Is it worth it?

[ArkFastpitch]

DD has been playing TB for several years now and we are always looking for better opportunities for her. Out of all the "wish list" of teams she wants to play with, the top of her list has offered to pick her up. They are a multi-team organization that is well coached and extremely successful in developing players. Sounds like a dream opportunity right? The only problem is it would be a 3hr drive for practice every week. Would it be worth it?

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Where are you in AR? Age group, and the dream team. Good chance I know them if the 3 hours is east.

Feel free to send a pm.

 

[CoogansBluff]

For my DD, who is 14, I'd be reluctant to spend 6 hours in a car once/week unless the potential rewards were very high. Those six hours could be used to train at home. The new team would have to offer something pretty special to trade away those six hours once/week.

As far as good team coaching and player development, I think that is overrated. I like my daughter's team coaches, and they've helped her, but her player development comes primarily from the work she does at home, with me or with private instruction, and from the quality of opponents that she gets on weekends.

All that said, if the new team presented a far better opportunity to get a scholarship and elite competition that couldn't be found locally, then I would consider it.

I'd much more interested in a long-distance team if it practiced only once/month and found 12 mature, motivated players who were dedicated to working hard on their own. But driving 25 hours/month, that's considerable.

 

[sluggers]

How old is she? How many practices a week? Is it 3 hours round trip?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

3 hours round trip, is pretty normal, in AZ. We did that just for pitching lessons. DD learned to drive and I had 3 hours to chat with DD. Oh, she was almost 16.

 

[CoachBroker]

In Texas it is not uncommon to see the Top 18u teams have players driving 3-5 hrs one way to be on the team. Most look to be based out of Houston or Dallas areas and pull girls from all over the state. Keep in mind it takes 13 hrs to drive across our state east to west.

 

[Rocketech1]

I remember an interview by Megan Langenfeld who said she traveled over 5 hours round trip twice a week from central CA for her Orange County travel ball team practices. She said she did her school homework in the car drive. She ended up pitching for UCLA and won the WCWS in 2010. She would probably say that it was worth it. But than again she was one of the top players in CA.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

It's such a personal decision it's hard to answer assuming "one-size-fits-all".

I tell ya what - I would drive up to 8 hours round-trip for a weekly practice for a top team, that had a slot for my DD, where the team of players and parents were a gelled group with no cliques or whack-jobs. This is priceless.

 

[JAD]

A couple of questions:
1) How old is your DD?
2) What level TB?
3) What are her long term softball goals?
4) Does she want to play in college?
5) Would the new team provide more college exposure opportunities than the current team?