What age should kids start playing travel ball?

I don’t think 8, 9, 10 should be playing TB exclusively. Pony and LL do a great job with this age group. The game should be fun at that age. FWIW my oldest son started playing TB at age 12 and that was in the summer/fall after the Pony season was complete. My youngest (10) played Pony last spring and the all star team that he played with entered into a fall TB league... which they dominated. Imagine that, a Pony all stars team going 10-0 in a TB league in So Cal...

My son played since he was 8. They always played up 1 age group all the way thru his Senior year/Summer before he took off for collge this past fall. As long as they dont get burned out I say let'em play. He probably averaged 65+ games a year if I had to guess and never got burned out.

I see absolutely no value in Travel Ball with children that are so young. I do not see what a player could possibly gain that could not be achieved enjoying that time playing ball with a Father.

I would NEVER want to outsource those years.

My son started on a travel team after his 11 yr old LL season and even then only because a great opportunity fell in his lap. He had been an avid baseball player for a few years--gone to local summer camps and practiced on his own for fun. At the first tournaments, I remember thinking "wow, he should have been doing this for the last couple of years rather than those other things he did to get better." Now, I'm glad he did what he did and think that age was about right (for him).

When I see 8 and 9 year old travel teams, even good ones, it strikes me how the inevitable seriousness of those games is out of balance with their ability to execute the skills. Obviously some kids love it, but I don't see any reason for that level of hoopla going into improving skills that can be learned lots of ways at that age, with more fun and less pressure.

I could see doing it at 10 yrs old to get used to it, but I think 11 or 12 is a good time to start.

I think it is difficult to make a blanket statement. Our community has a recreation program and a select level program. If you have enough players that live close enough to practice regularly to field a higher level team than I say go for it. Depending on your area demographics, You might have those who say that it will dilute the talent to the extent that it is no longer fun for the rec program.

Answers are going to vary based in regions. We were fortunate to live where preteen rec ball was solid. This does not mean there weren't any kids who were terrible. I don't believe every game has to be all star quality in the preteen years. Preteen development is to learn the basic fundamentals, learn to compete and develop a passion for the game. My son played summer community travel at nine and ten to play into the summer. At eleven and twelve his LL all star team played into August.

When kids hit the full size field in 13U they are two years from high school ball. Now is the time to start playing travel to play with better players and against the best competition. Where we lived rec ball fell off the cliff talent and coaching wise at 13U.

To net it out I believe in community based travel playing in local tournaments to play into the summer in the preteen years. Then start serious travel ball at 13U.

I don't believe there's anything wrong with playing with preteen players with limited ability. This allowed my son to learn to lead. He learned to be encouraging. Some of the errors made behind him while he was pitching taught him self control.

I loved our LL. The people were great. The concession stand was awesome. There were times we went to the park for dinner so we could hang out. Many others did the same.

its all about $$$

I wish there were a class for those wanting to coach youth baseball. Doesn't matter where they play or even how much they play. It would be great if they all learned the right things and had fun doing it.

Granted there are many very good youth coaches. Unfortunately, there are many that just don't understand the game. Even worse are the ones who think they understand when they don't. It really bothers me when I see kids being taught the wrong things.

It can be a very big advantage for the young kids who get on the right path at a young age.

As far as travel or rec type ball, I have no opinion. Both can be a good or bad experience. The coach or coaches are very important no matter what level.

I didn't even let my son start playing organized ball of any kind until he was twelve . So I think children that young should not be playing travel ball but of course it's the parent's choice .

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
its all about $$$

REALLY!!! "ALL" REALLY!!! REALLY????

quote:

Originally posted by Tom Dorminy:
I didn't even let my son start playing organized ball of any kind until he was twelve . So I think children that young should not be playing travel ball but of course it's the parent's choice .

Sorry for your loss. The times I spent with my kids and our community in you Ball are priceless. Individual thing I guess.

Wouldn't even consider TB until your son is ready for the big field. Not so much an issue of playing against better competition (doesn't hurt though) the key I think is to find good coaches that will provide age appropriate instruction with the philosophy of player development over winning.

The best thing we ever did with our local youth league was require prospective coaches to attend a coaching clinic each year AND hire the recruiting coordinator/pitching coach from a local college to do the classes. I won't mention his name publicly, but I'm sure you know the coach. He taught us all a LOT, which we were able to pass on to our kids.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
I wish there were a class for those wanting to coach youth baseball. Doesn't matter where they play or even how much they play. It would be great if they all learned the right things and had fun doing it.

Granted there are many very good youth coaches. Unfortunately, there are many that just don't understand the game. Even worse are the ones who think they understand when they don't. It really bothers me when I see kids being taught the wrong things.

It can be a very big advantage for the young kids who get on the right path at a young age.

As far as travel or rec type ball, I have no opinion. Both can be a good or bad experience. The coach or coaches are very important no matter what level.

.

I had to sort through my cigar box full of photos for this, but judging by the time of day and his still unflagging enthusiasm I'd say we cut our oldest one loose to travel at five or six.





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Every situation is different. True travel ball with driving & flying multiple states away... 8, 9, 10, to me is way too early. Have to look at whats avail locally & see if it fits for your young player.

Locally, there is no official Little League, no Pony either. Both have tried start up leagues & failed, very little interest. The youth ballparks in our area used to have it covered with rec leagues to stronger sanctioned tournament ball. Currently, there is a glut of leagues for youth players to play in & friends who still coach younger players tell me the one really strong league to play out of really doesn't exist anymore.

One thing these local youth coaches & I have witnessed for years is by the time the boys are 11 or 12, our most competitive local teams no longer play league, instead they practice a lot, scrimmage some, & play quite a few tournaments. To do so, the most competitive bunches usually jump in the stronger tournaments within 3-6 hour drive & yes, that means traveling.

With my oldest we first started him in a local rec league at 5, it was not a good fit peer wise. The next year he was playing up in machine pitch in a more competitive type league. Back then, a good 1/3 of that league's 7U teams traveled to tournaments, most played local not more than 20 miles away. My oldest probably played 30 games that Spring-Summer 7U season. A moderate amount & he had a lot of fun. From those beginnings, my oldest continued to play a mix of well coached league & mainly local tournament ball till he began HS ball. My oldest played football through college, & played basketball till his senior year of HS. With my youngest, slightly different deal. Ton of innate ability, very fierce intense player at a young age, & our concern was keeping it fun, while allowing him to succeed. He is very self driven & liked to be surrounded by other young players that ate up baseball. As a result, early on, we chose a much more tournament based team for him, and have not regretted it. He also has excelled in football, & enjoys playing basketball, though no more school basketball.

My point is, limited to 10 to 16 rec league games & Allstars, my youngest would have been bored & probably given up on baseball years ago. It was great to have choices. Locally the younger age teams at our local Academys seem to struggle, by 14, our best local academy teams start attracting some really talented young players & it's more of an option.

FWIW - my son was invited to tryout for a 12U travel team that was just forming up when he was 11. It was a good experience for him. This team stayed together for many years with its last year as a 17U team.

The team had two goals:

1) Prepare the players for HS level ball.

2) Compete at Cooperstown as a 12U team.

Both goals were met. Most of the players tried out and started for the local HS team. My son signed a NLI with a Div II JUCO and will be playing his first college spring season in two months (schedule starts in early February - BRRR!). He's already got one college fall season under his belt (20 games).

Personally, I think 8 is a bit too young. 10-11 is about right.

Both coaches that ran the travel team were knowledgeable baseball men. Not only did they teach baseball, but life itself.

If it were my own kids I would stay local and work with them as much as possible until at least 11 or so. Actually that is what we did. Of course, there wasn't much "travel" ball back then.

I see nothing wrong with parents who do things differently so long as they're doing it for their son/daughter rather than themselves. I would just make sure that whoever is in charge knows what they're doing.

I'm not sure how playing on a small preteen field prepares kids for high school ball. The two reasons are the size of the field and the physical development of the players. I believe it's 13U ball that begins to prepare players for high school ball since the field is the correct size. While the kids may need to physically grow into the size of the field they can now see the challenge in front if them. Many kids are fooled into thinking they're better than they are on the preteen smaller fields. I believe playing on the smaller preteen fields is for developing fundamentals so the kids can move to the full size field and grow into it, not developing them for high school.

When I was a kid I didn't know I was practicing and developing into a high school and beyond player. I just thought I was hanging with my friends, playing baseball and having a good time. What drove me was the desire to be the best in my group not some future carrot.

Strong fundamentals can also be developed on slightly larger youth fields, from 11U all the way through 54-80 baselines & 300-330 ft outfields at 13U. Official LL coaches don't have any corner on teaching fundamentals & refining skills.

My son started when he was 9. He had 3 years of "local" ball in by then...and continued playing with the local kids thru junior high. His experiences in travel, playing with kids from a 75 mile have been nothing but great....and I wouldn't do anything differently. Between local and travel, he played 75+ games/year from 9U thru 12U and 50 or so the past couple with HS and travel combined. I still remember the day in October of his 9U season when our last tourney got cancelled...meaning he wouldn't get 100 games in that year...only got to 98. He was crushed. I guess it all depends on the situation, but I don't know more than a couple kids that we've met thru our 8 years of travel ball that would do anything differently.

quote:

Originally posted by floridafan:
I see absolutely no value in Travel Ball with children that are so young. I do not see what a player could possibly gain that could not be achieved enjoying that time playing ball with a Father.

I would NEVER want to outsource those years.

Heck, I do not like outsourcing any of the years because those are great times. Now when a guy gets to college, then that is a different story.
Travel ball to me makes more sense at 13 and above. No proof to that, just an opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by journey2:
Strong fundamentals can also be developed on slightly larger youth fields, from 11U all the way through 54-80 baselines & 300-330 ft outfields at 13U. Official LL coaches don't have any corner on teaching fundamentals & refining skills.

As I recall my son's team started out on 50'-70' diamonds, then 54-80 as a 13U and finally 60-90 halfway through the 13U season.

Agree with waiting until the kids are playing on the big field.

quote:

Originally posted by jaggerz:

quote:

Originally posted by floridafan:
I see absolutely no value in Travel Ball with children that are so young. I do not see what a player could possibly gain that could not be achieved enjoying that time playing ball with a Father.

I would NEVER want to outsource those years.

Heck, I do not like outsourcing any of the years because those are great times. Now when a guy gets to college, then that is a different story.
Travel ball to me makes more sense at 13 and above. No proof to that, just an opinion.

As I said in my original post on the subject views on this may vary by region. Travel being the primary ball starting at 13U is the norm in Eastern PA.

quote:

Originally posted by journey2:
Strong fundamentals can also be developed on slightly larger youth fields, from 11U all the way through 54-80 baselines & 300-330 ft outfields at 13U. Official LL coaches don't have any corner on teaching fundamentals & refining skills.

I'm not going to get into bashing certain programs. I'm not going to get into the open bases versus closed bases thing. There are 60/90 fields and everything else isn't a 60/90 field. Regardless of where a kid plays in his preteen years, until a kid proves he can play on the 60/90 field he hasn't proved anything.

i too coached my son from 6 years old (biti-ball) up through little league (13 yrs old). Lots of fun. He then started colt ball. His 1st travel ball was this past summer at 15. On a 17u team. I don't think he missed anything by waiting...

quote:

Originally posted by TromblyBaseball:
What age should kids start playing travel ball?

I run a baseball academy and have a son that will be 8 next month so he is league age 8U. My son has played PONY and I have coached the last 3 years and we have a good group of players to select from. Aside from getting the boys together here and there for a workout, game, tournament when there are no conflicts I am not in favor of 8 year olds playing travel ball exclusively and not playing PONY or Little League. There are a few parents who want their kids to play travel ball year round and I think it is a mistake at 8-9 years old. In fact, one of the Dad's has decided to do a travel team and thus several players are not playing PONY this spring and will be playing travel ball.

I agree with your take above. There's nothing wrong with establishing an 8U Travel Team part-time & playing a few tournaments in the Summer/Fall. Here in Southern California there are four or five Big League Dreams Ballparks for the kids and they enjoy playing on those fields. With that said, I'd give my son the Winter off and allow/encourage him to play another sport. When Spring rolls around I'd keep him playing Pony/Little League through the age of 12. I made the mistake with my son by removing him from Rec Ball after age 11...full time Travelball shouldn't occur until age 13, IMHO.

Be careful. Don't become one of "Those" parents (I was for a couple years) that begins to take things too seriously at an early age and starts to spoil the FUN for our kids. Maintain your focus on your son (and of course, your other two children) and teach him the game, but the FUN needs to be the Number One priority (I know you will). I remember seeing him around the ball fields when my son played for you and your boy was a Baseball Rat, no doubt about it.

It's going to go by fast, and before you know it, you & your wife will be wondering where the time went. Don't succumb to the pressure...let your kids play rec ball & enjoy playing with their friends locally. Do Not allow other parents to talk you into the full-time travelball for a few years. You can expand the Trombly Baseball Academy when your son turns 13.

quote:

TromblyBaseball asked....What age should kids start playing travel ball?

Always the answer should be "it depends" on the kid, parents, baseball level, travel distance, travel frequency, and number of Benjamins $$.

I had the pleasure to manage and coach a 9U team all the way up to 14U. These kids loved baseball, and like being with each other. We let kids play rec baseball with the understanding that our 9U team took precedence on the weekends. When we started our team almost all kids played rec baseball and some travel. Over time it became more travel baseball and little to no rec baseball by the time they were 11U.

We had the luxury of having a lot of very good teams in VA, so our travel distance was typically within a couple hours. Every year we'd play state championships and a national tournament or two as they go older. For us it worked, because the parents were involved and very supportive. We ran everything by our parents at least a couple times a year through conference calls and surveys. I sent an updated buget every month, so everybody knew where the money was going. IMHO if you have the right situation, goals, players and parents a 9U travel baseball team can be a lot of fun for the kids.

This was posted as a joke a few years back at a local batting cage...

I think it all depends on the intent of the coach. Is he a win win guy or someone who genuinely cares about teaching the game of baseball. If the coach is focused on developing fundamentals and letting kids be kids and have fun, then I see no problem with traveling and playing a few tournaments. It's the coach that plays to win and cares more about the trophy than kid that I would stay away from.

My son, now almost 14, started playing with a local 11u travel team Fall of 2009. Open bases, 70' diamond, much better instruction, peers, and competition. It was great and he loved it.

But come Spring he was back playing LL. Fall was for travel ball. Now he plays travel ball year-round.

So, in my experience and opinion, there is no reason to play travel ball until the kids are ready to play on the hybrid (70') fields. And that pretty much means 11u.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bolts-Coach-PR:
This was posted as a joke a few years back at a local batting cage...



Priceless!

quote:

Originally posted by TromblyBaseball:
What age should kids start playing travel ball?

... Aside from getting the boys together here and there for a workout, game, tournament when there are no conflicts I am not in favor of 8 year olds playing travel ball exclusively and not playing PONY or Little League. There are a few parents who want their kids to play travel ball year round and I think it is a mistake at 8-9 years old. In fact, one of the Dad's has decided to do a travel team and thus several players are not playing PONY this spring and will be playing travel ball.
...

There are many insightful threads regarding travel ball that are age-related including this one...

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...407026616#4407026616

Generally, I think most young players who are not absolute studs will improve their chances of playing in HS and beyond by playing extra, more competitive ball at least a few years prior to HS if that is their goal. This would mean starting somewhere between the ages of 11 and 13. This would also help satisfy the competitive nature of those kids with that goal in mind. Even at that age, I certainly would not encourage year-round baseball.
Per many of the posts in both threads, I do realize there are exceptions individually and geographically.

One a related note - I think community youth baseball is such a great thing, whether it be LL, Ripken, Pony, Dixie, whatever. It is really sad for when local programs are diminished because over-zealous folks decide things aren't good enough or competititve enough for their kid so they start thier own league or travel team and remove their kids from the existing league. If folks would step back and look at the big picture, both should be able to co-exist nicely. At the younger levels (i.e. 10-13yo), allow the kids to play together with their friends and classmates in the local league and then provide a travel opportunity at the end of that season.
So, Steve, you as the academy operator can do much to facilitate this process. For the younger age groups, coordinate the timing of travel tourneys to begin after LL/Pony All-Stars are wound down. Meanwhile, encourage lessons, etc. while they are playing locally.
I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new here. As you know, this was the norm not too long ago.

Living in NE PA, some dozen years ago or so, we didn't know what "travel ball" was... unless you meant traveling 3+ hours across the top of the state to play a LL district all star game. It all started when some realised that LL was finished in early july and now what do you do with all that great baseball weather left?
So we started with a group of kids that just wanted to keep playin. To my surprise I find that the rest of the state ( most of 'em) were playin on extended size fields....(we are "Williamsport" rules here) with pitchers holding runners and all the rest. The idea of easing up to full size field seemed to make a whole lot of sense.
The kids were 10 at the time and we played a couple of tournaments that late summer.
In two years, with the same bunch still together, we took in the Cooperstown experience.
We had players from about an hour radius of each other..... they all played their respective town teams and when those seasons were done we went on the road so to speak. Nothing crazy in terms of travel... all in PA, NY. Of course things have changed a lot since then, in terms of the numbers of places to play.
Our adults ( moms!) raised funds... wally-world tables and the like. Yes, the coaches were dads... we did keep our numbers low...11-12 maybe 13 on occasion... but it was never about $$.
And we had a blast..... at age 15... each kids town program was enough for them and we ended it as a team. The players are still in touch...6 or 7 went on to play college ball.... the parents are life-long friends.....it was great and we have memories for a lifetime!

T-town brings up a great point. My son has made friends from all over Ohio and Michigan thru travel baseball. He's got 2 kids from towns an hour from us that he's played with since he was 9 (16 now) I would think that between all the summer teams, fall teams, extra tourneys, pickup games, etc that he's played in over the years that he's probably got 75-100 current or former teammates scattered throughout the region. It's amazing how well these kids get along....compared to what I see from "normal" kids from neighboring towns. They meet/see each other in the off season, travel up to an hour to watch each other play in other sports and also have parents who have become good friends. It's funny to see them on Facebook...some of them haven't seen each other for a couple years, but can still talk baseball like they just played yesterday. Heck, my daughter who is 2 years older than him still talks about tourneys from 5 years ago and how much fun she had. She would bring a friend to the out of town tourneys and they always enjoyed it...just as much as the boys did. I can't imagine what the past 6 or 7 summer would have been like for him or our family if we had never "found" travel baseball.

How we did it:

Not saying that this is the only way or the right way but just what worked for our family....may not even work again...things comtinue to change

Ages 5-10 Little league only

Ages 10-12 Little League and Local township travel team ( no travel more than 45 minutes, Dad coaches, 60 foot bases until age 12 local travel jump 50/70 field when available)

Age 13-15 Travel team made up kids from several townships....dads coaches but with more experience ...Sunday doubleheader league in spring so not to conflict with School ball....travel not more than 2 hours

Age 16-17 Higher level Show case ( 80+ kid tryouts) team with mutiple state travel

Wish I could say that this was some master plan we sorta stumbled our way through years...mainly learning from talking to other baseball people you would meet along the way and later learning from this site.


Now I know the local township has travel teams as young as 7-8 years old....lot of discussion in the township is that a good thing or not....personally I think that is too young especailly when there are 2-3 "travel teams" at this age group....we are not that big of a town to support 2-3 teams of travel caliber players....the second and thrid teams are made by parents that had kids cut from the first team.....Some say it is a good thing no harm in keeping that many kids invovled in baseball....which i can agree with but it does hurt the local little league program....Kids miss games and practice for little league for travel.

I certainly agree with other posts that it is an individual choice and you need to determine what is best for you and yours. I saw a big difference between local ball vs travel ball when my son played at this level. Some kids on the loacl park teams don't really want to be there at these levels and are there only because mom or dad signed them up and sometime even have to make or brib them to play. You usually don't see this on travel teams because the kids usually want to be on the field and improve their skills. It was hard to keep the attention on baseball of some 8u and 10u kids on local park teams.

But as others have pointed out, the main point at this level is to have fun. IMHO, You need to decide if your son will enjoy being on local teams with higher risk to have less talented and motivated players. The assumption here is that a travel team will have more talented and motivated players. Can you as a parent or a coach handle the less motivated/talented players and not get upset? Not that this happens on every local park team or that there is any thing wrong with it, so please don't blast me for that comment.

When my son was 10 we decided to play summer travel ball and had a blast playing on what amounted to an all-star team from the park. All the boys on the travel but one would have been elegible to play at the same park. There was no chance all these boys would have been on the same team at the park. Hind sight I say it would have been ok to play at the park, but son really improved playing with motivated and talented players and we certainly enjoyed watching 10 year olds making double plays and, well just simply playing better baseball. Two players off that 10 year old team are in the pros today playing in the minors. I believe that would have happened either way, playing travel or park ball because of the desire of the two boys, not which 8u or 10u team they played on.

To answer the question, I would say 12 to 13 would be the age I would recommend to start playing travel ball if you have a good team and coach.

quote:

Originally posted by dad43:
How we did it:
.we are not that big of a town to support 2-3 teams of travel caliber players....the second and thrid teams are made by parents that had kids cut from the first team.....Some say it is a good thing no harm in keeping that many kids invovled in baseball....which i can agree with but it does hurt the local little league program....Kids miss games and practice for little league for travel.

With regard to keeping kids involved....my son is a sophomore. When he was in 6th grade, we had 2 teams playing in a county-wide "travel league". Each team was made up of kids from each of the two towns that make up our school district. We had 18 kids playing on our team from a class of 25 boys. The other team had 14 out of 60 or so kids...for a total of 32 kids playing in 6th grade....with roughly 20 of them who I would have thought would have the potential to contribute in HS. This coming spring that class will have FOUR kids playing HS baseball...with all 4 likely seeing at least some time on the varsity team. I guess my point is....keep as many kids at the younger ages as you can....you'll need every last one of them later.

With apologies to Bill Clinton, it depends on what your definition of "travel Ball" is. It seems in the St Louis area they call it select ball. I guess it would be the same thing.

Son did the typical sign up for the local league and get put on any old team until we found a coach we liked and stayed with him until 9U. That 9U season, we did 3 tournaments along with the normal 12 game league season. the farthest tournament was in north St Louis County, about 30 minutes away. The team wasnt that good, and felt our son needed something more. At 10U I started a team with another dad, and we would hit the cages in January once a week, practiced every week during the season, and did I think 4 tournaments, again with the furthest being about a half hour away. All in our metro area. Combined with another team at 11U and did the same thing. That was a nightmare so I was asked to coach again at 12U. Same thing, but maybe 6 tournaments. All in St Louis. At this age teams were going to Cooperstown and South Haven MS. We were doing a fine job of getting our butts kicked in St Louis so we didnt feel the need to travel to get it done.

I guess at 13U we became a "travel team". We played in a top league (we did at 12U also) and did about 7 tournaments, along with an overnight trip to Columbia, MO, which is about an hour and a half away. Wasnt like the competition was that much better, just something different and fun. Here in St Louis, the 13U play at 80 bases and 54 rubber so not the big field yet.

At 14U we did the same thing with maybe 9 tournaments with the Columbia being one of them. But we were big time that year since we had two jerseys and two caps!!

Then at 15 he got on with an academy team or whatever and that really may have been the first travel team he played on.

It seems the seperation between select and rec teams is the committment level, which is I guess the same everywhere. The select teams would start practice in January or so, and during the season we would practice every week, without exception. If it rained, we would hit the cage. The rec teams would just get together and play and were OK with what they were, and that was great for them. My son just wanted more.