Can I get a travel ball history lesson?

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radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
This is something that I have hated to see and have commented on in several sports. It's about ego. Every kid wants to say they are on a travel team and every parent wants to brag about having a kid on a travel team. As a result, a lot of average kids don't develop and a lot of kids without well off parents are shut out of decent competition, and in some cases they are shut out of the sport entirely. It is ruining youth sports.
Hmmm? For that matter...
parents could have their kid
playing different sports to brag
all over the place.
_________________________
How much of playing other sports is associated with the weather?

How many sports other than softball are year round?

If people want to stay competitive in the year round sport... do they break from it while others are still playing?

Perhaps theres a competitive push to not break from it weather permitting?!
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
That to me is the saddest and most troubling part about both baseball and softball travel ball amd its destruction of the local Rec leagues. Kids bailing at 9, 10 11 yrs old and the leagues go to crap. I wish kids would stick around in theor local leagues as in our time ("back in the day") til 14 or 15. Then go play TB like we would with American Legion ball and with your HS teams in summer amd fall ball. But...I know that is loooong gone now.

Even HS ball is affected and thought of as less important than TB in many parts of the country. We've seen girls stop playing HS and focus on just TB...but it happens in all sports now. Soccer is the most Ive seen

Rec was so much fun. A game on a Saturday, surrounded by the community. You pick up with a team after your game who's down a player. You see your neighbors who have a kid 3 years younger so you get to chat with them.

Travel it's like our little pod moves from tourney to tourney. Some of the adults are sick of each other.
 
Jan 21, 2019
12
3
A scenario I have seen many times...

A local rec all-star team has a good run during their summer all-star season. Maybe they won a couple of tournaments, and did well at their State championships. Coaches are pumped up, parents are happy, the players love each other. Everyone is feeling good. Then, the coaches pop the idea of keeping those happy feeling going, and keeping the team together, by becoming a TB team. To keep costs down, they don't join up with a major TB org, they stay independent as "Coast City Cyclones" . Sounds great, Coach :)

They start playing friendlies and tournaments, and proceed to get curb-stomped...repeatedly. Welcome to TB! The happy buzz starts wearing off. A few parents decide their princesses need to be on a team that wins, so they pull the plug and go find a new team. Now, the Cyclones have some holes to fill. Very likely, the players that left were some of the better players on the team. The Cyclones don't exactly have a well-known name, and a pretty ugly track record. Attracting quality talent is not likely, but the coaches need to fill the roster so the team can keep playing, so they take anyone who is willing to write a check. Maybe the coaches are pretty good, and they help the better athletes become pretty good players, but the scenario repeats.

A lot more often than not, these types of teams don't last very long.
I agree. I think this is the number 1 reason travel ball exploded in the 10u age group and is starting to take hold in 8u. Maybe the recent issues with COVID-19 will slow down the 8u thing. These younger kids really need to go back to another year of rec ball and all stars but the the parents also don't want to chance them getting drafted by a bad rec league team. If they become a travel team, they call all stick together forever...or until the first one leaves the team after their first TB season.
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
There is a flip side to this, as well. DD and many of her friends play TB, on a bunch of different teams. Last spring, they came together for one last run at a rec state title. It was 12U, end of the line.

The other teams we played at 12U were furious at us. At our district final, as I was warming DD up, a parent from the other finalist stood behind me and exclaimed loudly, “Oh look, they brought their travel pitcher. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

There’s definitely an idea out there that rec is just for learning, and that once a kid has developed any level of skill they should move on. Honestly, there wasn’t any legit competition until the state tournament (where our team lost in the final). That state tournament was full of rec all star teams that played a solid travel schedule during the spring to get better.

That team from the district final? They would have gotten destroyed if they had qualified for states.


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If they and your dd played the minimum amount of rec games required to be able to qualify for the all-star team, then there shouldn’t have been an issue, and that parent was wrong for saying anything.
 
Jul 29, 2013
6,782
113
North Carolina
and that parent was wrong for saying anything.
Not in her mind! :rolleyes: I still remember very well when Anna was playing 10U rec ball, we were to face a team who we knew brought a girl in, we'd never seen her before. She was warming up and my girls seemed terrified............

But, I knew their 3B and 1B, neither one could catch a beach ball. This team I had could run, fast! I think I bunted the first 8 girls and we had them 6 to nothing in minutes. Eww........big bad travel ball, scary word! They're 10 years old!

The funny thing is the other side was losing their minds, but the one big hell raising voice I'd never heard before was the travel kid's mom.......we were NOT supposed to do that to the anointed child they brought in! Walk through after the game was real fun!
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
I agree. I think this is the number 1 reason travel ball exploded in the 10u age group and is starting to take hold in 8u. Maybe the recent issues with COVID-19 will slow down the 8u thing. These younger kids really need to go back to another year of rec ball and all stars but the the parents also don't want to chance them getting drafted by a bad rec league team. If they become a travel team, they call all stick together forever...or until the first one leaves the team after their first TB season.

I remember buying into the concept that the team would stick together until 18U. It was 10U, and our very first TB team. I was dumb. It's nice when you can get a core group to bond...and get all their parents to agree. If they stay together for 2 years, consider it a good run.
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
not sure what's wrong with this scenario...assuming the coach is "pretty good." those teams play because they are having fun working at the game not to get a college scholly. a lot of those kids will get the bug and work really hard to make a more competitive team. others may not and play "B/C" level with their friends and enjoy the game the or move on to other things. that's FINE. There are alot more B/C teams around that you can play locally and don't have to travel as much to keep costs down.

it seems the OP's premise is that only "A" level travel ball should exist. all other forms should dismantle immediately. we should want to grow the game and have options for kids at all levels. there is a very large group of players/families that want more than LL, but may not be ready for traveling for national events. B/C teams should not be looked down upon. they should be commended for giving a group of girls an opportunity to play.

There's nothing "wrong" with it, necessarily. I was just illustrating a scenario. Very often these teams have expectations that aren't real, and end up traveling a rough road. Very often these teams are also carrying a number players that aren't really ready to play at the next level, but don't want to leave the happy buzz of their group of friends. The ones that struggle sometimes go back to rec ball, but more often (from what I've seen) end up quitting softball.
 

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