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Aug 6, 2013
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Just a question...
Why does travel/select ball have to diverge so far from High School or College? The average team size is 16 for Varsity High School, and 20-22 for colleges. As some point athletes need to learn how to sit, and still be a productive team mate.

Girl A is a sophomore at X University. Girl B is a transfer from a JUCO. Girl B is now starting over Girl A.
Girl A is a sophomore at X University. Girl B is a freshman and has won a starting spot.

Does Girl A transfer to Y University because she has to sit more now?
Or, does the parents of Girl A start Z University so she can get more playtime?

Practice is where athletes improve. Games are the test of how well the practice is. Games provide a myriad of situations that show the holes in the practice. You don't get better in games, you improve in the practices.

Recently, I have read a few articles about college coaches and their frustrations with the travel/select model. They believe the model is flawed in that, the athletes play way more games then they practice. In High School, we average three hours of practice to every one hour of game. In college, it is closer to six hours of practice per one hour of game. In travel/select it is about a half hour of practice per one hour of game.

There are countless articles about making practice harder than the game, and how you practice affects how you play, and so forth. Yet, on here, I read countless posts about play time and daddy ball and such.

I think the real question is this:
Do I want my daughter to play at the next level or do I want to watch my daughter play now. Some people get to do both, but that is less than 1% of the travel/select population.

The issue with travel ball practice is that they can’t meet every day. That’s just not a feasible option for many families - especially those who travel any length of time to get to practice. Most travel teams I know meet 2/3 times a week.

DD’s team practices 3 hours on the weeknights they meet and often 4 hours on a weekend day. That’s 10 hours of practice a week for them. They are a high level 18u team and their practice is quite tough....

During HS, Varsity practiced every day from 4-6 and maybe on the weekend - maybe. That averages out to about the same doesn’t it? I’m not saying all travel teams do practice as much but I am saying the comparison is kinda 🍎 to 🍊
 

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