Summer Teams associated with Training Facility

My hs soph kid is doing a combination of 1 & 2, primarily because mom and dad refuse to drive over an hour in traffic. He will go to 1 on the weekend, then go to 2 on the weekdays as it is close to home so he can maximize his study/homework time while he does hs winter sports.

2022NYC posted:

My hs soph kid is doing a combination of 1 & 2, primarily because mom and dad refuse to drive over an hour in traffic. He will go to 1 on the weekend, then go to 2 on the weekdays as it is close to home so he can maximize his study/homework time while he does hs winter sports.

Does he play with a team that's associated to either location ? If yes, does one location give him attitude about not playing for them?

My son did #3 for a few years.  Definitely caught grief from the instructor.  At one point I had to tell the guy that the simple reason was that his team wasn't good enough and wasn't playing the competition that son needed to play.  I told him nicely that son could hit somewhere else if this was a problem and it was never brought up again.  Players/parents need to do what is best for the kid's development and can't worry about bruised feelings.

We were #1 for close to 3 years. Now we're #3 and it's really disappointing how baby-ish they are being about it. 

Went from #1 to #3 and I had to sit in the facility near son to keep snarky comments (by owner, not trainers) at bay. It was really disappointing and ultimately led us to find other accommodations.

What you desire may vary by age. Before 17u you want your kid to develop and be exposed to 17u programs who will recruit him. The coaches of quality 17u programs will see a kid play and recommend him to the program. Or a top high school reputation may create travel team recruiting. 

Personally, through fifteen years old it was about learning and development. I wanted the best instruction at the best price in a competitive game environment. I created it myself with three other coaches I knew who also played college ball (two pro). Their kids were talented enough (went on to play college ball)  to be on the team without accusations of daddy ball. Players were on their own for training outside the team. 

At 17u it becomes about promoting the player to college programs. I was looking for the best college contacts in a competitive game environment. 

The better 17u programs don’t usually care where the player trains. They want the kid to show up for games, help them win and end up on the alumni list on the wall at the facility. Then when 10u players and dads take the tour they can be sold the dream that can be reached by spending tens of thousands of dollars starting as soon as possible.

When my son was being recruiting by one 17u program I noticed four names on the wall that seemed odd based on where I knew they were from. Three were first rounders now in the majors. I had played with two of the player’s dads. I called them. The facility had them play free in two major PG tournaments while throwing paying customers under the bus (end of the bench). 

“We came in X place at PG East Cobb and Fort Myers against the big boys” is a major selling point. Especially to the younger, gullible, inexperienced dads and kids. 

Never forget first of all it’s a business. 

Always #2. My kids have been with the same pitching coach for years, as well as strength coaches. This seems to be the norm by me. I think the better programs pretty much expect this. Show up prepared and ready to play.

nycdad posted:

Always #2. My kids have been with the same pitching coach for years, as well as strength coaches. This seems to be the norm by me. I think the better programs pretty much expect this. Show up prepared and ready to play.

Does he ever catch flack at the place where he trains and doesn't play?

Francis7 posted:

nycdad posted:

Always #2. My kids have been with the same pitching coach for years, as well as strength coaches. This seems to be the norm by me. I think the better programs pretty much expect this. Show up prepared and ready to play.

Does he ever catch flack at the place where he trains and doesn't play?

Francis ... If this is a concern don’t worry about. Give your son some polite responses if they try to pressure him. In the end they will be happy to take your money for training. If he plays college ball they will still claim him as theirs. 

Francis7 posted:

2022NYC posted:

My hs soph kid is doing a combination of 1 & 2, primarily because mom and dad refuse to drive over an hour in traffic. He will go to 1 on the weekend, then go to 2 on the weekdays as it is close to home so he can maximize his study/homework time while he does hs winter sports.

Does he play with a team that's associated to either location ? If yes, does one location give him attitude about not playing for them?

He is now playing for #1 so the weekend travel is manageable. Facility #2ab (there are two) does not have a team and is rented out as single tunnels or whole team or by a trainer, so no one from the facility bothers my kid.

We did #2 with no trouble. Iowa is a small place and everyone knows each other. We had expert baseball guys close to home who did the training and recommended a team about an hour away to play with. Team staff had great respect for the coaches who did the training so that was fine. As I recall, though, we paid the package price that included training at the facility, but didn't use it. Local coaches refused payment so it all worked out. So grateful for where we live and the kindness of a small community that wanted the best for the kids.

Francis7 posted:

nycdad posted:

Always #2. My kids have been with the same pitching coach for years, as well as strength coaches. This seems to be the norm by me. I think the better programs pretty much expect this. Show up prepared and ready to play.

Does he ever catch flack at the place where he trains and doesn't play?

No, in fact their pitching coach is the coach at a rival HS. Makes for good times...;-))

Frances7 what do you mean by acting babyish?

greatgame posted:

Frances7 what do you mean by acting babyish?

A lot of passive aggressive comments in his direction while trying to train. And ostracizing him from conversations where he was previously included.  Stuff like that.

RJM posted:

Francis7 posted:

nycdad posted:

Always #2. My kids have been with the same pitching coach for years, as well as strength coaches. This seems to be the norm by me. I think the better programs pretty much expect this. Show up prepared and ready to play.

Does he ever catch flack at the place where he trains and doesn't play?

Francis ... If this is a concern don’t worry about. Give your son some polite responses if they try to pressure him. In the end they will be happy to take your money for training. If he plays college ball they will still claim him as theirs. 

No doubt on that.

Francis ... Do you believe you might have a tendency to over analyze situations? That it may cause you to see problems that aren’t really there? Or aren’t nearly as bad as you anticipate? 

RJM posted:

Francis ... Do you believe you might have a tendency to over analyze situations? That it may cause you to see problems that aren’t really there? Or aren’t nearly as bad as you anticipate? 

I'm not analyzing anything. This is feedback from the kid. He tells me what's happening. I'm just curious if this is common place or just something happening here. At the end of the day, the kid will have to handle it.  I'm pretty confident he will figure it out or they will stop on their own, in time. It's in everyone's best interests for it not to go much longer.

Youngest son used to play for my older son's organization (for 3/4 years).  Hit with older boys former head coach.  Everyone realized that the teams that he was on (same age) were not able to play the competition level that he needed.  Moved to another organization, but kept hitting with the old coach.  Still plays with other organization most of the time and still hits with coach (going on 5/6 years) AND gets asked to guest play for old organizations older teams.  Best of both worlds.  All seems to be happy.  Hopefully after recruiting he an go back can play for one season with the old coach as they really have a great relationship and bond, plus he's a really good coach.  

Related to this, I just heard a story about a kid who falls into one of these situations.

Kid has been training at a local place for a few years and recently decided to play somewhere else while continuing to train at the local place. And the kid is a very good player.

One of the local facility guys actually asked the kid "Everyone here has worked so much with you and given you so much. Why would you stab them in the back now and go play somewhere else and allow some other place to take the credit for everything that they've done?"

I laughed when I heard it and told the guy: I promise you, when that kid has his picture taken signing his NLI, that place where he trains will be hitting all their social media accounts with the picture saying "This is our boy!"

Everybody takes credit for everyone regardless if they are actually with them or not. It's a joke.

Thinking about it some more...if a kid is paying thousands of dollars a year to train somewhere, and it's the kid making the sacrifices and putting in the time to train and sweat, and it's the kid who has some natural athletic aptitude and passion for the sport, isn't it sort of wrong for a facility or coach to take any credit for the achievement of the player?

I respectfully disagree.   My son fits the description that you just laid out.  For years played for and trained at a local facility.   Later in HS switched to a higher profile travel team to get more exposure.  Their facility is 45 minutes away.    When he committed we wanted everyone to share in that success as each place helped him on the journey.   Both programs tweeted it, both congratulated him, the high school also tweeted, past pitching coaches etc.  Everyone had a part in making the player (also I am not it takes a village kind of guy.....not that there is anything wrong with that).  Why care about credit.

I totally understand that it's fine for all associated to share in the achievement. But, in the situation that was shared with me, it sounds like one organization is giving the player a hard time for doing exactly what your son did for himself.

Anyone else have any experience with this type of situation ?

If the facility or program is giving you a hard time about not doing one or the other just stop going or set them straight. I'm not going to give advice on how to confront someone that is giving you a hard time, but I know if somebody were making unwanted comments to one of mine there would likely be a stern conversation or we'd just find somewhere else to train. I would not continue to pay somebody and have them walking around making comments to a teenager as if they owe them something. When you pay them, they work for you. If you don't like how things are going you can put an end to that arrangement. 

That being said, a joking or passive aggressive comment would likely be met with a snarky response or a playful diss back in that direction from any of mine and would be forgotten 2 seconds later. Unless they were personal attacks or just @$$hole comments, I have a hard time believing it would be an issue for anybody.  I'm assuming it's a harmless nuisance, take action if not. 

As mentioned above, if/when your son goes to play college/pro ball they will still post about it, tweet about it, put you on the wall, and claim you as their own. They like your son and more importantly your bank account, they just want him to do more and you to spend more. 

I never really cared about someone taking credit for another's success (takes up way too much unnecessary brain space). Happens all the time that I'm usually left thinking, "I thought he played for so and so". Locally kids jump ship all the time for one reason or another (some valid others not so much).

Honestly though, if they are TRULY giving your kid a REAL hard time, it might just be time to move on. Like some have mentioned, if he makes it big they will still take credit for it  This brings me back to my 1st point (unnecessary brain space/bad juju/not good for your mental health........)     

The key line is still "you are paying them, they work for you". If they give you too hard of a time to the point it makes his time there unproductive, move on. If your son makes it, his name will still be all over their promotional materials. It's all part of the game.