Is travel ball killing rec ball or is rec ball killing itself and travel ball gets the blame?
generally speaking, where do you find your best coaching? generally speaking, they are in TB.
Not only that, you also play many more games in travel than you do in rec.
I pulled my DD from rec for several reasons.
1) driving an hour in traffic to a game to face a team who doesn't have a pitcher who even practices and it turns into dad pitch.
2) my DD practiced all the time pitching and hitting. the rest of her team doesn't but parents want their kids pitching and playing infield.
3) a small group of dads who are friends and control the whole rec league and their kids get all the play time.
4) rec politics you have to coach if your kid wants play time and you have to be friends with the guy who decides who coaches.
parents who think a college scout is showing up to rec game are the people who are killing rec.
rec softball and other sports should be just 3-4 weeks then rec should turn into something more competitive for the girls who practice.
Is travel ball killing rec ball or is rec ball killing itself and travel ball gets the blame?
I read this whole thread, and it's interesting that no one has really pointed out the money. Not the money spent, but the money made. Int he last few years, we've had an invasion of national organizations come in and strip our teams -- the rec leagues that used to fund both rec and travel are finding they can't field travel teams any more because the national organizations are taking all the girls. So these national organizations will have three or four teams at any age group and rack up the trophies, because their A group is better than their B group, which is better than their "open" group. But they are on a higher level than the similarly-grouped teams they are playing. So they win a lot, which increases the organization's prestige, so they make it seem like the only way your girl can play for a "winner" is to join one of them.
These organizations have their own facilities and "pro" coaches. They have their own "organization" tourneys and boast of their ability to get girls in front of recruiters. it sounds like a great deal. But they charge 2500-3500 a season. And now we're in a spot where the mid-level travel teams can't really compete (I live in Colorado, where you can't play outside until mid-April a lot of the time. This year's been an exception so far).
I haven't seen their P&Ls, but my guess is those organizations are making a pretty good bunch of money. Not only from club fees, but from in-house provate coaches and in-house facility rentals. All in the name, of course, of making the girls better players. They've found a way to monetize the sport to levels we haven't seen, and I think that's doing more damage than the old rec/travel debate.
I forced my kid to play rec till 2nd year of 14s. During that time she would pitch 4 innings and strike eveyone out. Not that she was that great it was a talent mismatch.
Coach should have pitched her 1-2 innings at most but our #2 couldn't even throw strikes.
Then the email came from the director that my kid should not pitch at all due to skill.
Whatever that means.
So even when you try to play rec you have critical parents who now regret that their kids didnt see better pitching now that they can't make their HS teams.