Big Fish in Small Pound or Small Fish in Big Pound?

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May 8, 2008
35
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Play up in rec-ball & find a travel team in her age level. I did this with my dd when she was 10, she played against older girls who were good in rec & then played in competitive tournaments with girls her own age on a travel team. She was actually the #1 pitcher as a 10 yo playing with the 12u's in rec ball, so she pitched alot during the season. She will be 12 next season so I will have her play 14u rec ball & 12u travel.
 

halskinner

Banned
May 7, 2008
2,681
0
Play up to the challenge

Play up in rec-ball & find a travel team in her age level. I did this with my dd when she was 10, she played against older girls who were good in rec & then played in competitive tournaments with girls her own age on a travel team. She was actually the #1 pitcher as a 10 yo playing with the 12u's in rec ball, so she pitched alot during the season. She will be 12 next season so I will have her play 14u rec ball & 12u travel.

One of the things that makes a pitcher great is to face great hitters. She will not gain anything by facing the rec league hitters, that will be no challenge and she will not progress much at all.

Pick one or the other. I would pick travel ball because of better hitters and coaching.
 
May 8, 2008
35
0
I agree with Hal about facing great hitters, While not all of the hitters are very god in rec ball, there are some girls that are good hitters & should be playing travel. If my dd did not play rec ball she would pitch that much less, so we use rec ball as pitching practice, she works on her other pitches & faces live batters & they are all a year or 2 older, some close to 3 yrs older because my dd is born in Dec & some girls are born ion Jan. I don't care about the outcomes of those games.
 
May 7, 2008
4
0
Binghamton, NY
I actually just had to deal with this exact issue. My DD played 12U travel last year and just finished her first year of 14U travel ball. We just completed tryouts for next season at the 14U level and my DD had offers from two of the three teams she tried out for. One of the teams was returning most of their players and were looking to add 4 or 5 new girls. We had played against them over the summer and knew what kind of talent they had. The other team is starting over as all but two of their girls aged out after this season. The coach of this team was also my DD's coach for school ball and she had offered her a spot on the travel team back in the spring.

When it came time to make a decision, it was very tough. We knew that she would get all the playing time she wanted on the team that was rebuilding as the team was going to be young and the experience level was very low. She would have been the big fish by default becuase the coach knew her and liked the way she played the game. A few of her school mates were trying out for the team so there was that connection as well.

On the other team, playing time would need to be earned. There were two girls ahead of her at her primary position but fortunately she has become quite versed at several positions over the last two years. When we started talking things over and trying to determine which offer we should take, it became clear that these were two distinct opportunities. There was a lot of emotional attachment to one team because of the familiarity with the coach and players. My DD doesn't like to disappoint people so she struggled with walking away from that team, especially when she knew that they were struggling to fill the roster with experienced players. We discussed that she could be the team leader and get a lot of playing time on this basically new team. Or, alternatively, she could choose to play for a solid team with several talented players who would challenge her to raise her game to the next level. In the end, she decided she wanted the challenge. She wants to play at the next level and she feels that she will have to step it up to get it done on the established team. So instead of being the big fish, she opted to be the small fish.

I think this was the right choice. A couple of coaches who had watched my DD play said I should consider taking her to 16U next season but I think she needs one more solid year before she makes the jump. Playing on a strong team and learning to work hard will help her when the time comes to move up.
 
May 9, 2008
443
16
Hartford, CT
Big Fish Small Pond

We may be in the same situtation. Since MY 12 DD hs never tried for a Travel team, we know No One!. Which is good as there are no emotional attachments.

She has tried out for 3 of the 5 teams so far. One she would be on the bottom or and alternate, one she may be in the middle of the pack. The third has a bew coach with only two players returning from last year. That coach spent almost all the pitching time with my DD. Also, before the tryout, a group of girls came over to my DD and introduced themselves ... they were really nice kids.
We will go to another tryout with each of these teams again.
We have two other teams that we can only get to once.

Her rec coach last year didn't pitch her as he pitched his 9 year old. He also wouldn't out her at 3rd as that his where his older daughter played and my DD was better....
I can coach her in rec league and play her all I want (since we may only have 1-2 other pitchers, they will all get a good amount of innings.)
If she plays in Rec, she wil pitch, but won't face the best batters.

But, even if she plays a lot on a lesser Travel team, she will still be facing the batters from the better Travel teams in this area (we all play each other).

Isn't that a good goal to strive for?
Nice to play with better players....but if she isn't playing ....
 
Jun 2, 2008
62
0
My first year 12 played/pitched 14U all year this year. She was big fish on 10U team, would have continued to be big fish on 12U team as they all moved together. Wasn't happy with progress of team so we took her to a first year 14U (new team). At first I think she was really intimidated until she pitched a bit and figured out she could hang with the "big girls". She had success and failures on the mound - but she did get alot of mound time. Now that fall is here and time for tryouts, we thought she would want to move back to 12u -she wants to stay 14U - why? Because I think she is growing as a fish and working her way to the top - to the point that you would not think she is a first year 12 on the field with her 14U team mates. Actually, you might even pick her out as the big fish on this team.

My point here is - I believe a true big fish will always strive to be the big fish regardless of the team she goes to - it will make her a tougher big fish on a more challenging team. If she wasn't truly a big fish before and moves up, she will figure that out quickly want to go back to where she was before.

Good players get better because of the other players "around" them - not under them. Once they outgrow the talent around them, they start to stagnate and need to move to a more challenging situation.

For what it's worth.
 
May 9, 2008
443
16
Hartford, CT
Big Fish

I can coach her in rec next spring...she could pitch all the time. But no challenge in pitching to petrified 9 and 10 year olds.
She's 12 so this will be her last year in this league...1010 she goes to being small fish, big pond.

The teams in the area all play each other...some are better than others.

This is our first year even thinking about this.
Not sure what we will do.

But we think getting her on a team wher she will pitch is probably a priority. Since she will be facing some very good hitters, she will need to step up.
In addition, she will also step up fielding and batting.

Depends on the kid.
She was pushed aside this past spring and her confiedence could use a boost.

We aren't deciding yet....tryouts go through the 23rd....see if we get more than one team interested (just got an e-mail from one asking her to come back), we will have to figure this out.

MY soccer DD played on a new Premier soccer team last year....team got beat a lot ... but after the winter was over, she went back to the Travel and her coach was thrilled with her increase in performance. She learned so much, played a ton.

I guess it depends on the kid ...right now my DD might do better playing a lot ...this will let us all know if she's going to be a real player or not.
 

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