bballdad2016 posted:CaCO3Girl posted:I have a 14u son in travel ball who has always played well and I have a 7u daughter in rec ball that does not, lol! There is a boy on my daughters team that reminds me a lot of my son. He can throw from third to first without a rainbow throw and hit two out of the park home runs last weekend. The kid has above average hand eye coordination and he's athletic is what it boils down to.
I pulled the dad aside just this past weekend and said "I'm going to give you some unsolicited advice, don't leave the rec park for travel ball until at least 9u." He of course asked for my reasoning, I said there is no point to travel ball until the kids are pitching, don't waste your money and don't buy into the hype.
I hope he listens.
I would say, don't worry about travel ball until you move to the 60/90 field (13U). Ok, maybe 12U so you can go to Cooperstown, but no sooner than that. The fact is, anything earlier than that, the time and $ is better spent on lessons and instruction. Use rec ball to refine what has been taught during those lessons. And lets face it, most travel ball teams are no better than a rec league all star team.
As far as the 7u kid, let him and his dad have fun and enjoy the time with his friends and teammates. How do you determine that his hand/eye coordination is "above average"? What is 7u average?
The local rec parks generally don't have kids over 9u that can catch a pop-fly, they mostly go the way of Travel Ball. There is travel ball here from 5u and up, nope, not joking.
There are MANY travel ball teams in GA that are much better than rec all stars, and MANY excited parents who drink the kool-aid far too soon about where their child SHOULD be (skills wise) and who they SHOULD be playing for IF they want their kid to make it to the MLB one day, nope, not joking about that either. Someone just sent me a link to a kid from a north east state that advertises he will play with your team in a national tournament, and teams really do fly him in, including a high level GA team. He goes to school during the week and on the weekend he flies out to play, not unusual right for 17u, except he isn't, he's a 2020 and 13u eligible. Nope, not joking about THAT either.
I have always been of the opinion that spending money on private lessons below 14u (unless the kid is hurting himself) is more ludicrous than 6u Travel Ball, so I would never recommend that route. As for how can I determine his hand eye coordination is above average....well I'm there and watching him and it's pretty clear he's got better hand/eye coordination than the rest of the team in the way he catches the ball, throws the ball, and hits the ball.