TB skill levels

[Phathead]

Do the TB tournys in your area do a good job of keeping TB teams grouped together by skill levels. Here the tournys regardless of association can be very different in terms of skill level. Most tournys will have 5-6 teams. One kills everbody, one gets killed by most and the rest can be close games or so. Any tourny of course can have more or less of one or the other. Sometimes they tourny is advertised as low B/ rec but most are just advertised and you have no idea what you are signing up for as the director is reluctant to disclose since low teams wont show up to be punching bag which of course hurts their profit. I don't mind getting beat by a better team if we compete but I have no use killing or being killed by a team holding runners etc as neither teams gets any real skill gains on either end of it. Just thought I would ask how tournys are done outside of E TN. We are basically a low b with all players playing rec also.

 

[marriard]

This is going to vary hugely by area and depend a lot on how much softball is in each area. We have a lot of teams in South Florida so there is generally A & B divisions each weekend and it is monitored well. Even then this still happens if there is a lot of tournaments in region on a particular weekend (we once had 2 USSSA, an ASA and a ISA tournament all within about an hours drive - teams were spread out) or only a couple of 'A' teams that end up being mixed into the 'B' division.

Here is a suggestion - and what we did this year.

Since you probably know the teams that are in your area that are about your level give them all a call and discuss and synchronize schedules.

1) Make sure you are all going to be at the same tournaments or even tell tournaments you are all coming so you would like a 'X' division created for the 6 teams. This worked well for us as an 'A' team - we got enough A teams and high B teams to specific tournaments to make sure there were enough for the division.

2) Set up a big scrimmage day - bring all the teams of your level to your home fields and play a one day round robin - no prizes needed - just pay for the umpires. This is also cheaper than having a tournament. Have pizza party at the end for all the teams. This went GREAT this year when we got invited to one and hosted one.

These two things worked real well for us and we had some real fun tournaments where all the teams were very competitive and we had some fun scrimmage days with 6-8 teams having a great time playing each other without worrying about a trophy or eliminations.

Last extra idea - talk to the local tournament director and and have them set up a tournament **just** for low B teams and have them promote it. They set up a 'Lower' State B tournament this last season where you had to be a 'B' team with a less than .500 record to enter. The teams I knew that went to it said it went REALLY well and gave teams that hadn't really had a chance to place highly in a tournament go deep into a tournament and have a legitimate chance to win it.

 

[Phathead]

Married. I like your ideas and yes I know most of the teams on my level and I really like the round robin pizza idea. That would be a lot of fun with say 4 teams and no places just play. Maybe even put in quirks like no pitcher against same team twice etc. forcing a defense to hold with weaker pitcher and so on. I really like it and will check about field rental.

 

[YOCOACH]

Another suggestion. Just got back from a fairly big tournament that had 24 teams in our division. Pool play consisted of 6 pools, 4 teams each chosen by blind draw. At the end of pool play, they seeded the teams based on runs allowed and number of wins. The bottom 12 teams played their elimination round in a Silver division and the top 12 played in a Gold division. Both divisions got trophies. It was a really fun tournament as far as we were concerned even though we didn't do that well.

 

[crystlemc]

I find that a large part of this problem is that there are so many teams that have 2-3 really good players, and the rest are average. Then you have a small handful that are VERY good teams. The rest are just glorified rec teams. The only teams that really know what they have are the very good ones. There are so many teams that think they are "A" level teams because they can beat the teams that "everyone should beat". That doesn't make you good. What makes you good is being able to beat the very good teams 50%+ of the time.

I think it's great that so many girls want to play high level ball. The problem is that not necessarily all of them have the skill level to do so.

Yeah, I don't think this post was relevant to the original topic...lol.

That being said, most of the tourneys around here have maybe 3-4 really good teams, 10 teams of varying degrees of average, and 2-3 that just really stink.

 

[Phathead]

crystlemc. I think you have the exact point/problem I am talking about. My team that I am very proud of all play rec in 2 different counties and all made allstars in their counties. What keeps us from being one of "the teams" is practice time and facilities. All feilds are taken for rec in season and not maintained out of season. The other problem is I don't tryout/recruit. One quits I recruit otherwise I stick with same players and this really helps in the parent dept. With no recruiting the other is of course pitching. 2 that throw strikes 2 learning but no stud flame throwing D1 prospects. I really enjoy the coaching the players and even the parents. I just started this seeing how other areas are. Of course I want to win but just being competitive is awsome getting destroyed sucks.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Do the TB tournys in your area do a good job of keeping TB teams grouped together by skill levels. Here the tournys regardless of association can be very different in terms of skill level. Most tournys will have 5-6 teams. One kills everbody, one gets killed by most and the rest can be close games or so. Any tourny of course can have more or less of one or the other. Sometimes they tourny is advertised as low B/ rec but most are just advertised and you have no idea what you are signing up for as the director is reluctant to disclose since low teams wont show up to be punching bag which of course hurts their profit. I don't mind getting beat by a better team if we compete but I have no use killing or being killed by a team holding runners etc as neither teams gets any real skill gains on either end of it. Just thought I would ask how tournys are done outside of E TN. We are basically a low b with all players playing rec also.

This is one thing that does not happen in travel baseball, and "should" be addressed in fastpitch. Teams are carefully monitored on wins losses and other factors and moved up in class by the org and not allowed to play down. Keeps the matchups pretty fair.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

When DD first moved from LL to TB she was on a team that played strictly NSA. I don't know if this is an NSA rule, but there were 2 divisions; A and B. Teams were required to play in the B division until they WON 2 tournaments in the same season, then they could play in the A division. Once a team is in the A division they can not play down without association approval and would then be subject to the 2 wins in a season rule before playing up again.

ASA, on the other hand, had no such rules and if your team wasn't very good, be prepared to play minimum number of games before barbeque time.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

Do the TB tournys in your area do a good job of keeping TB teams grouped together by skill levels. Here the tournys regardless of association can be very different in terms of skill level. Most tournys will have 5-6 teams. One kills everbody, one gets killed by most and the rest can be close games or so. Any tourny of course can have more or less of one or the other. Sometimes they tourny is advertised as low B/ rec but most are just advertised and you have no idea what you are signing up for as the director is reluctant to disclose since low teams wont show up to be punching bag which of course hurts their profit. I don't mind getting beat by a better team if we compete but I have no use killing or being killed by a team holding runners etc as neither teams gets any real skill gains on either end of it. Just thought I would ask how tournys are done outside of E TN. We are basically a low b with all players playing rec also.

I am from East Tn as well , and here is what I see.

#1 - There arent enough true "A" level teams to have their own tournaments. Most teams are "B" at best.

#2 - Typically "Rec" ball in this area is VERY poor and those teams typically arent going to compete with most TB teams.

#3 - There really arent any Rec tournaments around here , so those teams have to play in TB tournaments and usually get destroyed.

I really wish there were fewer "travel" teams in the area so that the real talented players wouldnt be so spread out and more "A" level teams could be formed , thus also creating more Rec / C level teams and increasing the need for more Rec tournaments

 

[Phathead]

CycloneSoftball22. your right I have 1 and may be gaining a 2nd that could play up a class or age group. 1 that struggles. the rest like I say are b to low b.(dd in this group). but very even in talent basically the town allstar team not weak but lack pitching. I agree with your theroy 100% the problem is 90%+ parents won't admit there DD is C level and if they did they will jump first chance to play up with the B's for skill improvement and the cycle continues. Average A goes down level to be star or get more mound/playing time.