Joe Madden's view on Travel Baseball vs the multi sport athlete.

[SandlotMom]

Travel ball doesn't have to start at 14u if one doesn't want it too.

Believe me....I would love to NOT start until 14U but the rec is not good over here. There are only 2 teams. If more kids participated at the rec level, there would be a lot more teams and they can even have divisions (by skill level). Soccer does this at the lower levels and it is really great. Most of the games are within 2 goals which means there is enough competition among the teams.

At 12U, I am doing a "comp-lite" team. I go to less tournaments and try and get more friendlies....double-headers if I can. It cost less and they kids learn just as much.

 

[RetiredCoach]

One of my DDs started travel ball in 12U and the other in 10U. Once my DDs experienced travel ball there was no going back to rec ball for them. So, I don't think that it is so much travel ball as much as what happens year round. Some girls don't seem to take a break and give their bodies, minds, and spirits time to recharge. Perhaps that is the weak leak in this chain.

 

[FP26]

Believe me....I would love to NOT start until 14U but the rec is not good over here. There are only 2 teams. If more kids participated at the rec level, there would be a lot more teams and they can even have divisions (by skill level). Soccer does this at the lower levels and it is really great. Most of the games are within 2 goals which means there is enough competition among the teams.

At 12U, I am doing a "comp-lite" team. I go to less tournaments and try and get more friendlies....double-headers if I can. It cost less and they kids learn just as much.

We have similar issues with rec here. In our community rec softball ends at 12u. There is no 14u division. In addition, most schools in my area do not offer junior high softball. That leaves travel ball as the only opportunity that 7th and 8th grade girls have to play softball. A few decide to play rec baseball instead, but I didn't see that as an option since DD is a pitcher. Luckily I was the coach for the travel ball team. The majority of the roster played other sports, so we did the best we could in order to fit practices in when they meshed best with the player's other schedules. DD has now moved to another team (that I don't coach), and that coach has the same philosophy. So I really can't fault travel ball as being a stressor in our lives. In our particular case it is two high school sports that both expect their players to be 100% dedicated for approximately 8 months per year. When those two 8 month periods overlap, DD has some timing challenges.

 

[SandlotMom]

One of my DDs started travel ball in 12U and the other in 10U. Once my DDs experienced travel ball there was no going back to rec ball for them. So, I don't think that it is so much travel ball as much as what happens year round. Some girls don't seem to take a break and give their bodies, minds, and spirits time to recharge. Perhaps that is the weak leak in this chain.

I agree. When my daughter played on another team during the summer (June and July), I can tell the other players were just exhausted. I asked a lot of the parents if they take a break from softball and they looked at me as if they didn't understand what I was saying. Then they slowly said "well.....they are done in November except for lessons and they come back in December for tryouts."

 

[rdbass]

My DD didn't play Tourney ball until 14u but, we did 'work' on her softball skills almost year round. DD played basketball, soccer and also swam. DD didn't 'specialize' until her sophmore year in high school. The 'problem' comes from other DD's & DS's that specialize in one sport. What we found is that every time DD jumped into the pool or stepped on the court she was facing players that played that sport year round. It becomes hard to compete with these types of players. DD had goals of playing/starting softball on her high school team. DD also had a goal of playing college softball. DD is also a NHS student. DD also swims in high school to keep in shape and have fun.

 

[riseball]

So when I read this thread many seem to agree that it is bad for the kids. It is too much of a grind for the parents. Yet the OP cannot keep enough players to keep a team together. I wonder the OP is not having to turn players away or start a second team?

 

[chinamigarden]

So when I read this thread many seem to agree that it is bad for the kids. It is too much of a grind for the parents. Yet the OP cannot keep enough players to keep a team together. I wonder the OP is not having to turn players away or start a second team?

I am the OP, where do I say anything about not being able to keep players?

For the record I am a fan of travel ball, what I am not a fan of is the megalomaniac coaches who insist that softball (or soccer, or volleyball, or basketball...) be the only sport a girl plays. There are a lot of good ball players out there who are being forced to make a choice and that is too bad that they are being forced at a young age to pick. Especially when the choice they are being forced to make is only in the best interest of the coaches and not the player.

 

[Phathead]

Almost everything in this thread can be applied to HS coaches. If the coach only had the one sport then they want all the players "players dedicated". Now if they coach two sports then duel athletes are OK. Three sport coach you guessed it they love the multi sport player. Not exclusive to travel players.

 

[nikkilugi]

I think my position on this as a parent is more based on my time. I think it is great that so many parents are dedicated to spending all their time shuttling their dd's from practice to practice and game to game - but I just can't do it. I work full time with a husband that travels and have 2 ds's as well as my dd. I just don't have the time or the energy to try and juggle volleyball practices and games, and basketball practices and games, as well as softball practices, lessons, and games at the same time (even for just a month when volleyball starts and softball ends) - not to mention in my area if my dd wants to participate in these activities the entry costs are always $100+ per sport/season. That is even for Y level play. And most of the real leagues here are also year around leagues and that is where the talented players are - my daughter is no WNBA player but she is better than beginning rec.

I am all for the sentiment of "they are young, let them do everything" however, I can't afford it both timewise and moneywise so we stick to softball and she will play basketball in offseason (and stop her speed and agility since this will take the place of that).

We tried it, once, and once was enough. The rule in our house is one active sport/major activity (that would include dance or cheer) at a time. Because my Murphy's Law is that if I try to put my dd in 2 activities at once - no matter what, the practice/game schedules will conflict. Period. And that has held true previous seasons we have done both basketball and softball at the same time. Ironically as I am looking for a winter team for her it is already coming true now. A bball coach wants dd to come to her teams' practice on Thursday nights - well guess when her softball team holds their only practice of the week?? Yep - Thursday nights.

 

[Rocketech1]

Jennie Finch was a 3 sport varsity athlete in High School.

Jennie is 6 feet tall (US average is 5.4) and in the top 1% for female height. You know what her other two HS sports were: basketball and volleyball, sports that put a premium on height to perform well. BTW, for most high schools, it's not that difficult to make a team sport and they only play that sport 3 or 4 months out of the year. I would be curious to know what % of Jennie's time in the year was related to softball practice / playing vs. her other 2 sports? My guess is greater than 75% of her total athletic time was to softball (especially because she was a pitcher on a top travel ball team and would have had to practice year round to have the kind of success that she did).

Regarding Tiger Woods. No doubt in my mind that being driven to excel and specialize in golf at a very young age is what made him one of the best golfers of all time. Maybe he overused his body and its now breaking down, but it still doesn't change the fact that he has won almost 100 professional golf tournaments worldwide.

Being a mulit-sport athlete is over-rated when it comes to excelling at one sport. There is only so much time and energy in the day to be really good at multiple sports for the typical athlete.