Friend of mine told me today that his daughter, 14, has stopped playing travel ball, but wants to help coach an 8U rec team. To which I thought to myself that I remember her playing in 8U rec ball like it was yesterday.
It made me reminisce. We had four teams, a total of about 40 players. I coordinated it, then formed an all-star team from it, and we were fairly terrible. About a year later, we formed a travel team from that group.
In those days, everyone was new to softball, and we had questions about their potential.
So six years later, here are my conclusions. Wonder if your experiences are similar, different --
- About 20 percent of 8U rec players will be playing travel ball in six years. At least that was our percentage -- 8 of 40.
- The ones still playing aren't as athletic as you'd expect. The players' talent is relevant to whether they'll survive in travel, but probably only 20 percent of the puzzle.
- The best predictors of whether an 8U rec player will play and stick with travel are (1) opportunity, the ability to get on a team, an adult to organize and lead it, convenience, etc.; (2) how much they really like softball and the tournament lifestyle; (3) whether they have parents that are keen on the idea of them playing travel and are supportive of it.
- The bottom third athletically in a rec league probably won't survive. They will hit a wall and be forced out. But the rest will be fine if they have those three ingredients above.
- There is enough talent in a typical 40-player 8U rec league to have a very strong A-level travel team within a few years. But you won't be able to harness it all. Take your 12 best athletes, and a third will not like softball enough and probably choose another sport and a third will not have the right parents. The other third will stick with softball and become very good at it. But if you could take your best 12 athletes out of a random group of 40, and they all had the right stuff, you could be great.
edit: By 'great,' I don't mean win national titles unless you have something really special. I just mean solid A-level, maybe qualify for A-nationals. There were some really good athletes drop in for a cup of coffee, but you can't get them all to love softball.
It made me reminisce. We had four teams, a total of about 40 players. I coordinated it, then formed an all-star team from it, and we were fairly terrible. About a year later, we formed a travel team from that group.
In those days, everyone was new to softball, and we had questions about their potential.
So six years later, here are my conclusions. Wonder if your experiences are similar, different --
- About 20 percent of 8U rec players will be playing travel ball in six years. At least that was our percentage -- 8 of 40.
- The ones still playing aren't as athletic as you'd expect. The players' talent is relevant to whether they'll survive in travel, but probably only 20 percent of the puzzle.
- The best predictors of whether an 8U rec player will play and stick with travel are (1) opportunity, the ability to get on a team, an adult to organize and lead it, convenience, etc.; (2) how much they really like softball and the tournament lifestyle; (3) whether they have parents that are keen on the idea of them playing travel and are supportive of it.
- The bottom third athletically in a rec league probably won't survive. They will hit a wall and be forced out. But the rest will be fine if they have those three ingredients above.
- There is enough talent in a typical 40-player 8U rec league to have a very strong A-level travel team within a few years. But you won't be able to harness it all. Take your 12 best athletes, and a third will not like softball enough and probably choose another sport and a third will not have the right parents. The other third will stick with softball and become very good at it. But if you could take your best 12 athletes out of a random group of 40, and they all had the right stuff, you could be great.
edit: By 'great,' I don't mean win national titles unless you have something really special. I just mean solid A-level, maybe qualify for A-nationals. There were some really good athletes drop in for a cup of coffee, but you can't get them all to love softball.
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