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Oct 19, 2019
58
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You don't travel to major tournaments just to play in front of coaches. You travel to major tournaments to play great competition. That's how kids get better, playing better competition.

I disagree.

Take 1 kid out to a field down the street and work with her and only her for 2 hours.

How many ground balls can she field? How many at bats can she have?

A pile of each if she's in shape and she hustles.

Now take the same kid 3,000 miles from how to play 5 games.

How many ground balls will she likely field? How many at bats will she likely have?

Best case scenario is roughly 20 at bats. If she made a play every inning she played she would field 35 balls.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,315
113
I disagree.

Take 1 kid out to a field down the street and work with her and only her for 2 hours.

How many ground balls can she field? How many at bats can she have?

A pile of each if she's in shape and she hustles.

Now take the same kid 3,000 miles from how to play 5 games.

How many ground balls will she likely field? How many at bats will she likely have?

Best case scenario is roughly 20 at bats. If she made a play every inning she played she would field 35 balls.

If you can find competition at home where you DD is challenged to her fullest week in and week out than I agree. However as the level of play increases and the the pool of players becomes so diluted it becomes harder and harder to find quality opponents. In the North East there are probably 4 18U Gold teams that challenge one another. After they play each other 2-3 times it becomes necessary to play other teams to get better. I didn't understand it until I figured out that a U Trip world series is not the same as a PGF world series. When DD was younger her teams wanted to win trophies so if we faced a team we could easily beat it was a good time. Today if we play a team that is not legit it's a disappointment. I think it's a great thing. These kids want to be challenged. When we play a team where all of the pitchers are going SEC our girls want to hit against them. When my DD pitches and the lineup she faces is loaded with PAC 12 players she gets up for that game. That's the talent that they want to face. Can't find that at home.
 
Oct 19, 2019
58
18
That's the talent that they want to face. Can't find that at home.

My kid used to pitch. She stopped doing that at about 14 or 15.

Made me happy.

I don't know if that would have changed my mind about hitting the road because that's not how it happened, I doubt if it would have though.

I'm pretty sure I'd still think 3 or 400 hundred reps as often as we could squeeze it in would beat anything she could see anywhere I could take her.
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,394
113
Texas
You don't travel to major tournaments just to play in front of coaches. You travel to major tournaments to play great competition. That's how kids get better, playing better competition. I always hear "coaches dont go to California ". Truth be told many do and also Colorado. If you're a northeast team there are maybe 3 or 4 legit 18u gold teams within 300 miles. You travel to face the other top ranked teams from the south and west coast, texas etc.
As I was reading this thread, I kept thinking you don't play just for showcasing. This is called Travel Ball right? We travel to play the best competition around the country or you travel to whatever Nationals you want to travel to. There are some teams that travel EVERY weekend, which is not for every family. But for Summer Events at least for the 18U Gold type teams at minimum you play in at least 2 of the following: the TCS Fireworks Boulder IDT, TCS Nationals, PGF, JO Cup or ASA Gold Nats, USSSA Nationals. There are also minor Regional so called National events that are available too. 14U-18U this is what you do.

These events are where you make awesome memories! Yes, it costs money, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's over for my DD, and I got a little emotional at her last TB game in Atlanta last summer. Now she is playing softball 4 hours away in college, and is actually doing some volunteer work with her team this morning laying wreaths on the grave sites of fallen soldiers.

For many parents the goal is to get recruited. That is very short sighted. The goal is to get that degree and make it through 4 years of softball. I am already hearing rumors of players quitting before their spring seasons start for various reasons. For some, I believe their skill sets and work ethics are not strong enough for the softball program they ended up at. I might start another thread on this topic.
 
May 27, 2013
2,332
113
In my opinion there are two types of 18U teams at the higher level. The 18U teams that are stacked with already-committed juniors and seniors, and the true “showcase” teams which carry a good majority of non-committed, younger players. We are the latter team as we have only 4 players who are not still 16U eligible, 2 being our committed seniors. We don’t need to travel too far because we can find similar or better competition in Florida and New England, where the schools our girls communicate with show up regularly.

So yeah, if you are one of those stacked teams with high-level D1 commits you might have to travel far and wide to play the same type of competition level as you and to get your bragging rights - that’s exactly what PGF and TC are for.
 
Oct 19, 2019
58
18
For some, I believe their skill sets and work ethics are not strong enough for the softball program they ended up at. I might start another thread on this topic.

My kid's freshman class had 6 kids in it.

2 are left.

It's rough when your dad doesn't make the lineup card anymore..
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
As I was reading this thread, I kept thinking you don't play just for showcasing. This is called Travel Ball right? We travel to play the best competition around the country or you travel to whatever Nationals you want to travel to. There are some teams that travel EVERY weekend, which is not for every family. But for Summer Events at least for the 18U Gold type teams at minimum you play in at least 2 of the following: the TCS Fireworks Boulder IDT, TCS Nationals, PGF, JO Cup or ASA Gold Nats, USSSA Nationals. There are also minor Regional so called National events that are available too. 14U-18U this is what you do.

These events are where you make awesome memories! Yes, it costs money, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's over for my DD, and I got a little emotional at her last TB game in Atlanta last summer. Now she is playing softball 4 hours away in college, and is actually doing some volunteer work with her team this morning laying wreaths on the grave sites of fallen soldiers.

For many parents the goal is to get recruited. That is very short sighted. The goal is to get that degree and make it through 4 years of softball. I am already hearing rumors of players quitting before their spring seasons start for various reasons. For some, I believe their skill sets and work ethics are not strong enough for the softball program they ended up at. I might start another thread on this topic.

Or for many of those, they realize that SB will be over after their 4 years and that actually achieving top grades in their chosen majors will get them more of what they want in the long run of their lives.

I don't disagree with what was said in previous posts. However, I do disagree with what the main goal of TB is anymore. The goal used to be to play the best competition so that upcoming college players could be prepared for playing at the highest levels of college play such as the top 20 college teams and to a certain extent it still is. However, with the watering down of the talent pool, It has now evolved to getting the players recruited for the most part.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a certain niche for those players that want to play Major D1 such as PGF national caliber teams etc. But let's be honest, a majority of the people on here are those that represent a team that are comprised mostly of lower level D1, D2, D3 and HS caliber players. Yes, many of us may be lucky enough to coach a true Major D1 player once in a lifetime but they are far and few between IMO. So far, in 18 years of coaching TB, I've only had 2 and neither one could afford the $12K plus (including airline tickets, hotels, food etc.) TB fees that were needed to get them on the TB teams they deserved. One ended up D2 and the other ended up D3. Both are at their dream schools, playing and making great grades.
 
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