2017LHPscrewball posted:bacdorslider posted:Are parents so lost in this process that they cannot compare their player to teammates , opponents, high school coaches , travel coaches and get a pretty good idea ?
... For a parent that educates themselves and works diligently at avoiding the rose colored glasses, the assessment of current and projected skill level is not too terribly difficult.
...These parents will not take kindly to a poor assessment (therein lies the need for the prepaid arrangement). These scouts may have a tremendous amount a knowledge and experience that they can apply, but I think that value lies in the higher levels (maybe a discussion about what it would take to get drafted high enough to forego college, as an example) and not at the lower levels (what is the development plan for my soft body, soft throwing 12u so as to make the freshman team as an 8th grader).
Many of the parents we meet felt the same way - they believed they had a good handle on the true projection of their child. We've found - so far - 90% of them to be incorrect. In fact, we've read many 'scouting' reports from 'trusted advisers' in their development camps and, as you may guess, there is quite a bit of misclassification.
Can a soft body 12u player be projected? To some degree, I suppose. But, why would we want to do that? Instead, at age 13 on the bigger field we would look at the tool set the player currently had and create a development plan for the child to help him grow his tools. His blueprint for success, if you will.