{"id":57728,"date":"2020-12-09T09:14:12","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=57728"},"modified":"2020-12-09T09:14:14","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T15:14:14","slug":"individual-development-focus-of-players-in-offseason-workouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=57728","title":{"rendered":"Individual development focus of players in offseason workouts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>BY JACE ARMSTRONG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the unprecedented fall of 2020 comes to an end, the baseball team wrapped up its fall individual practices and switched its focus to winter break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor the spring season, I am mostly looking forward to just getting my feet wet and getting some real, in-game experience of college baseball to ultimately become the best I can be,\u201d said freshman pitcher Jayce Meyer, a left-hander from Wichita.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meyer said this offseason has been different, even from his out-of-season workouts in high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe main way (COVID-19) has affected my fall semester is honestly just restricting how many fall games we got to play,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing he highly anticipated was competing this fall against junior college competition in exhibition contests. Meyer was disappointed when those games were removed due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the disruptions didn\u2019t happen for him only on the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs far as school goes, I have just never really experienced online learning, so that\u2019s the biggest way it affected me academically,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite classes being online, the players were able to gain ground by doing their fall workouts under the correct precautions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy first fall was pretty good. I would definitely say I have learned a few things since being here,\u201d said freshman pitcher Dustin Menard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe workouts we do are more baseball-related. Whereas on my own, I do more strength conditioning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Individual development focus of players in offseason workouts\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QAQ-LB8gxcI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Video by Jace Armstrong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Meyer said he likes the individual workouts because they can be tailored to each student-athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSomething I have been really focusing on this fall and winter is gaining weight and strength to ultimately improve my fastball velocity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As 2020 comes to a close, players are switching their focus to getting ready for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOver the break, I plan on meeting up with some buddies from high school and past summer teams to throw and hit against each other in the indoor facility we have access to, along with continuing our weights and long-toss programs,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Menard said the individual work aids player progression and helps with development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am going to use what I have learned so far and keep on applying and keep advancing to the next level if it is within God\u2019s will,\u201d Menard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since this year has not been ideal, players are forced to become creative in finding ways to properly stay in shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe biggest challenge will be finding a place to work out besides my basement and being able to work with what I got,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those continued workouts, despite being away from campus, are crucial for players to develop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI always try to come back from break in better shape than when I left so I know I am prepared for the upcoming season,\u201d pitcher Zach Berg said earlier this fall season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Fort Hays baseball team opens the spring season Feb. 14&nbsp;at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY JACE ARMSTRONG As the unprecedented fall of 2020 comes to an end, the baseball team wrapped up its fall individual practices and switched its&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4540,7349],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baseball-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/FHSUbaseball.jpg?fit=849%2C433&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57729,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57728\/revisions\/57729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}