Choosing rec or travel only after 10u

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Aug 29, 2018
83
8
It seems like a lot of people have similar issues with their local rec leagues. If your dd has been playing softball since age 5-6, been on a travel Team since 8u playing multiple seasons, and is now in 2nd year 10u or 1st year 12u with 8-10 travel seasons and 5-6 rec seasons under her belt, and a competent player...where is there a place for her in the Rec league? Our rec league wants the travel players to stay in rec. our travel team is technically part of the rec league, but by this age they are so far past what the skills are of the rec players, how do you make it fair for both groups? I definitely see an advantage for the rec players to learn from the travel players, which is the goal of our league, but what about the travel players? What benefit do they have? If anything the rules regress their skills. At least in 10u, and the rec players can’t keep up with them so often they get very frustrated due to the simple errors made plus lack of skill? Is there a way to redo the role of the travel player in the rec league starting at late 10 or 12u?

There should be a solution.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
There should be a solution.

We always played the travel players capable of it up an age division. In general the newer rec players who were older and more physically matured in their age division were able to hang a little easier with the more skilled younger player. The newer players also were able to learn skills from the younger group quicker.

It is an imperfect solution, but it worked well enough most of the time.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
Rec programs do get hurt by travel programs who pull kids out.
My opinion is if the player is playing for a travel organization that is B level or below they should stay in rec too.
If they are A level players then there is little benefit for them or other players in rec.
I think it depends on the level of talent of the kid.
 
Apr 6, 2017
328
28
You can gets reps in. Depends on the rec program and kid. If you have a kid that's upset the whole time about
errors than it might be the wrong fit. Our rec teams usually have 2-3 kids on each team that travel. Keeps things interesting.
I see more travel kids every year at the rec diamond. Trying to improve in positions they don't get to play much in travel.
 
Jan 5, 2018
385
63
PNW
Rec is also an opportunity to play other positions you may not get much time in on your TB team. Example 3rd pitcher might get starting times and innings they wouldn't get on their TB team. And you still get to support the league that got you started. My DD still has great friends that chose rec only....and she wouldn't have had those opportunities if she hadn't played rec. There's more than just the skill and the game itself...so much more.
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
Dd played rec up through 12U. Our Little League had a travel team affiliated with it. The travel team went by birth year so we had a full team of 11’s and a full team of 12’s for Majors. Same for minors. We would then be sure to have those 24 players evenly distributed across the rec teams as best as possible. In majors we had 4 teams so each team essentially has 6 travel players between the 11-12 age group. We also tried to put #1 12U pitcher with #4 11U pitcher, etc. if there were 4 pitchers in both age groups.

I was our SB Player Agent so I worked very hard with the coaches to keep the draft as fair as possible. It seemed to work pretty well as the 4 teams were pretty competitive against each other as well as against other local LL rec teams.
 
Feb 3, 2016
502
43
I've felt our local Rec league like all of the Rec leagues are great for start up teams and of course basic player development Etc, ETC..

Primarily for pitchers and catchers in 12u and under as they need the live rep's. Other positions on the Rec teams aren't competitive or enjoyable to watch at all.

Between 12 and 14 most kids losing interest in Softball of choosing a different sport (or boys). Usually kids on the fence bail by the start of 14u.
So for me league games at 14u are back to being enjoyable to watch again. 12u-13u TB teams that are good can play up and make League fun again.

To keep Softball in an area strong or to keep a sport advancing and grow it we need as many Rec teams playing as possible.

I can tell you that if my DD hadn't gone the TB only route she probably wouldn't be playing Softball. She's ultra self driven and playing with other children not putting in the work or trying to put forth in her words "the effort" she would find another sport or ask to find her a team with kids with similar skills and goals.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
When my DD was 10U, and clearly part of the "better" group of players, I made a push with the rec league to do something to keep the better players interested enough to stay in the league. At the time, an older guy on the board, with DDs who had moved on to TB, and off to college, told me that it was a mistake to try to keep better players. Just let them move on to TB and wish them well. I didn't like that answer. I thought the league should make some sort of special effort to keep the talent from leaving. After all, all-stars is serious business, and we will get crushed if we lose our talent. In the end, the league wouldn't make any special efforts, not even creating a "select" program as other leagues were doing.

A year later, with my DD playing TB, I realized how right the old guy had been. Let the rec league be for the girls who are learning the game, want to have fun with their friends, and aren't ready for the commitment demands of playing at a higher level. For the girls that are ready to make the commitment, and have the skills, let them move on to where they can boost their development against better competition. I saw a few girls who had the talent to play TB stay in the rec league too long (for various reasons), and their development slowed down. Some even got worse because they weren't being challenged. They could be sloppy and still have a ton of success in a rec game. This is not a good thing.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
Throwing was DD's issue, she could of easily hurt some players.

Easy enough to fix after she knew the players, TB or rec.

Hitting was not too much of an issue.
 

J.Galt

Banned
Feb 8, 2019
135
28
Don't know what a B travel team is. Pulled my DD out of rec when she was 10 years old. She was already playing up at 12u in asa and all the other good players in rec left after 8U. She would have left too but her older brother was playing JAAF and she was a cheerleader in that. When he switched to AYF for hisn8th grade year we were able to let her go to travel ball.
The rec league here is decent through 8s, in 10u it gets a little iffy and only a few teams are decent, 12u has half as many teams as it did 6 years ago and 14u and HS had to be combined to make just 4 teams
 

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