Why so enamored with Travel ball....

quote:

Originally posted by lefthookdad:
at such an early age say 14 and under, why are some many people wrapped up in travel ball?

As is clear from the variety of stories here, there are lots of variations on how and how much kids play travel ball. For my son it has been a way to play more baseball and get some great coaching, but he also played LL and Babe Ruth and was on travel teams that did not practice or play during the LL/BR season.

I think he got the best of both. He got to play with lots of friends and have lots of fun in a competitive but not too serious regular season league, play all stars until sometime into the summer and then play late summer travel into the fall and sometimes winter. Each stage of each year was progressively better baseball.

He started at 11, but at that stage he knew he liked baseball. I was somewhat along for the ride. It all has clearly made him a better baseball player.

quote:

Originally posted by cabbagedad:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by lefthookdad:
....at such an early age say 14 and under, why are some many people wrapped up in travel ball?

My answer is easy, it was fun for my son and us. I never thought it would be something me or my family would be interested in, but being part of fun parents and good teams is addicting. You can't wait to see what happens the next weekend, and you love watching the kids get better. Add a few beers and BBQ and you have yourseld a bonafide great time, win or lose. There is drama, but if your lucky enough to get on good teams like this it will be something you cherish. These people will always be my friends.

As far as being concerned bout overuse, my 11 year old year I played on the travel team that basically consisted of the 12 year old all star team, plus a couple out of the league guys.

We played little league.
We played on the 12 year old all star team (I was the only 11 year old ) We almost made the LL World Series, and that included 3-a-day practices from June 15th til August 2nd.
We played a full travel schedule.
Most guys played on a separate PONY team that played an independent schedule plus 4-5 tournaments.

It totaled for some of us upwards of somewhere between 85-90 games. And I kid u not that summer was the most magical summer of my life, and all of ours. No one got burnt out, no one got arm injuries. Our coaches worked magic to make sure we didn't pitch too much. Everyone loved every minute of it. I am still great friends with those guys and will never forget the outside of baseball time with them that summer, which usually involved pick up games with other kids in town, church ball, whiffle ball, etc. Coming home from a late night game, sleep at a teammates house (in my uni sometimes) and wake up ready to roll for a 9AM game.

Btw years later (last year) we won the hs state championship.

That was the Best summer of my life. We did both(plus alot more).

But I guess my point about the outside of baseball stuff is that if we weren't playing an organized game, in our free time we WANTED to play baseball. We weren't playing video games, not that video games are bad but we wanted to be outside, running around, hitting, having the competition. We loved that. So it does take a special group of kids to do what we did, or kids will want to be done.

One thing that is seldom if ever noted in this topic discussion is there are different NORMS for different areas of the country. Different opportunities too. Every area is not a carbon copy of the other. As a result, the opportunity was here for my sons at an early age to play something different than league ball. In our metro areas there is next to no drafted league youth baseball, that wasn't even on the table.

From an early age players in our area play either minimal (rec) type ball or they play on local tournament teams that range in talent level & coaching. The weaker of the bunch stay local often only playing out of their home parks or in crosstown similar parks. For the rest all travel, whether is an hour away, 2 hours away, or playing in the DFW metroplex area & other venues in the region. Some young players gravitate to certain teams, teams with kids with a lot of innate ability, athleticism, hand eye coordination, desire, drive, & often very strong teaching/coaching. Nearly everyone of these young fellows also play football & basketball & other than a few fall tournaments, baseball is the game they eat & breathe from Feb through early August. As these teams get older, the strongest teams travel quite a bit out of state. The strongest ones will NOT usually be found playing league at 11 or 12. League just doesn't work. Instead one will find them practicing & occasionally using a scrimmages as a form of controlled practice, easier to make corrections & reinforce in such a setting. Having been emersed in this for over 15 years, we never referred to our sons teams as "select" or travel teams, just Ball teams. That is our local norm, there is no LL & "AllStars", no CR, no Pony, no Jr Legion for 13U's, there are also next to no 13 years olds playing 60-90. Play at 13U is on a 54-80 diamond, unless the player is one of the very few playing up a year in a few 14 Open (AAA-Majors) tournaments. In the end its worked out very well, if I had a 3rd son & he had the love & the desire for the game, we'd expose him to this path as well.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballexpert:

quote:

Originally posted by lefthookdad:
to carry over from a couple of the other threads....at such an early age say 14 and under, why are some many people wrapped up in travel ball?

The higher level of competition allows my son to expand his potential and reach his learning curve a lot quicker.

Why so quick to have your son reach his learning curve? I see way to many parents that want their kid to be the best now and have seen too many kids peek to early only to lose interest and not play HS ball.

Travel ball in my area has become very diluted. Diluted because a vast majority of the parents want their kid to be the star SS or P...so they break off and form their own team...and so on.

So, do most of you think that your kid would not be HS quality or better if it weren't for travel ball?

quote:

Why so quick to have your son reach his learning curve? I see way to many parents that want their kid to be the best now and have seen too many kids peek to early only to lose interest and not play HS ball.

Travel ball in my area has become very diluted. Diluted because a vast majority of the parents want their kid to be the star SS or P...so they break off and form their own team...and so on.

So, do most of you think that your kid would not be HS quality or better if it weren't for travel ball?

In My Son's case, He plays in an orginization that has no Dad's coaching. The Coaches all have College Coaching experience & They have a list of Alumni in the hundreds that have gone on to play College ball & a handfull that have played in the Pro's. Travel Ball is becoming watered down for the reasons you said. I picked this particular Orginization for what they offered my Son between the months of october thru April. they workout 2-3 times per week indoors, individual pitching lessons, individual hitting, Video analysis. I made a choice to stop Coaching my Son after his 12 year old AAU season because I felt I had taken him as far as I could. The bottom line is this. In my situation, Travel Ball was the best opportunity for my Son to maximize his potential. However, I was confident that I was paying someone more qualified than myself to train my Son. I'm still heavily involved but I know he is getting the best instruction that I can get him. Every situation is different. I feel I made the right decision. A parent has to take the Ego out of it & objectivly look at the whole situation & do what's best & what the kids want.

CBM, Kudo's for doing it for the right reason

quote:

Originally posted by biggerpapi:

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:
How do all you guys know your kids are gonna be baseball players by age 10?

I actually don't like this question. To me it implies that we all thought our 10 years were destined for pro ball and we must think they're better than everyone else.

Sorry you took it that way. It's not what I'm implying, at all. Just asking how you knew baseball was the sport to put all the time and effort into at such an early age.

Some have answered 'we didn't know'. We didn't know, either. Son didn't even know. He wanted to play everything.

quote:

So, do most of you think that your kid would not be HS quality or better if it weren't for travel ball?

Son would have been able to play HS ball w/out travel - however - the thing that really gives him an advantage on other pitchers of similar physical talent is the mental game. He learned to play - pitch - and compete under pressure while playing travel ball. Can't say this would not have come later w/out travel ball but it was beneficial to have it early. Travel ball also allows faster recovery from failure or a slump. When you play more game per week over many more weeks - the failures become distant memories faster.

Our son was on a local travel team until he was 13. They were average at best, but everyone lived within 20 minutes, they practiced regularily, and were very well coached. Son liked everyone and didn't want to travel further to practice. Our schedule was mostly double headers on the weekend, and about 2-3 tournaments a season no more than 1 1/2 hours away.Unfortunately, by the age of 12 and early 13, our son was really the only pitcher that could "get you to Sunday." Once you got to Sunday, he was the only pitcher to keep you going. He loved his coach and we always felt the coach wanted to do the right thing. But by keeping the team so local, it became more difficult to make the right choices. This is when our son found a team that traveled a little further and was composed of more players that also pitched quite well. They played in more tournaments as well. All of the kids wanted to be there, and his arm stayed fresh. At that point he didn't mind the extra travel because he had found his ideal situation. It all happened so gradually it just seemed to work out correctly. I guess we really started traveling on a more competitive team to keep his arm healthy.

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Originally posted by AntzDad:
How do all you guys know your kids are gonna be baseball players by age 10?

The boy really wasn't very good at anything. With baseball available pretty much year round,thats who he became. A baseball player!

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Originally posted by Aleebaba:

quote:

Originally posted by cabbagedad:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by lefthookdad:
....at such an early age say 14 and under, why are some many people wrapped up in travel ball?

My answer is easy, it was fun for my son and us. I never thought it would be something me or my family would be interested in, but being part of fun parents and good teams is addicting. You can't wait to see what happens the next weekend, and you love watching the kids get better. Add a few beers and BBQ and you have yourseld a bonafide great time, win or lose. There is drama, but if your lucky enough to get on good teams like this it will be something you cherish. These people will always be my friends.

Agree 100% !
Travel ball, little league if you are with good people its great fun for the kids and the parents. If everyone has the attitude of playing good baseball it didn't matter if we won or lost..

"The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top. That's what will ultimately make them successful"

- Herb Elliot

how can you go on the field if it does not matter if you win or lose ?

The reason that I pushed my son into travel ball at about age 12 was that the rec programs played and practiced so little that I felt that if he didn't start getting the several days a week of practice in, he would continue to fall further behind the kids who were on the competitive teams.

At that time, he wasn't good enough to make any of the better competitive teams, so the one he did make was terrible and ended up losing 3 out of every 4 games they played, but that didn't matter, because he was practicing and playing and getting better.

The goal was to make the HS team in a few years, which he ultimately he did and he is doing very well. No kids who did not play on competitive teams made the HS team and playing travel ball didn't assure a kid a spot either. That is a huge downside to attending a very large school (2000+)

I insisted both my sons play a variety of sports growing up. I told them both that when they reached 12 that they could stop playing the sports they did not like so much and concentrate on the ones they did. My oldest really enjoyed S*****R so he started to play Club so that he could be challenged and also play almost year round. My youngest loved baseball so we did the same with him and got on a TB team so he could be challenged as well and play year round. Both turned out great for my sons, my oldest played on the HS team and my youngest will be entering HS next year. Both were very beneficial to the development of their skills.

quote:

Originally posted by lefthookdad:

"So, do most of you think that your kid would not be HS quality or better if it weren't for travel ball?"

That's a tough (and maybe premature - my son is a 2015 at a Seattle area 4A school, though he will likely slide JV to V this year from what I've heard from the HC) question. I think - and it is really not much more than a guess - that he would have the innate talent to ultimately play HS Baseball without having first played select, but it would have taken longer to get to the level he is now. He's played so many more games, against much better competition, and with better coaching than he would have had otherwise, that he is simply much better prepared both physically and mentally to compete at the HS level.

I don't regret the path my son has been on at all, but then again, we have consciously tried to balance community / rec ball with select and showcase stuff, precisely because both have important things to offer. I like to think we've struck the right balance....

Haven't read the whole thread before responding so forgive me if this has been covered.

There is many different levels in travel ball and as in looking for a College to attend it is about finding the right fit.

My middle child is a very competitive, very good(in my eyes anyway) and we have always payed him at the highest level in our area. He always got plenty of playing time and grew as a ball player. He understood going in that he may miss special occasions and doing things his friends did who did not play baseball but he never seemed to miss it.

My youngest is also very competitive but has not shown the athletic talent at baseball as my middle child. He has chosen to try out for the highest level teams, but his size and skill has prevented him from making these teams, so we chose a level of travel were he could play and compete at. They do not play as many games and do not get to go to as many tournaments, and most of the tournaments are local. But again he has improved as a ball player because of this experience and is better off for it.

My oldest unfortunately inherited my athleticism, and he would have never been able to make any of the travel teams in our area. He still wanted to play, so we found the best community league (Recreational) in our area were he would get playing time. He played through Pony league and had a great time.

It is all about the best fit. Each kid is different and it is important to understand their level of ability and commitment. Then match the kid to the right level.

quote:

So, do most of you think that your kid would not be HS quality or better if it weren't for travel ball?

My son was always a standout player in rec ball before we moved to travel at 13U. I had coached him from t-ball, but I didn't think I had any more to teach him. So, we searched out a team where he would receive quality coaching, and a chance to play along side better players.

Our first team ended up being a bad fit. While nice guys, it became apparent as time went on that the coaches just didn't have much to offer in the sense of helping my son improve. With that in mind we looked for a team with solid coaching, not just a winning record. The team we found is run by a HS coach without a son on the team, has assistant coaches that are experienced, and even has a pitching coach with MLB experience. My son is learning finer points of the game that he just wouldn't have gotten if he was still playing rec ball.

While I can't say my son wouldn't have been HS quality without travel ball - it has certainly improved his chances.

I wonder if any of the long time talent evaluators can give us any feedback on the results of proliferation of travel ball?

Or let me back up … Say a player moves onto or joins a travel ball team (TB being very broadly defined as anything not rec-league) midway through or towards the end of their Youth Baseball years. Let’s say it’s for all valid reasons, including prepping the kid for the next step: 13U / freshmen tryout. The implication is that High School coaches are now expecting incoming players to be further along the learning curve than they have in the past. That raw talent is not enough; it must already be substantially molded before stepping onto the High School baseball field.

Can any High School coaches on this board say they see this? Are you cutting kids with raw talent from your team because more polished kids show up for tryouts these days? Do you know or care if a high school freshmen has already played and succeed in a pressure packed 12U tournament?

Let’s take one step further. Because more polished freshman are showing up, are High School teams today better than they were in the past? Are pro prospects any better today? Ok, maybe the top 50 prospects are the same. Hey, freaks are freaks in any age. But are players 100 to 300 at any showcase better today than they were in years past?

I should say, I don’t see anything wrong with the TB world. People, players, families tend to gravitate towards like minded, like aptitude people. I once read a study where the authors tried to quantify the value of a MBA. In absolute terms, there was no question these graduates made more money than their non-MBA contemporaries; but they were also self-driven and highly intelligent people. These people were bound to succeed whether they had gone to b-school or not, so what value did the MBA bring? I think of the TB world like that. The players don’t go on to succeed because they played TB, Travel Ball is filled with young players who are bound to succeed.

CAB, good question. I can respond as a parent who was on the front end of travel ball in our immediate area. I thought a LL age Sunday doubleheader travel team would better prepare our all-stars for tournament play. The plan worked. The following years did the same thing.

I only explain this as the prelude to bigger things. At 13U I moved the team away from the source of players being from our LL to handpicking the top players of the LL district. Only four were from our LL.

In the players/parents meeting right after New Years the coach was always adamant where kids played summer ball would have no bearng on who makes the team. But after my son becaise the first soph opening day starter in six years coming out of travel and two more sophs from travel ended up starting that year, we started seeing year after year it was the kids coming out of quality travel programs who were making varsity as soph. The first freshman ever to start varsity came from travel. Another freshman was called up mid season.

When my son played 14U he was seeing 80+ in final fours. The next year in 16U (his freshman year) he saw a lot of 82-84. In fall ball we put our fifteen year old 16U players in some fall wood bat 17U tournaments so they would see what was coming if they made varsity the following year. To quote one of our players as he mumbled on his way back to the bench, "That was some nasty %$#@!"

The coaching staff I put together was a former All-American/AAA pitcher, college catcher, college infielder/A ball and college pitcher/outfielder. We spent a lot of time teaching the fine points of the game they would get from a dad coach who didn't know the game or a junior legion coach with one year of experience thirty years over who refused to learn.

RJM, If you’ll indulge me in a few follow-up questions ...

Sounds like you initially pulled the cream of the crop together. You had the advantage of looking at a larger pool of kids and selecting the subset you thought were best. Did any of the ‘other’ kids succeed in High School?

For your players who had early HS success, did they maintain their skill lead over their peers throughout high school? In their Senior year, were these the MVPs and team core or had any other players caught up?

Do you think your program equipped any kid to completely over-achieve their given talent level? In other words, were there players that otherwise would not have made or contributed to the HS program without first having had exposure to your program?

A LL dad/coach from another LL and I put this together in our heads as the kids headed into their 12yo LL season. Our teams had played against each other for the district title the two previous years. They played in the semis the last year.

We paid attention to who the best 12's were at the district tournament. We targeted twenty players and got thirteen of them. We had a back up list of five fill in players. After 14U I merged the team with another and became an assistant coach. Running the operation is a lot of work.

I don't know if any kids overachieved. I believe we had some of them ready for high school varsity sooner. The ones who stuck with baseball all ended up in quality showcase team.

Of the four kids from our LL three made all-conference with two going on to college ball. The fourth kid played basketball full time in high school. Four other kids were high school stars and play college ball. Everyone on the team was a high school star in some sport.

The hard thing to do is figure out how much of a role a 13/14U team plays in future success. I wouldn't want to be the rooster who takes credit for the sun coming up. But I believe the team set the kids who wanted high school baseball on the right path to high school ball and their showcase team opportunities. They're also good, hard working kids from good families who have supported their aspirations.

Another positive to travel ball is everyone is a quality player. Each game may have a different star. I believe this pushed players to excel as part of friendly internal competition.

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
how can you go on the field if it does not matter if you win or lose ?

Cause I'm a mom and I just love to watch them play ...I don't care who wins, I"m not on the field

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
I believe the team set the kids who wanted high school baseball on the right path to high school ball and their showcase team opportunities.

I will agree with this. At the very least, those players saw very good pitching, understood the game and knew how to act like ballplayers. Any HS coach will appreciate that. And, I'm sure their first high school practices seemed relatively easy, compared to what RJM et al. put them through.

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
I believe the team set the kids who wanted high school baseball on the right path to high school ball and their showcase team opportunities.

I will agree with this. At the very least, those players saw very good pitching, understood the game and knew how to act like ballplayers. Any HS coach will appreciate that. And, I'm sure their first high school practices seemed relatively easy, compared to what RJM et al. put them through.

At the beginning of the first practice we had a talk. I told the kids while they know of each other, go around the circle, say their name, the school they attend and what position they expect to play this year. Guess how many said shortstop?

With almost no expression on my face I apologized to them none of the positions are available. You should have seen the look on their faces and the parents faces. My son is shortstop. I pointed inside the white lines. I told them there are nine positions over there that beat the heck out of any of the positions over there (pointed to the dugout). I told them everyone will learn how to play outfield. I told them left and right is where they could start sooner on high school varsity their first year if they can hit.

One day I was looking at a kid play all-stars. My son told me to get him. I told my son if the kid plays for us he won't play short except when the kid pitches. My son told me if I could find eight better players he would bat ninth and play left. Earning your place anywhere on the field is the attitude I tried to instill in the team.

As stated above we had lots of fun, but truth be told my son would not be playing at a high-level in his early years in high school if it was not for select ball. By playing against top competition from many regions he gained the confidence to compete, saw what he needed to do to improve, and got the reps in to get better. He and some of the other boys on his old teams are being told they have a chance to play D1, and I have to say I am not aware of any other boys his age that played just legion or little league that are getting the same attention. In this area LL and Legion do not develop the kids sufficiently to play college baseball. Not to say you still can't get there, those kids are just behind the curve.

When my son was 13 met some dads from neighboring towns and we put together a team of kids from few towns. The goals was to help them be ready for high school maybe help them get a chance to make their high school jv team as freshman and varsity as sophomores....figure if they were good enough to do that they might have a shot at playing some le el of college ball. Some of the dads that had played college ball coached the team. Everyone figured out that some one had to play outfield and that it might not be bad idea to have time playing something other than shortstop.

During their middle school baseball season we played in a travel Sunday double header league....where we had to pit h a lot of players since many pitched for their school teams during the week. In the summer we played tournaments.

Many of these kids at age 16 and 17 played on a larger showcase team that played larger tournaments i.e. pg wood bat in Ga...

I attribute the higher competition and playing with teammates that we serious about the game to their success.

There were 8 players from that 13/14 year old team that made our area all area team their senior year....I kidded with the the coaches of the team that with that much talent we should have won a lot more than we did...it must have been the coaching....

Feel like we accomplished the goals we laid out in the beginning of helping them succeed at high school ball and give them a shot of playing college....I do believe that playing travel ball help them grow...granted their was good clay to start with...travel was just the mold that helped shape the clay

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:

quote:

Originally posted by biggerpapi:

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:
How do all you guys know your kids are gonna be baseball players by age 10?

I actually don't like this question. To me it implies that we all thought our 10 years were destined for pro ball and we must think they're better than everyone else.

Sorry you took it that way. It's not what I'm implying, at all. Just asking how you knew baseball was the sport to put all the time and effort into at such an early age.

Some have answered 'we didn't know'. We didn't know, either. Son didn't even know. He wanted to play everything.

Oops, sorry. Guess I was in a bad mood that day. I had just been reminded how much roses cost three days before Valentine's Day!

So let me try to make it up to you. How did we know our son was going to be a baseball player?

We really didn't. My love has always been baseball. I don't know much about football and really couldn't care less about basketball. My son played basketball in school but around here it doesn't amount to much until you get to high school. (BTW, the really good players are off playing AAU after school ball is over) By the time he got to HS, it was clear then that he was going to be a baseball player so he quit HS basketball after his sophomore year.

My son also seemed to gravitate towards baseball. He was pretty good pretty early so we pursued it.

Now my younger son loves his baseball but he also loves to play basketball. So we don't work as hard in the winter on baseball. Who knows what he'll end up doing, if anything.

So I guess the answer is to find what you like and do it. Baseball, basketball, physics, chess club, etc.

For us the reason we played travel ball was because there were more games. Our son played LL through the age of 12. We supplemented this with travel ball which had a solid summer and fall season.

It was all about the opportunity to play year round for us.

For me and my son, it was just a good way to spend some good quality time together on the roads sharing the thing he loved doing.

And oh yeah, playing on good, fun, talented teams against other quality teams.

Boy, do I miss those days.

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:

quote:

Originally posted by AntzDad:

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:
I believe the team set the kids who wanted high school baseball on the right path to high school ball and their showcase team opportunities.

I will agree with this. At the very least, those players saw very good pitching, understood the game and knew how to act like ballplayers. Any HS coach will appreciate that. And, I'm sure their first high school practices seemed relatively easy, compared to what RJM et al. put them through.

At the beginning of the first practice we had a talk. I told the kids while they know of each other, go around the circle, say their name, the school they attend and what position they expect to play this year. Guess how many said shortstop?

With almost no expression on my face I apologized to them none of the positions are available. You should have seen the look on their faces and the parents faces. My son is shortstop. I pointed inside the white lines. I told them there are nine positions over there that beat the heck out of any of the positions over there (pointed to the dugout). I told them everyone will learn how to play outfield. I told them left and right is where they could start sooner on high school varsity their first year if they can hit.

One day I was looking at a kid play all-stars. My son told me to get him. I told my son if the kid plays for us he won't play short except when the kid pitches. My son told me if I could find eight better players he would bat ninth and play left. Earning your place anywhere on the field is the attitude I tried to instill in the team.

I tell my young kids who like to whine when they don't get to be the "SS"......on my team there are only 2 positions..on the field and on the bench...you will all see time at both positions during the season.

I think we have an answer for the OP: People are enamored with Travel Ball because it has a proven track record of getting kids to “the next level”. It feeds into the most basic parenting instinct: Take all reasonable steps to set your child up for success.

I guess the issues can arise with the people left out. These are pretty stark lines being drawn for 11 year olds.

If you’re going to select 15 players for a team – from any pool of players – I’m sure No.1 to No.5 are a no-brainer. You can probably identify them while they’re warming up. No.5 though No.10 will shine as players start showing off their skills. Probably not much difference between No.12 and No.13. Or for that matter, No.15 and No.16. Except No.16 doesn’t get a jersey or a hat; in fact No.16 doesn’t get to come to practice or play in the games.

Now maybe No.11 to No.15 don’t end up making their High School team. Maybe they move onto other sports or maybe they quit sports; but at the moment the roster of that team is published, their futures are still bright. No.16 is off the fast track to “the next level”.

So what do the No.16’s do? They move onto to other sports. They play rec-leagues. Or they form ‘B’ teams! Try keeping a rec-league competitive if the top 30+ kids in the neighborhood and their parents don’t participate.

quote:

Originally posted by CABBallFan:

Can any High School coaches on this board say they see this? Are you cutting kids with raw talent from your team because more polished kids show up for tryouts these days? Do you know or care if a high school freshmen has already played and succeed in a pressure packed 12U tournament?

No and no.

If a kid has raw talent he'll get a shot as a freshman. He must develop his 9th grade year to get a shot as a sophomore.

I have very little/no idea what level kids play at outside of high school. Around here, even if they tell me the organization, that organization probably has 15 different teams with different talent levels. All i care about is what they can do to help our team.

quote:

Originally posted by CABBallFan:
I think we have an answer for the OP: People are enamored with Travel Ball because it has a proven track record of getting kids to “the next level”. It feeds into the most basic parenting instinct: Take all reasonable steps to set your child up for success.

I guess the issues can arise with the people left out. These are pretty stark lines being drawn for 11 year olds.

If you’re going to select 15 players for a team – from any pool of players – I’m sure No.1 to No.5 are a no-brainer. You can probably identify them while they’re warming up. No.5 though No.10 will shine as players start showing off their skills. Probably not much difference between No.12 and No.13. Or for that matter, No.15 and No.16. Except No.16 doesn’t get a jersey or a hat; in fact No.16 doesn’t get to come to practice or play in the games.

Now maybe No.11 to No.15 don’t end up making their High School team. Maybe they move onto other sports or maybe they quit sports; but at the moment the roster of that team is published, their futures are still bright. No.16 is off the fast track to “the next level”.

So what do the No.16’s do? They move onto to other sports. They play rec-leagues. Or they form ‘B’ teams! Try keeping a rec-league competitive if the top 30+ kids in the neighborhood and their parents don’t participate.

Thanks for all of the responses. There have been some great view points. I have the luxury, so to speak I guess, of being able to spend a lot of time with my kids on the field. I did not like what I saw with our first TB experience and was not impressed with anythbing else in the area that did not require significant drive time. So, we played rec ball and worked a lot on our own and brought some of those that I saw to be future HS'ers out with us. Rec ball, albeit lower overall in quality, has taught my son a lot of valuable lessons, such as humility and compassion. He has always been self driven and as some one else put it about those type, destined to succeed. A lot has been learned about trying to help bring lesser players up a level or two with ecouragment, practice and support of the better players.
Rec ball provided a lot of things that TB did not offer, for us anyway. My son has moved on and is doing very well for himself a the HS level. I do agree that TB can be a wonderful tool if used in the correct manner for the correct reasons. Just remember it is a kids game and not life and death or the end of their baseball carrer if they don't play TB

Showcase ball is on the agenda for my kid(2014) summer 2012. Hopefully we will run across some of you on here at the tourny's.

Thanks for all the great responses.

We have seen many players excel and reach a "next level" for them without expensive travel ball or any elite organized league until high school. Some players and families are not ready for that kind of commitment at a player's younger ages. Instead some of our local coaches an dads have taken it as a privilege to coach those who have a passion for the game but maybe not the finances or time for elite play (with varying evidence of talent and skill development).

IMO it is pretty easy to recognize a kid who enjoys baseball and wants to get better at age 11 - 15, but with many kids their ceiling does not come into view until they get older. I see baseball as a late development sport.

ironhorse & prepared, Thank you for your responses. Your insights are very helpful.

lefthookdad, Great thread. I'm glad to hear your son's journey is going well.

Thanks CAB....now I only have 2 more to get there! Oh the fun times...would not want it to be any other way.

Comming a little late to the party, but I'll give my $.02.

When my son started his journey, I was total against "travel ball." I viewed it as snobish and stupid -- parents paying thousands of dollars hauling Tommy from place to place to play a kids game. Cutting kids at 10, 11 & 12, etc. A few years into our rec. league and he makes the "all-star" team. We get the **** kicked out of us by "all-star" teams that were psuedo travel teams -- they worked out for more than a few weeks. My kid does relatively well and coach says "your boy could play travel." Of course, now my kid wants to play "travel."

So I let him try out for the league sponsored team. Of course, he doesn't make it because we aren't one of the "in the know" families (and truthfuly I don't want my kid anywhere near these "dads"). He is disapointed but trys out for a few other teams. There is an opening on a team with a few of his collegues. What I do right is contact the coach and ask him several questions -- all designed to determine if there is a fit. He trys out, coaches love his attitude and effort, ends up on the team and our journey begins.

I am still a little skeptical. The time commitment is large. Practices several days a week. He starts practice and I watch. I watch and watch and watch. Finally, one day a few months later I get him in the car and say "kid, if you don't play a single inning, this has been worth it. I could not buy you the education you are getting." They took him from a kid playing baseball and turned him into a baseball player. They way he carries himself on the field, warms up, etc.

For kicks, I took him to a few "tryouts" the next year for other area teams. The difference was noticable -- he was head and shoulders above the other kids, including their returning players. Got called back within hours. Stayed with his current program.

Now, it is not without its warts. We have some of "those parents." It is not for everybody -- we practice a lot.

So why travel? I would say it is not the travel per se -- but rather the total experience. Better coaching (hopefully), more games, better games. Most of all, it's watching your kid develop. But you have to choose wisely. Many teams in our area are glorified rec. teams. If you get into the right situation for your family, then it is all good.