Training facility teams

[KKsoftball]

My DD just tried out for a team based out of a training facility. The staff looks awesome and the girls will be able to train indoors twice a week in the winter. The team also great! It is expensive, but I am afraid this is a little too good to be true! Trained pitching/hitting coaches, indoor facilities, great looking players. Am I being paranoid? The older I get, the more cynical I get! I am from a small town and our traveling team stinks! Has anyone had any experience with this? I just hope they don't take my money and fold like some of the gyms I have joined in the past have done! Thanks for your help! This is my first post!

 

[starsnuffer]

That's pretty much the norm for upper tier organizations out here. The daddy ball clubs usually rent time in facilities, but don't get the coaches and instructors.

-W

 

[quincy]

We have a facility here that runs a few Travel Teams. The actual facility has a presence here and is not going anywhere so if you are invited to join their Team you are going to get what you pay for.

Like you I would think their Team would be awesome, for whatever reason they field just another softball Team. No better or worse than other Travel Teams.

 

[Bucketrider]

We just began playing 14U with such a team that actually started four teams at once. Still having a few growing pains, but the benefits of former collegiate players being coaches and the indoor facilities seem to be worth it. Everyone was told at try outs that this was going to be a team and philosophy of preparing the girls to play HS and College Softball, working for scholarships. Now we have parents and girls complaining about three night a week team practices, but I guess that is for another thread!!!

The one benefit that my wife and I believe is that they want their business to continue to grow and sporting a winning team will help. No one wants to be associated with a sub par performing team, so theoretically, they will have a more vested interest than a "daddy ball" team. The ultimate reality however is the motivation of the girls and the willingness of the coaches. Hopefully the cynic in all of us will be satisfied!

 

[fastpitch]

In our area it seems like these training facility teams are popping up everywhere promising top notch training. Also promising/ or implying they can help with scholarships which just seems ridiculous. Usually they cost a lot more and don't seem to cut anybody who can pay making their teams much weaker than others forcing them into B tournaments. Usually the few good players if they have any will leave after a season of playing B tournaments and then they rebuild the team again.

While it gives weaker players a place to play in our area, it seems to be seen as more of a stepping stone to the better teams. These players can't make the better teams so they join the training facility ones with the hopes they will get better and can eventually make a better team.

 

[InsidePitch]

We have a couple in my area. I am sort of familiar with one that charges about 3k for the year. That said, the two people I know that had kids on their teams were unhappy about their DD's playing time. Both were told that if they spent another 700 on top of what they were already paying for additional training their DD's would see more playing time. Neither family returned for a second year.

 

[quincy]

another 700 on top of what they were already paying for additional training

Cool, Pay for play. I wonder what they charge for the different Positions. Does it cost you more if you want to be the starting C as let's say starting LF? How much more do you have to pay to leadoff opposed to batting last?

 

[InsidePitch]

One kid was a Pitcher and the other a catcher. Both dads where told to purchase a 10 lesson package and they'd see their kids get more time on the mound and behind the plate. The Pitchers dad was already paying good money every week to another PC outside of their program.

 

[FPMark]

One kid was a Pitcher and the other a catcher. Both dads where told to purchase a 10 lesson package and they'd see their kids get more time on the mound and behind the plate. The Pitchers dad was already paying good money every week to another PC outside of their program.

Well, that actually makes sense. They are not going to have a girl taking lessons from a PC outside their program being their #1 pitcher, no matter how good she is. Promoting other PCs is not their goal. This is something to consider before going to a team that has their own instructors.

 

[99&beyond]

In our area it seems like these training facility teams are popping up everywhere promising top notch training. Also promising/ or implying they can help with scholarships which just seems ridiculous. Usually they cost a lot more and don't seem to cut anybody who can pay making their teams much weaker than others forcing them into B tournaments. Usually the few good players if they have any will leave after a season of playing B tournaments and then they rebuild the team again.

While it gives weaker players a place to play in our area, it seems to be seen as more of a stepping stone to the better teams. These players can't make the better teams so they join the training facility ones with the hopes they will get better and can eventually make a better team.

THIS!!!

We joined one of these last year. When DD's coach decided it was the best choice for the team since we were moving up to 14U and she didn't think she was capable of doing it by herself anymore. 5 of us stuck around. We lasted 2 months and then bolted. My DD got burned out real quick with the year around softball. I watched the team closely through the spring season (easy to do since DD's bff was on the team still). The only real difference I could see was several of them were stronger hitters. This is nothing we couldn't have accomplished with a private batting coach and time at the cages. But when it came to playing games with the big dogs, they fell flat and lost, pretty much every time.

Just speaking of personal experience with the academy we joined. There were a lot of things promised, that a year later I still don't see that has happened. They are telling the current members and parents of them team that they are only going to bring in talented athletes for this next season. I know 2 girls that have already joined. There are no tryouts or placing. You pay your money, you're on the team. Current team members are ticked. I don't see this facility in it for the good of the girls. This is all about the money for them. They sell you rainbows, but all you get are grey clouds.

Unfortunate for us, DD's current coach's DD, just joined up as well. So again we are out a team. There are several well run organizations around here that are producing results. Some of them also in their first years. This one was not one of them.

Do your research. Don't fall into the trap of an up and coming program that promises you the moon and stars with nothing to back it.