Thread: When is the right time to put a kid in club ball?

I am a parent/coach and I was hoping to get some advice on when you think is about the best age to put a girl in club ball/traveling team. I will assume that everyone will have varying opinions on this and ultimately it probably depends on the indivudal.

My daughter is a good player right now. She has a TON of natural ability and is still raw and inexperienced. However, the biggest thing is that she adores the game. She is in 5 sports but you can just tell she feels different about softball. You can tell the game just means more to her than it does to other girls. She is 9 years old and is in her 2nd year of playing up in division. Next year will be her 3rd year in the minor division but the first she is actually supposed to play in it age wise. I feel like she has a great foundation of fundamentals and you can just tell she has some serious potential.

A lot of people are tugging at us to get her in their club team. However, she is so in love with this game and she is VERY gifted..............I fear of burn out for her. She is like her old man and she just doesnt know when to stop and if it were up to her we would practice 3-4 hours everyday all year. My wife and I have decided to wait to let her play club until next summer when she is a legit u10 player( age wise). Are we wrong for this? Am I over paranoid about her burning out? Again, I just can see her talent and see her love and I dont want to compromise that by getting too gun ho to early.

So what do you all think? Physcially and mentally she is more than ready for u10 club. That is not really the question. What age do you think is ideal to start club ball?

How do I keep this kid getting better, while also not burning out?

I had a 12U coach tell me today that she is too talented to not play club and that I was holding her back. It just didnt sit right with me. It also didnt sit right that this man wanted my 3rd grader to play with some girls who are in 6th-7th grade. Someone please tell me Im not crazy. or at leats that I have valid concern.

Like any parent I want whats best for my daughter. However, having coached many D1 athletes myself in football and having been a college athlete myself back in the day............Ive seen A LOT of burn out.

I feel it is up to the individual. I have seen burnout myself alot so I held my dd out until she actually came of age to play on the 10U team.

If she is as good as you say, and as committed to practice as you say. Put her in 10u now. She is the right age. I am not a fan of moving girls up an age group in travel, at least not at 9 years old. If you have to do that then you haven't found the right organization for her.

I had the same problem with my daughter. She is always the youngest because of her birthday but her skill is on par with her teammates. I wouldn't go higher than 10U but find a good organization and let her play.

The right time is when DD expresses the interest in it. At this age, playing time and the fun factor should be paramount.

I recommend a 10u B team. Usually these are put together by the rec league and use either a try-out or all-star type of format. This is a great introduction to travel ball, and often the 10u B teams have better coaching talent then 10u A teams. At 10u, any kid can play A ball so long as they pay. Try it and see how it goes.

-W

I think the right question is when is the right time to get professional instruction. IMO you could save a few years of travel expenses and spend money on getting professional hitting/fielding/pitching instruction as early as they show real interest. If you can afford the cash and the time to do travelling as well and travelling means better instruction at practice, better competition, etc then there is nothing wrong with doing both, but there isn't inherent value in driving in a car more hours a week so you have to make some decisions about time commitment for yourself and your kid.

The softball cultures are different in every part of the country, and every player and family situation is different, so there is no single right answer.

The advice I've received from coaches who want DD on their A teams is to "get her out of rec ASAP, or else she'll fall behind the other girls her age", but the counsel I've received from her instructors is to "let her travel part-time if that's what she wants, because she doesn't really need to go full-time comp until she's 13 or 14 if her plan is to play in college".

Her instructors all have stellar national and international resumés and I trust them completely when they tell me that my 9yo doesn't have to be on a full-time ASA team for another few years.

You have to evaluate the quality of the instruction she's getting in rec and also weigh that against the quality of play and talent pool. If you're in a pretty large rec league, there's a chance the level of competition is good, meaning that she's being challenged when she goes out.

Is she an all-star? How long does the all-star season last? How many games do they play?

If the softball in your area is really good, and she's not an all-star this year, I would recommend staying in rec a little bit longer. Out here in NorCal, we can play what amounts to an extended all-star season during the fall with select teams from the local rec leagues. It's *very* competitive and at a fraction of the cost of A ball. These are our B teams and like Starsnuffer said, they are a great stepping stone from rec to full-time travel.