HS or travel baseball in Japan

Does anyone know about the baseball situation is in Japan/ Meaning do they have things like travel ball, summer ball, etc for the kids. Are there opportunities for kids to play baseball in addition to HS?

Summer leagues, travel leagues, Legion level? etc

 

Ripken/Nomo Camp in Hawaii

IF there are travel teams...my guess is there will be an Impact International Game soon!!


I do know that Cal Ripken and Hideo Nomo were doing an annual international camp in Hawaii each year to promote the game in Japan. My son attended when he was 11 and half the teams were American kids and the other half were Japanese kids. I am not sure if the camp is still held each year but I my bet is that Japan does have a travel/showcase circuit. Check the below link for more information.

http://www.japanbaseballdaily.com/yakyulinks.html

 

High school baseball in Japan...reflecting the society's tremendous love for the game...is HUGE! It culminates annually with a national playoff, whose championship series sells out a major league-sized field and is nationally televised.

However, their approach to young player development is quite different in several fundamental respects. The first is that many (if not, most) of the top young players leave home at the age of 12 to attend one of a number of baseball academies. These very rigorous boarding schools (most of which are on the country's southernmost island of Kyushu) fit classes around approximately 6-7 hours of baseball a day. Students there are given a week a year at home with their family once they begin these programs.

Another fundamental difference is that skills are taught "one way." That is to say that it is commonly felt that there is a "best" way to execute each skill, and that is the way that is taught. As a result, young Japanese players are known internationally for taking a tremendous number of identical reps; and, predictably, they tend to execute in very similar styles.

When my son was a rising high school senior, he had the opportunity to join Area Code Baseball's team that toured the island of Kyushu; playing 6 games in 10 days in various cities. In each location, they played an all-star team from that city's prefecture (Japanese equivalent of a state).

While our team had the most talented squad, the Japanese teams won 4 out of the 6 games: a testament to their training and practice together as a team (We'd had only one day's practice prior to the series.) If we'd won a close game in Nagasaki and tied the series, we'd have been the first of Area Code's 19 such teams to avoid a series loss.

By the way, as an indication of the immense poularity of baseball there, each of these games was attended by between 10 and 15 thousand people; and most were televised. Hard to imagine that happening here.

 

usa

wow; in your baseball crystal ball , do you ever see anything similar to this becoming common in the good ole US of A???

 

Based on the reaction of the American family members traveling with the Area Code team, I'd say not in a million years. All of them, of course, were pretty deeply committed to their sons playing baseball at high levels; but, all were in agreement that giving their sons up to baseball academies at age 12 for 51 weeks a year was beyond their threshhold.

Of course, our cultures and traditions are extremely different; so, our perspectives differ greatly, as well. Their context makes the choice much more palatable.

Regardless, all of us came away from the experience with a deep appreciation of the immense love that the Japanese people have for the game of baseball. There may be a need to popularize "Ripken Baseball" in Japan; but, there's absolutely no need to popularize the game, itself. We were constantly amazed at the level of interest in the sport, and it was evident in many ways.