN Reality

For All Players in All Regions: We have also recently secured a partnership with WIN Reality. For those of you who own an Oculus (Meta Quest Virtual Headset), this is an opportunity to get some really good work with their training options for hitters. WIN has been used by various college programs, including Vanderbilt's baseball team. WIN will be hosting a Zoom call for our players/parents to discuss what this partnership entails and how hitters can get better utilizing their technology. Be on the lookout for a follow up email for this.

Strength Training w/ Keiser & Proteus

This section is primarily for SoCal Players: going forward, we will be hosting 1-Day Strength & Conditioning sessions at Legends in Fontana. Players will be utilizing specialized equipment, and will engage in an hour session that if done consistently, you should see/feel changes in your body within 6-8 weeks.

Recovery Options

With certain injuries being much more prevalent in baseball than ever before, we are making a bigger push in arm-health and lower limb injury prevention by providing more recovery options for our players. At Legends, we have really good tools that will help alleviate the aches and pains, and improve the recovery rate of our players. During the summer, players are invited to come in to the facility and use any of the following:

Normatec Compression Boots/Sleeves: Promotes Circulation in targeted areas of the body, increasing the healing rate. Use before and after training sessions or after post-competition
Infrared Sauna: Increases recovery rate significantly. This is also a good tool to use before/after a training session or after competition.
Full-body Cryotherapy is available to our players at a discounted price. It will be available for our pitchers during Wednesday Pitching Sessions between now and the end of May at no cost.

*There is no cost for our high school players (2024-2028 Grads) to use the Infrared Sauna or hop on the Normatec during the normal business hours at Legends Athletic Performance. From now on, 7th graders and lower will not be allowed in the Recovery Lounge area without a parent.

Program Handbooks

Over the past month or so we have been building out our program handbooks for you to reference. With all of the resources that we will be providing beginning this summer, these handbooks have been tailored so they are relevant to your area: http://www.cbabaseball.org/handbooks

*If your area is not yet posted on the “Handbooks” page, they will be over the next few weeks.

I am aware that we are throwing a ton at you, but our staff will be working hard to help our players understand everything that is expected of them, and I will continue to send you communication on how we plan on implementing things.