1st Tryout

My experience has been they "tell" the ones selected during the session and offically send something out later with a roster. They do this to confirm you are going to accept the offer if extended. This has been our experience, but it it as a teenager - might be different for younger players. Good Luck....

Ask the try-out coordinator before the try out how, when and if you will be contacted post try out if your boy makes the team.

Some coaches will not call at all if your boy does not make the team. So get clarification.

My son did not make the first travel team he tried out for so I would suggest to prepare your son for the experience of the try-out and if he makes the team too then great.

Make sure he is grounded in the belief that there are tons of teams and he will find the right one so just try his hardest and enjoy being out on the field.

When travel teams are formed having talent isn't neccessarily the criteria for selecting the roster. How many dads are coaching? Everyone one of them will have a kid on the team eliminating a roster opportunity regardless of ability to play the game. How many friends are trying out for the team? They have to be terrible to not make the team.

At age nine I'm a believer in playing rec ball (LL, CR, etc) in the spring and some form of travel to extend the season into the summer. I'm also leery of the coach's motives at this level. Some are genuinely into the best interest of the team. A majority are into the best interest of their own kids and proving they know the game by winning rather than by teaching. This costs developing players playing time. It's not fun to sit and watch others win.

Whatever you do the most important thing is your son is put in a position where he can learn basic fundamentals and build a passion for playing the game. Some coaches don't know the game and select the biggest, strongest physical early bloomers and play bash ball to cover their coaching inadequacies

Charlie,

I would be less worried about your son and more worried about the quality of the coaches. Make sure they know their stuff. If they break out a stopwatch AT ALL, this is not the place for your son.

I agree with RJM here. Now is the time to be playing the game with friends and having fun. If the travel club is put together by local friends and just an extension of what they have been doing that is one thing.

When we finally moved to a travel team it was summer and fall leaving the little league season to play little league locally.

When my son turned 13 and little league was done then it was travel ball year round.

8 or 9 just seems too young to me, unless there is no opportunity to play local "park ball".

But this is only my personal opinion.

Regardless...Best of luck to your son and I hope he performs to the best of his ability. You are in for some of the best years of your life!

The coaches don't have any kids and are all former college or minor league ball players. My son has been taking lessons with the manager for a few months and I have watched a few of their practices/games and they seem to drill the fundamentals pretty hard. He has some nice looking ball players.

I have still reserved judgment about his organization but so far what I have seen has been a positive. It really seems to me that he loves baseball and he really enjoys working with the kids.

Charlie: The main things that eight-year-old boys and their dads should be doing on the baseball field are having fun and learning the fundamentals. At this age, baseball shouldn't be about the "tears and heartbreak" of getting cut. There's plenty of time for that as they really begin to move up the ladder in their teen/high school/college years. Find a great league for your son to play in and tell him to go have F-U-N. Those were some of the greatest times of my kids' lives (and mine), and it had nothing to do with pressure-packed tryouts and the demands of travel ball for third-graders. The last thing you want to do is have a bad experience that will turn your son off to the game before he truly begins to appreciate the game for the sheer joy of playing it with his pals. Best of luck to you and your boy.

Charlie,

Best of luck to your son at tryouts. I agree with the posters here. Also, I would ask the head coach what is the goal of the team, format for the tryouts, and how they will notify you. I head coached 9U to 14U. Pre-high school travel teams vary in their goals and approach. Our goal was skills development, and to get everyone of our kids to make their high school team (mission accomplished!). You may also want to find out about their proposed Spring and possible Fall schedule. We also had winter practices.

We had a core group of kids when we started our team at 9. We kept that core group unti they were 14U which was the main reason for our success and longevity. Our first tryout was to add to that core group of kids. We were interested in talent and positive attitude for the kids and parents. As head coach, I "interviewed" the parents while my coaches were busy evaluating the talent at various skill stations. The player parents are very important especially at this age. At the end of the tryout, the coaches and I got together and discussed each player/parent in depth.

We called every parent and kid that tryed out. We told them what we liked about them, and how they did. Via email we offered a roster spot to those kids we wanted immediately.

If you tell your son to relax, and have fun his enthusiasm will show. Best of luck!

I agree with a lot of your posts and never thought it should be about tears and heartbreak at 8. He just concluded his first season of little league baseball this past fall and had a great time. At the field we practice on when its just the 2 of us this travel team also practices at. He really bonded with the kids after their practices and wanted to tryout for their team.

He enjoyed his little league team but he wanted to play baseball and to start every practice in little league it would take his coach 30 mins just to get the kids on the field to stop messing around. He would just stand there at his position and wait patiently. When he watched this other team they would just play ball and after practice they normally played tag etc and invite him to play with them.

He chose this and I'm not sure if it is good or bad. I guess we will find out though!

Charlie

I bet he will be just fine! Enjoy!

Redbird said something that you need to really think about. If they break out a stop watch AT ALL, this is not the place for your son.

At this age it is all about the coaching. Its all about the guys that will be teaching your son the game at the most critical time of his development. They need to be guys that can teach the proper way to hit, catch, throw, field, and at the same time teach them how to play the game.

And at the same time throwing that fertilizer on that young flower so it can grow. Keeping it positive and fun in the concept of teaching them how to win by learning the proper fundementals of the game.

Don't watch the other players or your son so much at the tryout. Watch the coaches and how they interact with these players. Don't watch how they interact so much with the players that stand out. Watch how they interact with the ones that dont stand out so much. Body language and tone of voice and positive vs negative reinforcement.

The most important thing is not how good the team is at this age. The most important thing is how good the coaches are. Good luck to your son. He will handle it just fine if he is not picked as long as you handle it fine.

Coach May, thanks for that advice. It sounds like really great advice. I will follow it and post my observations.

Man, 8 years old is a GREAT time !!! Enjoy it.

I just posted today about my sons upcoming freshman season and got some great advice from some that have been through this.

Now I see your post and it makes me feel like they must feel. Oh, I remember those days!!

My son started at the standard rec ball league, moved on to Little League and then the more competitive Pony League by age 10.

As he got better, "Travel Ball" called. Everbody and his brother plays "travel ball" now and everybody and his brother has a "travel ball" team now...

I have coached and umpired "travel ball" for years now and I'll tell you from my experience (my 2 cents), 90% or more "travel ball" teams at the ages of 7-12 or 13 are formed by dads so their sons can play a particular position and bat #1, 2, 3, or 4...

Remember that when you start this journey.

You've got some great advice above. Relax and enjoy your son PLAYING baseball. This is the time to solidify HIS LOVE for the game by YOU helping make BASEBALL the most FUN thing he can do!!!!

If I did it again, he would have stayed in rec ball until middle school.

But, I know where you are right now, and I remember how I was back then, and at the time, we LOVED travel ball!!!! Have fun!!

I hope you don't take this as a downer, because I really don't want you to. I hope all works out well, and your son has a great time. I really wouldn't put much stock in 8-9 year old year round travel ball. If he really wants to do it, that's great. You will have a great time. I'm just saying that someone who playes a bunch of other things at that age, including baseball, and starts to play travel ball a little later, say late 10 to 12, will develop just as well if he puts his mind to it. Those other sports might even help him.

Our son got a late start into sports. His brother had serious health issues, which dominated our time and mind. When he did start playing, he played "Mighty Mites" football, s****r, and baseball. We enjoyed them all. He started playing travel ball at 10 (almost 11), but we kept it local. His longest travel time was 1 1/2 hours. Our biggest memory would be Cooperstown at 12, and from there I guess you could say we started to venture out. Our son is now a HS sophomore. He still loves it, but I don't think he would have liked being so serious at 8. I wish you the best. We are very familiar with USSSA tournaments in Orlando area, and most are very good. You're in a great location for baseball.

I'm just saying there is plenty of time. If he makes the team, check the schedule out. If a lot of travel time is involved, I would seriously look at that. At that age, I would think you don't need many tournamnents, and shouldn't have to travel out of your home town.

And my son is trying out for a showcase travel team in January, and I am just as excited, anxious and/or apprehensive as I was when he was 10!

There is NOTHING like weekends at the baseball field!

Coach May is the man, excellent stuff!

One more piece of advice. Don't pay thousands for baseball in the preteen years.

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie0103:
...He chose this and I'm not sure if it is good or bad. I guess we will find out though!

Charlie, I am on the other side of the fence than most - I actually advocate your son playing competitively at that age. My son did. He was the hardest thrower so he was always at 1B so he didn't hurt anyone. I thought this was ridiculous, so I surrounded him with kids who wanted to play a lot of baseball. We were very light in the fall and dormant in the winter, encouraging kids to play multiple sports. Just make sure he gets good coaches.

Fast forward a few years, all but one of my players from that 9U team is contributing on his HS team (as sophs last year). He was the big kid who didn't work.

My youngest started playing AAU at 9. And the reason was he was very frustrated playing rec baseball. He took the game very seriously. He got frustrated that many of the other kids didnt. He wanted to play catch with team mates that could catch. He got frustrated with the fact he was told not to throw the ball so hard to first base. He wanted to play with kids that he fit in with. A one hour practice once a week where the entire practice was a coach throwing bp while the rest of the team stood in the field was just not going to get it for him.

So what I did was get him around some good coaches that I knew would be more concerned with teaching the game than putting together a bunch of really good players for their age. Now sometimes you can find both. What I know as a high school coach is this. When a young kid learns how to do something really well the wrong way it is very very hard to fix that. And the longer they do it the wrong way and still have some success because they are simply more talented than the competition the harder it is to fix. And sometimes it can simply not be fixed.

So the absolute most important thing is to get them around good baseball coaches. Guys that know the game, know how to coach it, instruct it, motivate players and keep it fun at the same time. Sometimes that might mean the team is full of very talented players. Sometimes that might mean that at that time its not the most talented team. But those guys will be the most talented when its all said and done most of the time.

Hitting and throwing. These are the two most critical things that must be taught the right way when a young player is coming up in the game. I can take a 15 year old freshman who has never fielded a ground ball and if he has any talent at all he can become a good fielder. That is a fact. But hitting and throwing mechanics that are taught very well and very wrong become engrained in a young player. They become very good at doing it the wrong way. And a freshman coming into a hs program who has an Fup swing process that is engrained in him is in a tough situation. And a freshman coming in to a hs program with bad throwing mechanics who he has learned very well will struggle big time and may never recover.

Its better to have a kid come in that has had no instruction than to have a kid come in that has had a lot of bad instruction. So my point is make sure they are getting coached and instructed by people that know what they are doing. They dont have to be X mlb players. But make sure that they have some baseball credentials and have a track record of developing some players.

Some of the best coaches out there are guys who have been around the game for a long time and have watched and learned from other baseball guys. They have a very good understanding of the basic fundementals of hitting and throwing. And starting your kid out on the right foot will go a long ways in his development as a player.

There are many ways to get the scoop on the local guys doing the coaching. Ask around the hs programs. Ask the parents of college players or former college players. Talk to the local hs coach. Dont be afraid to ask around and get the scoop on who is out there. If you were going to send your son to a math tutor you certainly would want to know what their background was.

What I have seen many many times is this. A couple of guys get together and go out and put together the best group of 9 10 year olds they can find. They go out and play games all the time. There is very little actual instruction. The vast majority of the time is spent traveling around playing Fri Sat and Sun. They win a lot because they simply went out and got the most talented players for their age. As the time goes by these same players are no longer capable of dominating. So they go out and upgrade by picking up some more talented players. They continue to do this as the years go by but their kids are never replace for an upgrade. The players that have been in situations where the premium was put on actual instruction and development develop and surpass the players in the "lets just go out and dominate" situation.

If you teach these kids good solid fundementals of the game and help them grow as players your giving them something they will take with them when you let them move on. If your just putting a group of talented players together for the sake of winning medals and trophies that is all they will take away with them when you let them go. And that wont get them a darn thing when they get to hs.

Great post Coach May

You know Coach May, you get a lot of applause for your insights and experiences.. But this last post is one that I am going to give up two thumbs up over.

I wish every parent of a under 12 could read it and accept it as the truth.

You're receiving very good advice thus far Charlie. It's a blast watching your son play sports at this age, isn't it? It's been a few years since we were involved with our son in USSSA, Triple Crown, etc...We started travelball at 10u and we enjoyed every minute of it! He still played played rec ball until the 12u age and then went strictly to travel only. Honestly, if we had a do over, I would have had him continue with rec through his 12 year old season too, and waited until 13u to go travel only...he is now a senior in HS. Also, encourage your son to play another sport at this age. My son played basketball as well, and he stuck with it until he decided during his sophomore year that HE WANTED to work on baseball only. And if your son wants to play baseball only, great, but make sure he's having fun!

To echo what other posters have already said:

*Again, make sure he is having a blast.
*If he doesn't make the USSSA travel team it's not the end of the world, he's only 8 years old.
*Play travelball, but also encourage him to play rec ball with his neighborhood friends in the spring.
*Give him the option to play other sports too, this will keep him from possible burnout later down the line.

*Whatever travel team he ends up playing on, make sure you have coaches that care about the kids. Coaches that can teach the game of baseball. Coaches that will communicate properly with the boys, and Gulp, the parents. Coaches that want to win, but understand that improvement for your son and the rest of the team is the biggest priority...following of course, Fun! And Yes, the majority of travelball teams (pre-teen) are started by dads. But I can tell you first hand that not all Travelball Coaching Dads put their kids at SS, Pitcher, and have them bat 3rd/4th in the lineup. Yes, my son pitched, played SS, and batted 3rd/4th in the lineup. But he also played plenty of outfield, in fact, every position but catcher...and when he wasn't hitting very well, he batted towards the bottom of the order just like any other player that was struggling. We (coaches) did our best to treat our own kids the same as the other players on the team. When it was all said and done, both of our kids have signed NLI's at pretty good schools, and 8 of the original 12 players on our 10u team will be playing ball at the next level in 2012. There are several coaches out there that don't play Daddy Ball, you just need to find them. Good luck, remember he's eight...and most of all, Have Fun!

Charlie,
If your son has been taking lessons from the manager from a while I wouldn't worry too much about it as long as he's enjoyed the lessons. The manager knows what your son can do and the tryout is really just a formality to be gone through. It isn't a guarantee that he'll make the team but it sounds like his chances are pretty good. Give him a chance to play, see how he likes it and how you like it and go from there. The one thing I'd encourage is as long as they treat your son well and give him fair (not necessarily as much as you might like, but fair) playing time then make a commitment to the team to either be there for games and practices or give them plenty of notice when your son needs to miss for some valid reason. There are a lot more valid reasons when they are 9yo than later on as they progress in the game.

My advice would be to not take the ball at this young age too seriously. I know that's hard to do for most parents at that age. In fact, as your son moves up the ladder in baseball you'll notice fewer and fewer parents bit***** on the sidelines at the coaches and umpires.

Bum, Jr. first pitched at age 8 or 9 and gave up a game-ending bomb that ended his team's playoff run. I think it was his second pitch! That coach would not let him pitch the next year. Too funny, in retrospect, because that's his position in college.

Point is, be there for your kid, encourage his love for the game, practice hard and all that, but don't expect success at a young age. In fact, it was failure at a young age that most helped my son.

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"In fact, it was failure at a young age that most helped my son."

You know Bum, they all get really frustrated during their young and tender years when time after time after time they fail to pierce that stubborn membrane with that wimpy, limp straw.

Regardless of the game's outcome failure always followed. Sitting there in the coach's cooler like a squadron of colorfully unsolved Rubik's Cubes© were those dratted juice boxes. Convenient? Yes. Thirst slaking? Yes. Aseptic? Yes. Easily tapped? Forget about it!

Snaking the stray drawstring back into its cozy cavern in a hoodie is a snap compared to successfully puncturing the stubborn escape hatch of a juice box.

How many times have you overheard this pitiful refrain wafting painfully from the T-ball dug out... "My kingdom (such as it is) for a stiff, juice liberating, straw!"?

Obviously your son had some sort of success this particular day.



I heard through the grape juice line that you actully had packed a hand drill brace and just the right diameter bit in his bag that day. Way to bore in on the problem Bum. That's thinking.



Now someone else was obviously thinking about this troublesome 'after game routine' as well. Look at the New & Improved product that's out there nowadays. No wimpy straws, plenty of juice!






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Your photo supply never ceases to amaze me-it must be indexed better than the Library of Congress. I can't find matching socks as fast as you find the perfect photo....

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All right hokieone...get started.



You've got ten minutes. Go!




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quote:

My advice would be to not take the ball at this young age too seriously.

Seems like the fact that they have tryouts for a 9 and under says somebody is taking it seriously. a couple years ago a dad told me his kid made the t ball all star team he was 5.

USSSA has a T-Ball World Series!!

http://www.usssabaseball.org/2010_world_series.htm

all that is going on just reinforces the adage if adults do not organize it and regulate it then somehow kids wont get anything out of it. Seems more time is spent on organizing than playing. as one who grew up when kids were left up to their own devices to amuse them I have observed over the years a decline in kids doing what kids are supposed to do play. In my youth we played ball all the time. We were always throwing something around. yes we had an organized league but on our own we played in the streets in the school yard on the sandlot. The schoolyard across the street from my house was where we played stickball. down the street was the ballfield where we played "hardball"
I recently went back to the old neighborhood on a warm summer day. Nobody on the ballfield nobody playing stickball in the schoolyard. Nobody playing anything anywhere.

A T-Ball World Series. Now that's the definition of madness. But that's where our culture is today. There's always a group of parents who want to over-organize every youth activity and turn it into a giant "my kid is the best" competition.

Elementary-age school kids should be out there having fun and figuring out what they like and don't like before they start to get serious about things. Kids at that age shouldn't be pushed into pressurized situations where the results are far more meaningful to the parents than the youngsters themselves.

It's one thing to want to teach your kid the right way to play baseball, and it's quite another to keep moving the age-appropriate line downward for travel ball and all the structure that goes with it. This is going to do little but burn kids out on the sport at earlier ages.

quote:

A T-Ball World Series. Now that's the definition of madness.

something fuels that madness and it is not the kids

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
all that is going on just reinforces the adage if adults do not organize it and regulate it then somehow kids wont get anything out of it. Seems more time is spent on organizing than playing. as one who grew up when kids were left up to their own devices to amuse them I have observed over the years a decline in kids doing what kids are supposed to do play. In my youth we played ball all the time. We were always throwing something around. yes we had an organized league but on our own we played in the streets in the school yard on the sandlot. The schoolyard across the street from my house was where we played stickball. down the street was the ballfield where we played "hardball"
I recently went back to the old neighborhood on a warm summer day. Nobody on the ballfield nobody playing stickball in the schoolyard. Nobody playing anything anywhere.

* 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
* 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
* 58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
* 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

My thoughts exactly. It's a sad commentary of our society, but unfortunately kids today cannot roam the way we did back in the day. In addition, more children are in daycare due to dual income families. My children had no one in the neighborhood to play with because they didn't get home until after 5:00. Fortunately they are only a year apart, and we had a nice sized yard, so they got their playtime. Saturdays the neighborhood kids came to our yard for big games of football and wiffle ball. What fun they had. Good news, some of these organized activities are really fun. In our small town, the area youth groups have dodgeball tournaments. Kids put together their own 5 man teams, and they play tournaments that alternate in the gyms of the larger churches. My kids have a blast! My husband and I taught them stickball and halfball, and it is still part of our family tradition during the Holidays. I think kids still know how to "freeplay", they just have to do it a little differently due to the world we live in.

"T Ball" World Series is a bit much I would agree!!

quote:

A T-Ball World Series.

That's awesome. I'm sure a few nanny-staters will whine and moan about what someone else's kids should or should not do. I imagine there will not be one kid or parent that goes and says "I should not have gone". It will likely be a great childhood memory.

P.S. I hope they give a trophy to the winner

When my son played 7/8's rec ball I was the league commissioner. League play ended mid June. I organized a pickup program to run from mid June through mid August. The only organization was if a kid wanted to play, show up. We picked sides by lining the kids against the wall and counting out one, two. It was funny to watch kids try to put the fix in on that one. Adults did not coach the game. We helped kids on the sideline who needed instruction. The only calls adults made were close calls where the kids couldn't decide in a minute. We let them debate for a minute. Adults pitched.

At the end of the program I was swamped with emails from parents that their kids said it was more fun than the regular season. Guess who showed up for these games? The kids who loved baseball. There was no pressure to show up. It was all voluntary. Nobody missed their vacations. The only people unhappy with our program were the 7/8 machine pitch all-star coaches. Their players would talk about our games at their games and show up for our games when available.

quote:

Originally posted by catfish342:
A T-Ball World Series. Now that's the definition of madness. But that's where our culture is today. There's always a group of parents who want to over-organize every youth activity and turn it into a giant "my kid is the best" competition.

Elementary-age school kids should be out there having fun and figuring out what they like and don't like before they start to get serious about things. Kids at that age shouldn't be pushed into pressurized situations where the results are far more meaningful to the parents than the youngsters themselves.

It's one thing to want to teach your kid the right way to play baseball, and it's quite another to keep moving the age-appropriate line downward for travel ball and all the structure that goes with it. This is going to do little but burn kids out on the sport at earlier ages.

Bob Bigelow is a former NBA player. Aside from his business he's a youth sports advocate. If you ever want a good laugh go hear him talk for a couple of hours. He does a good job of bringing sanity and laughter to his observations on youth sports.

Bigelow on 5U travel tee ball all-stars

On kid's athletic ability

Charlie, our sons began playing club ball around age 11. For the most part it was a good experience, and it diffenetly help with their baseball development.

A recommendation is that you want to make sure this team is a good fit for your son and family. I have seen where costs are sky high and playing time is minimal. In addition, ensure that this team has quality coaches! Not just baseball wise, but that the coaches are good people and do things the right way. So ask around and see what is out there, most of the time there are numerous teams available looking for players.

Good luck and have fun!
Lefty...

quote:

:

* 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
* 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
* 58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
* 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

It looks like your un-cited source was probably "National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention"

They also said:
"Parental abductions and runaway cases make up the majority of missing children in the United States. In 2002 there were about 797,500 children reported missing, or nearly 2,185 per day. The vast majority of these cases were recovered quickly "

Since this number is significantly greater that the total of the other three, I'm guessing that the remaining 535,285 cases were the false alarms or runaways.

quote:

* 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.

You should be able manage this. If you've got screwed up family, looks like you'll have to be more careful with your kids. (A little more sandlot baseball in their lives might have made a difference).

From the same source:

"Research shows that of the 58,000 non-family abductions each year 63% involved a friend, long-term acquaintance, neighbor, caretaker, baby sitter or person of authority; only 37% involved a stranger."

So it looks like the 58,000 number can be managed with a little more diligence as well.

That leaves you with the 115/yr of “stereotypical” kidnapping. I think these numbers came from 2002. According to the 2002 Census Bureau, there were 72.1 million people under 18 yrs old in the US in 2002. Those odds are O(10E-6), which are acceptable for most safety standards, including aviation.

Those are pretty good odds given that they're way more likely to get seriously injured while actually playing sandlot baseball, or riding in the car with you to their Flute lessons.

I actually took those odds with my kids, who seemed to have made it safely into high school and college...I taught them what to watch out for and made them understand they were more vulnerable when they were alone.

Then I told them to get their little butts outside...