SZVETITZ COLUMN: Rest. Train. Play. It's Time

Mark Fuller couldn’t sleep.

His mind raced. His stomach ached. His feet paced.

“There’s got to be something we can do,” he thought that July night.

So he got out his Bible, and started reading.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3: “For everything there is a season ... and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up ...”

That’s it!

For everything there is a season. Especially in baseball, where it’s always “a season.”

It just so happened that the season which sent Fuller reeling was Dixie Youth All-Star season.

Fuller had just found out about a 10-year-old pitcher who fractured the growth plate in his elbow.

“He threw too many pitches,” Fuller said.

And now, he might never throw another one. At 10 years old!?!

Fuller had to do something. How can this be? And how can he stop it?

So he read more. He prayed more.

“And God gave me this,” Fuller said, pointing to a green promotional flyer for the DVD he and his partner Steve Kisor — a physical therapist and director of strength and conditioning and co-owner of The Sports Academy — produced, which is “specifically designed for youth baseball and softball players to prepare their bodies for the demands of a long season.”

It’s called “Rest. Train. Play.”

“I told Steve we got to do something,” Fuller said. “And he said, ‘OK, let’s do it.’”

And they did.

Fuller, a former Auburn University pitcher who played for the New York Mets and Colorado Rockies and spent seven years as a college pitching coach (N.C. State and Auburn), combined his knowledge of the game with Kisor’s knowledge of the human body.

The 70-minute DVD, which can be purchased for $30 at The Sports Academy or at www.resttrainplay.com, features Major Leaguers Tim Hudson and Gabe Gross, along with former players and current Auburn University coaches, who talk about the benefits of learning the proper way to train and rest your body to play the sport of baseball or softball.

“It makes me sick to see a kid come in here and go see Steve because he can’t pick up his arm,” Fuller said. “There’s got to be something to help these kids learn how to take care of their body. There’s got to be a program in place to protect these kids.”

And that’s what “Rest. Train. Play.” is all about.

It’s a tool to educate any “over the head athlete” — and their coaches and parents — about the dangers of too much.

“We had some kids in here last weekend who played five games in two days,” Kisor said. “And they don’t understand why they can’t throw well on Sunday after playing all day Saturday.

“I see so many in the clinic with growth plate and shoulder issues. And it stems from not being adequately trained and having no time to rest.”

The body needs rest. But, unfortunately, baseball season can’t wait. And it’s not just the spring and summer, over the past 10 years the influx of travel baseball has stretched the season over the course of 10, sometimes 11 months.

“It’s a million-dollar business,” Fuller said. “Travel baseball, youth baseball, AAU teams — there are more and more every year and the season get longer and longer. It’s the nature of our society — the more the better. And that’s not true.

“There’s got to be a time to rest. There’s got to be a time to let a kid be a kid.”

And since 2004, Fuller and Kisor have made this their mission mission.

That’s why they opened The Sports Academy — a training facility for youth to come in and learn how to develop as an athlete and, at the same time, take care of their bodies.

“It’s a passion of ours,” Fuller said. “No question about it.”

“ A line is being crossed where kids are overusing,” Kisor said. “We are seeing a 10-fold increase in the number of Tommy John surgeries (elbow reconstruction) in the under-18 population.”

Enter the DVD.

“This wasn’t in any way a thought of ‘How can we make money in 2008?’” Fuller said. “I truly worry about young kids hurting themselves by playing too much and not taking care of themselves physically.”

Fuller’s not here to bash the sport of baseball. It’s given him too much.

But it is just a game. And kids are only kids for so long. But the damage it may cause could last a lifetime.

And Fuller and Kisor want people to understand that.

They also want you to remember the second part of Ecclesiastes 3:1 ... “(There’s also) a time for every matter under heaven.”

A time to rest. A time to train. A time to play.

And a time to be a kid.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at mszvetitz@oanow.com or 737-2513.