The girls just want to play ball.

[Amy in AZ.]

I hear it from parents all of the time and then, again, last night.

The new uniforms are great. The ball bags are great. But, what does it have to do with softball? Her point was that 3 pants, 3 shirts, 3 socks, 1 back pack, 1 regular bat bag, and 3 practice t shirts is just overwhelming. She wanted 2 t-shirts and a pair of pants.

She said that the travel is ridiculous. There are plenty of local teams they could play.

Oh, and then the timed and numerous games per day, each weekend. The game wasn't always like this. It was 7 innings and no tie breakers. You might have actually ran into a game that went 21 innings. Then, our tournies were maybe 2 games a day, Friday, Sat. and Sunday. Or, local double headers each day.
Total games per year - 45 ish.

All I could do was agree. But, it seems like softball is all about someone making money.

She didn't complain about the private lessons, which she had to bring 2 of her kids to, last night. But she is right. Sports have become all consuming.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

IMO

Little league is still 7 innings, players usually get 1 tee shirt as a uniform, team only plays locally 2-3 games per week, the occasional double header, total games 45 ish...

 

[chinamigarden]

It used to be that you had to chose between the sports that played at the same time. Now a kid has a hard time playing more then 1 competitive sport per year, yet alone per season.

Its not just softball, its all sports. Basketball teams want to practice and play half the year, volleyball teams charge a ton of money and play tournaments during softball season and into the fall. Decent soccer programs want the kids to play soccer 10 months of the year. A sport they play for pennies in other countries costs thousands in the US. Its amazing how many 1 or 2 sport specific facilities have popped up for youth sports training. Not that that is a bad thing, but it shows you just how big of a business youth sports have become.

And with that boom, you have every joe smoe who every threw a ball giving lessons. I used a video tape and the internet to teach my daughter to pitch. More to the truth, I let her natural ability take over and I stayed out of the way, and caught. 2 girls on her team last season took pitching lessons for a year, both from the same guy. Both ended up worse then when they began and both have a bunch of technical flaws, terrible what that coach did to those girls. And to top it off, the parents paid this know nothing good money to do it to them. I'm not saying that a good pitching coach is not necessary. Its just too bad how many people are passing themselves off as PCs.

 

[Lozza]

3 pants, 3 shirts, 3 socks, 1 back pack, 1 regular bat bag, and 3 practice t shirts is just overwhelming.

Wow, too much. I understand having two different uniforms if the girls are regurally in weekend tournaments, it makes it slightly easier. (and has them last longer) But three training shirts? Three bags? Overkill.

 

[fivepotsogold]

Our LL is a T shirt and about 12-15 games 9-12 year old .... All Stars mid June through July and uniforms are returned (keep using them over over each year). $120.
There is an indoor league for them and that is 10 games and 2 indoor training sessions for $150 .. 12 kids on the team.

Our Travel team is pretty much Sept - March back at it June July (no August) HS cannot play Travel/other than HS mid March-mid June here.
$900 gets you two uniforms (slider shorts you buy), bat bag, helmet, indoor winter training 2x per week and 7 tournaments.
Returning player with uniform equip gets new socks and pays $750.
Team did three extra fall/winter tournaments at about $150 extra per player.

Indoor winter HS softball is $210 per player for 10 games, and five 2 hour work out sessions befor HS starts ...
10 kids on each of our HS teams. (Several particpation levels offered so total 10 kids per game (more than 28 signed up) and this is all optional

My 12 year old plays Premier soccer ... $2000 per year ... off August and December (three away tournaments in spring, games fall spring (about 4-5 times per week) ....that will end when she goes to HS. (whew)

We never stop other than our vacation in August ...

My two softball players really love it, though ....

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I have tried to help with the LL program and I found that their philosophy towards coaching is "let's just let parents yell advice from the stands." I coached LL for several years myself and I think that a season was about 15 games.

People seem to be looking for a program that is somewhere between LL and 100 games a year.

Yes, I see people, too, that seem to be making a living coaching. At least, they have quit their full times jobs. Have they ever played softball? No.

 

[PAcoach]

Wow, too much. I understand having two different uniforms if the girls are regurally in weekend tournaments, it makes it slightly easier. (and has them last longer) But three training shirts? Three bags? Overkill.

Currently we have 3 uniforms (pants, shirts and socks per set) and adding a 4th.

 

[starsnuffer]

I think the excessive starting costs are a good thing. The last thing you need is to have parents be "surprised" about how expensive it is and quit halfway through the season. If you hit them hard at the start you thin the herd.

 

[PAcoach]

I think the excessive starting costs are a good thing. The last thing you need is to have parents be "surprised" about how expensive it is and quit halfway through the season. If you hit them hard at the start you thin the herd.

We are fortunate that we do not have a high turnover of players. However, if and when we need to tryout a player, we have a packet of info we hand the parent at registration for them to read while their kid is being tried out. The packet has everything spelled out clearly. Then, if we ask the player to join us, we go into great discussion on costs and how much they can expect to pay.
On a side note, our team fee is cheap compared to others. We will play in 8-9 tournaments. Over night travel for at least 3, maybe 4 of them. We give 3 uniforms, working on the 4th. Bat bags, helmets and cleats. Plus 13 weeks indoor training (1 weekend day) fielding and batting, plus we have a speed and agility guy that works with them for 30-45 minutes on that day. Plus we usually get them several T-shirts throughout the year as well......$450.00 bucks.. Creative fund raisers (2) and great sponsors.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

People seem to be looking for a program that is somewhere between LL and 100 games a year.

I always thought that a "travel ball lite" (TBL) program would be a great thing. Somewhere in commitment between "rec all-stars" and "full-blown travel ball", where the TBL team would only play maybe 8 - 10 tournaments (40 to 50 games a year?) and still allow time for other sports, activities. Does a limited softball program like this exist?