Can Playing Video Games Make You Better at Baseball?

Can playing video games make you better at baseball?

Simply put, the answer is no.  While kids will tell us that playing 4 hours of MLB The Show per day will help them “learn the game” or that playing Fortnite and Call of Duty every day will “improve their hand eye coordination”, nothing compares to time spent actually practicing or playing the game of baseball.

Task Specificity

There certainly are some benefits to learning the game via video games, or improving visual acuity and object tracking in games like Call of Duty and Fortnite, but are those benefits real or large enough to improve your play on a baseball field?  No.  Instead, these benefits are usually just excuse making to make it seem like we are doing something important, rather than doing the thing that will make a difference on the field.

The closer you get to the task that you are trying to practice, the better you will get at that task.  You want to get better at fielding a ground ball?  Field a ground ball at game speed with a runner running.  You want to get better at hitting curveballs?  Hit curveballs.  You want to get better at pitching?  Throw pitches, preferably with a batter in the box.  Certainly, we can’t mimic game conditions at all times, but the closer we can get to the “real” skill, the more that practice will transfer.  Playing basketball might help you get quicker and more agile, but beyond that, it’s not making you a better baseball player.  We’re not saying that to pick on basketball, but rather just how disparate of sitting around and pushing buttons is.  If basketball is not close to playing baseball, how can Call of Duty be?

It’s Real

Ridiculous comparison right?  Well, we’ve had kids in our camps tell us that they play video games 4-8 hours A DAY, and we have to beg them to spend 20 minutes a day to get better at baseball outside of camp and then they argue that playing MLB The Show makes them better at baseball.

Are we against playing video games and having some fun at home in your downtime? No, absolutely not, but let’s not pretend that you’re getting better at baseball, or anything for that matter, other than being better at that game that you are playing 10, 20, maybe 40 hours a week.

The Solution - We need to inspire them

OK…Enough complaining about it.  Here’s how we take action. We take time out from a good number of our classes and camps to remind kids that being elite at a skill, like pitching, hitting, or fielding takes thousands of reps, and needs to be worked on every day.  It’s no different than math, or playing the piano, or gymnastics.  Baseball is not something you can excel at doing it once a week.  Do you have to play all year? No.  But don’t expect to show up after an offseason of not swinging a bat and expect to make the A team in your travel program.  The greats do it every day, and they don’t make excuses, they find a way.  We offer a variety of programs, indoor, that allow kids to get reps however they want.  Hitting leagues, classes, private lessons, and cage memberships.  There are ways to get the work in, even in winter.

We challenge kids to spend 20 minutes a day, 5-6 days a week, on baseball and see what comes of it over the offseason.  They’d be amazed what they can accomplish if they just put the controller down for that much time.  Some will, some won’t.  We’re excited to see what happens with the ones that do.

Rant over.

How to Set Your Travel Baseball Program Apart

Take a look at a sample of five travel baseball programs’ mission statements or marketing materials or websites and you will likely find that each of them purports to “not only develop baseball players, but also MEN”. As a current facility owner, player developer, and a former Marketing VP, who was once constantly looking to position goods or services via a compelling point of difference, I find this lazy. If every single travel program is developing not just the player, but the man, how are any of them any different?

How about some specifics? How are you developing the man? Is telling them not to throw their helmet "developing the man"?

Here’s an idea – tell us what’s different about your program. After all, a parent is choosing your baseball program for how you develop baseball players, not for finishing school and manners. How do you practice, where do you practice, what do you teach, what have they have achieved? We know you’re all going to teach some life lessons in practice and in games, lessons about adversity, about hard work, about winning and losing. But you’re ALL going to do that, because that's the the game of baseball does. If you’re better at building the man, tell me why, or even more importantly, tell me why you’re better at developing baseball players, because after all, it’s our job as parents to build the man.