What age should kids start playing travel ball?

Absolutely dead on.  The practice WILL pay off down the road for them.  

If your kid is that age and he's playing 100+ games, like some parents I have known, YOU are overdoing it.  Not the player.

As for the 9/10 year old super travel teams with the embroidered bags... yeah, I've seen those teams also.  I just shake my head at that.

And for those that have only younger kids that haven't hit 13 or 14 yet... just wait. Wait until you see them do something on the ballfield that makes you say "huh?  what just happened?"  Their brains visit another world every so often.  Sometimes that happens right in the middle of a game.  My guy just turned 14 and it's all part of growing up and I'm sure it will pass soon.  Won't it?  

That is the understatement of the day.  There are some horribly and pathetically coached "travel" teams out there. 

Golfman25, I agree.  In the short time I've seen travel ball, I have seen coaches screaming at their kids, sitting kids and only allowing them to play 1-2 innigns a game, and hagving very unrealistic expectations, not to mention not allwing them to have fun and goof around and be kids.

I'm not thinking travel ball for 8-9 year olds for the sole purpose of winning games.  The team he is joining is more focused on devleopment and practice....and finding the right families to make this a memorable time.

The coach/manager is the same one who coached his PONY all-star team to finish 3rd place in their World Series.....and essentially the same kids.  My son developed and learned more in that 7-8 week all-star period than two years(four teams) of machine pitch/t-ball.

The goal is to play one tournament a month, play 1-2 friendly scrimmages/month, and practice twice a week when not playing a game....and time off during holidays etcc..  They guaranteed no player will sit more than 1 inning per game and will rotate two positions.

I am aware that most rec players will eventually just drop for various reasons, and others who stick with rec ball will find their coordination and the gap between kids ability will dissapear quickly by ages 11-13.

If my son didn't have a desire for the game, no way would I go this route this early on.  

I spoke to one guy the other day and he said those kids who play on those Little League teams go travel ball early on (ages 9-11) and come back and re-join little league rec ball by age 11-12 so they can get a shot at making it ot the LL World Series....or play both I guess.

Problem is my rec ball league plays 19 games in spring season with no scoring(don't want to hurt feelings), then has playoffs, which if you advance to finals, could lead to another 10 games, then they have an intra-league all-star tourney simply because they have so many kids (300+) and that results in another 8 games if you win it (my sons team did).  Then count the official PONY all-star tournament team, and we played 14 district/regional/world series games over the summer.  

So my son played about 45 games from March to mid-July all related to rec ball....not to mention all the rec league and all-star practices.  I bet we had 18 all-star practices this summer and maybe 15 rec league practices.

Travel ball will actually be LESS intensive and time consuming.  We'll play/practice that much over a full year and we can work on a little more advanced skill development rather than being forced to play underhand toss from 15 feet away because most cannot catch or watch kids running the bases backwards (to 3rd base) after they hit the ball.

It's just different for each kid I guess. 

 I don't have much of an issue with you wanting to put your son into a better situation. However in reading what you said above, I want you to keep something in mind... 

In the ideal world, what you describe would work.  The problem is that people are not ideal.  Eventually some parent is going to wonder why your team isn't winning as much as some other team.  Parents will gripe because their kid isn't playing SS and some other kid is. Parents get upset and move their kid to some other team, the coach replaces him with an "upgrade" and he starts getting all the playing time.

You will notice none of the above comes from the kids - it's always the parents.It's human nature. No matter how well intentioned it starts out, eventually parents want results (wins).  That's when it all goes downhill.  

Rob T, that reminds me of a saying we often half half jokingly repeat in sales/customer service. "This would be a great business if it werent for the customers."  

You are probably right....the parents will probably be the ones to eventually ruin it.

There is no probably about it.  The parents will be the ones who ruin it...

What ever happened to the game "work up"?

No parents, everyone meet at a local field and you batted until you made an out then went to RF. We played all positions and debated "out or safe". Bases were sandbags.

Bats always taped wood bat. When I organized the Legion team in Santa Rosa, we used "work up" as a method to learn about new players.

Our veteran players, including a MVP of the NY Yankees, assisted in the selection of the new players. That was travel ball in the 80's. The players paid zero.

Bob

It's scary to think that my knowledge might be outdated at this point, given that I graduated high school in 2008. 

I have hundreds of friends that have played or currently play college baseball, dozens in the minor leagues and a handful in the big leagues. I could be wrong but I am nearly positive that not a single one of my friends, including myself, played any type of travel ball beyond a local league until we started high school.

Take that for what it's worth.

My son started USSSA travel at age 12 and he was later than most of his friends. That's when LL and Pony games became visibly lacking of both participation and ability. However, that turned out to indicate absolutely nothing towards HS or college baseball. Out of the 60 teammates he had ages 12-14, only 9 played HS senior year and only 3 in college.

JH,

Things changed dramatically from '08 to 2012. In Virginia "showcase" teams exploded in number, even starting free elite teams which nailed the coffin in a lot of Legion teams. In 2010 I asked Coach Hughes at VT the same question about my son playing Legion vs Showcase and he answered "Legion is dead.....at least in this area".

I realize things have changed. I never played Legion or was remotely interested in it. Up until the age of 14 I played for "travel teams" that played locally. I grew up in the NYC suburbs and didn't leave the tri-state area until the summer after my freshman year of high school. I hit all the big events in high school- NABF, Connie Mack, PG, WWBA, etc. Were they necessary? I don't know, maybe. They were a lot of fun, though. I am not one to stand on a soapbox because I do embrace change, but I question the motives behind a lot of the actions I witness.

That is a big part of the problem.  Many parents are unable to view their son honestly. I've seen marginal HS players on "showcase" teams that really have no business selling their dreams to parents.  I believe that whether you can view your child objectively or not, it's very important to get a qualified set of eyes on him before you spend a lot of money.

I can attest to the amount of games played. I think we also have to consider how developed they are.  The majority of 13/14u players are not developed enough to handle 100 plus games in a year.

If I had to do it over again I would not have allowed my son to play the amount of games he played at 13.  The book says we played 120 games Summer/Fall.

Many of the boys on the team had injuries or were just mentally gone come the end of summer.

The problem is that most 8-9 year olds don't have the attention span or patience to work on development and practice.  10-12 is even questionable.  (And if you my kid, I'm thinking 13-18 might be impossible). 

It is easy to get caught up in the "travel" ball scene.  But many teams are becoming glorified rec teams, especially at that young age.  What happens is that everyone starts out all lovie dovie.  Then the games start.  The batting order is posted.  Fielding positions are taken.  The team doesn't win.  And the gloves come off.  The comments start to fly.  Adults are aholes to the kids.  They say some really mean things.  Adults confront each other and the coaches.  Why would you want to start that at 8? 

Golfman, all you have to do is look at the length of BBalldad's last post to know he's going over-the-top.  Baseball at 8 or 9 is not that complicated.

Hahahahahaha   I thought it was just me.  I got a headache reading that post.

Seriously, BBalldad...  please.  He's 8.

I have said this many times as well as others. Baseball is not a sprint it's a marathon. No need to rush things at such a young age. Baseball will get serious soon enough. Have him do other things as others have mentioned. If he still has the desire and the talent when he gets older you can start to get a little more serious (12 at the earliest). Your only a kid once, so let enjoy many other things besides baseball. My son played music and did scouts when he was young, as he got older and started taking baseball serious, the other things became secondary but he still to this day does them. He will be  entering into his sophomore year. It's now just starting to get serious as far as baseball is concerned. He did not start TB until he was 12, looking back it was probably a year or  2, too soon. 

At such a young age doing other things is important for a kid.  Although my son began playing on a travel team at 9, it was only local games against surrounding cities and towns, no tournaments.  We're talking a little more serious then rec.  He continued to play every other sport under the sun as I wanted him to experience as much as possible. Eventually he dropped every other sport except for baseball and basketball.  

As he is now entering 9th grade I keep hearing, from him, that he wants to drop basketball and focus on baseball year round.  I've actually told him that I don't want him to do that.  I think he should try out for the freshman basketball team and see where it goes.  He has agreed to do that.  

My son (now in his 2nd year at a JUCO) started "travel" ball at 10 years of age on an 11U team.  Up to that point and including that year he played LL as well.  The travel team was a local team was more or less a local travel team.  The schedule was usually three ways or doubleheaders on weekends with one tournament a month.  Most of the tournaments were within reasonable traveling distance (no more than 5-6 hours driving - usually less).  The team schedule ran from March to May after which everyone got a short break (3-4 weeks), then the schedule continued in similar fashion until mid-August followed by another 2-3 week break and then they played in the fall until early November.  If memory serves the boys participated in about 60-70 games on average.

The coaches set overall goals when they first organized. Number one goal was to prepare the players for HS ball.  Second goal (and more immediate) was to prepare for the planned trip to Cooperstown Dreamspark in 2005.  Cooperstown and Sports at the Beach (Delaware) were the only major out-of-state tournaments the team traveled to. Winning was not a major goal.  Player development was the theme at that age until the team transitioned to the "big" field.  At that point winning games and playing competitively was the emphasis.  We never did any of the big invitational tournaments.

During his HS years the travel team actually played less.  Most of the team qualified for the HS team (JV and Varsity) so any sort of spring schedule was out.  Until they were old enough for legion ball (Sr), the travel team was limited to the summer months.  In the fall, the boys played for a local league that was heavily based on the schools (geographically).  The team played one final summer as a 17U team in 2009 (if my memory serves me correctly - the early years tend to blend together).  The next three summers my son spent playing Legion ball.

I agree that it's real easy to get caught up with the desire to win at the younger ages.  A tournament win at those ages mean nothing.  To this day I cherish my son's High School District Championship more than any tournament they won on the "small" field.  Especially since he had hit the clutch RBI double with 2 outs in the 7th that tied the game.

I do remember when my son was 8 a friend was trying to start a travel team to which my son had been invited to join, but it never got off the ground.  To be honest, I'm glad it never did.  I really don't think he was quite ready at the point.