This is why there are tons of of low level travel ball teams.
Parent Coaches
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This is why there are tons of of low level travel ball teams.
Likewise. I was told for years that I needed to step aside and "turn her over to someone else and just be a dad in the stands.".
it is a self fulfilling downward spiral. suzie does not make travel team, parent thinks they were slighted, starts new travel, taking the best from their rec league. and again and again and again.
virtually sscreams for some of governing body to put a stop to it, but too much money at stake now.
It does not help when you have coaches who think that learning the game is to occur in Rec League. Usually they are the same coaches that are convinced that they have all the answers. Development both physically and mentally is an ongoing endeavor. I know that there are those who are convinced that by 10U their DD knows the game inside and out and is destined for future glory on the SEC. Fortunately little Suzi and those coaches have usually washed out by 14U. The coaches who whine about too many teams and dilution of the talent pool are the ones who cannot or will not teach the game and as such cannot keep players.
The so called TB explosion is because there is a demand, and that is a good thing. The problem is not too many players, but very few competent coaches. The best coaches are always teaching the game, attract the top talent, always have players and field a quality team. The ones who do not teach or do not know the game are trying to keep up all the while wondering why they cannot keep players and make it work.
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In my area, most teams are affiliated with a league, but when you get to the A-level teams, I think that’s when you find the organizations with the college recruiting focus. So any “talent-suck” that’s going on is self-inflicted.
Maybe it’s a rec-league problem? Are we just playing too short of a season? K-3 does a practice a week, and one Saturday game during the season (mid-April to early June). With Memorial Day and Sometimes Easter/Spring Break, oh - and that thing called weather, we get maybe 8 games in. Plus another 6-7 in the fall. How much better can you get?
Or maybe our own expectations are too high? Very few non-travel players are heading outside after school to play catch, or just throw a ball against a wall. My daughter’s best friends with several of her teammates - I don’t think they’ve ever played catch together on their own, outside of practice, the 5 years they’ve been playing together.
I wonder if more leagues offered some type of off-season “pick-up” games, would that meet the demand for more playing opportunities, or would we still be left with the “break-off” team of families looking for greener pastures?
Sorry - not exactly on topic with the original post!
Maybe it’s a rec-league problem? Are we just playing too short of a season? K-3 does a practice a week, and one Saturday game during the season (mid-April to early June). With Memorial Day and Sometimes Easter/Spring Break, oh - and that thing called weather, we get maybe 8 games in. Plus another 6-7 in the fall. How much better can you get?
Or maybe our own expectations are too high? Very few non-travel players are heading outside after school to play catch, or just throw a ball against a wall. My daughter’s best friends with several of her teammates - I don’t think they’ve ever played catch together on their own, outside of practice, the 5 years they’ve been playing together.
I wonder if more leagues offered some type of off-season “pick-up” games, would that meet the demand for more playing opportunities, or would we still be left with the “break-off” team of families looking for greener pastures?
Sorry - not exactly on topic with the original post!
I agree to some extent, but quite honestly at the 10U level, many of the teams truly are comprised of girls that did 6+ seasons of rec ball and are the right ones to make the travel team. And they are largely daddy-taught or self-taught when they get to us. Meaning they still need a lot of help, and in some cases they need to start over (with their swing, or pitching, etc.).
- Jul 14, 2018
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This was definitely the case with my daughter. Rec ball just didn't offer enough playing opportunity, and that was a big factor in starting travel ball when she was in 10U. Did we see a lot of bad teams that were playing "travel" because there were other groups of girls who just wanted to keep playing? Absolutely. Does that mean there were too many teams? Maybe. But those parent coaches took charge and got their girls more time on the field. Maybe most won't still be playing by 14U, but that's okay. They were able to get a taste of the game beyond those 10 games a year and figure out if softball was a sport for them.
Learning basic fundamentals of the game happens in rec leagues. Really learning the game happens with high quality coaches providing good instruction while playing against top level competition.
We have a ton of travel teams in our area. Some think it is too many, while others continue to build new ones. It was never an issue for us. When DD first started playing travel, it was for a local B level team. Each year the quality of the team continued to increase. We gradually went from a team that was winning half our games to one that was winning 75% to 80% of our games. We then started to spread our wings a bit. Played more A level tournaments. Traveled a bit further (PA, MD, NJ, Ohio, VA). It isn't that difficult to find competition that is similar in level. One of the biggest problems I see is coaches that choose not to do that. They either intentionally play weaker competition so that they can accumulate plastic trophies, or they overestimate their ability and get pounded every tournament. In my opinion neither option helps the players long term.
