- May 20, 2019
- 132
- 43
One of mine played 'travel' 8U. It was all local metro area stuff. All good so far.
But her team was really good (several ended up D1 stars). We got sucked into a vortex of traveling all over and by 10U they played in the first 10U Nationals. We were spending about $5000 per year on travel, lodging, food, etc. It's easy for this to happen to you.
For my later kids, we played on the very best local team that we could and kept them out of any long distance travel as long as possible. However, we have excellent metro area teams that are very competitive.
Travel coaching is about winning, NOT personal instruction. You are better served getting quality instruction where they measure your progress, not just say nice things (which is most of paid instruction). 90+% of kids have bat drag and they don't fix that in travel baseball or fastpitch. Most kids don't advance with bat drag. If you can hit, you will play. If you have velocity, you will play.
Disclaimer: I did not have any girl pitchers so I can't speak to that experience. However, my son was a D1 pitcher and I kept him out of travel until 13U. We used a radar gun in the back yard to work on grips, movement, speed and different techniques. My shins still hurt.
All of what you are saying is likely true in an urban environment with tons of commercial sports economy. When you live rural you often get your "quality" instruction during practice whether on the field or in the back yard. In my opinion a good travel ball coach should always have the girls development in mind. Prime example of what happens often here is a TB coach will bring guest players in for a tournament and sit out his regulars.