Weather to play competitive vs rec

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radness

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Dec 13, 2019
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On the "Playing 10u and 12u teams at the same time?" discussion there were a few people saying that many kids moving to TB was due to "parents ego"

That was the discussion I was looking for ...... why did your DD move to competitive ball and at what age?

What were your or your DD's goal or reason for moving to TB?

that was the discussion I was trying to have. Why did your DD make the move? What is your DD's story?
Yes! These same reasons often become the same reasons they sort through teams in travel ball.

Parent ego will move into TB
Still being a factor.
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
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DD’s story......

Our LL had a decent program. The girls who made the All-Star team were invited to play on an in-house travel team at age 10. They would play in a few TB tourneys in the spring to get them used to playing better competition to prepare for the LL All-Star tourney. They would typically play RR against local travel clubs and play in B-level tourneys. It was during these tourneys at 11-12U that dd, a pitcher, would hold her own against the local travel players. I began to think that it was time to think about moving her. That, and the fact that LL here ended at 12U for the girls.

A friend who coached a local travel team had heard about how well she did during our 11U All-Star run. He invited her to play on his team the fall of her 12U year with us agreeing to only the fall season as she would finish out LL in the spring. She enjoyed the experience and again did well against the other local TB teams that at 13U, we moved her to travel. Started out at C level in the fall and our team got bumped up to B for spring. Dd then continued to play B level at 14U and jumped to an 18U A team for 1st year 16U (freshman year) when she started to really indicate that she wanted to play in college. She also guest-played for a couple of 18U Gold teams that same summer.

The following summer we moved her to an 18U Gold team that played a showcase schedule and that’s where she’ll finish out her TB career after this summer.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
On the "Playing 10u and 12u teams at the same time?" discussion there were a few people saying that many kids moving to TB was due to "parents ego"

That was the discussion I was looking for ...... why did your DD move to competitive ball and at what age?

What were your or your DD's goal or reason for moving to TB?

that was the discussion I was trying to have. Why did your DD make the move? What is your DD's story?
DD moved to TB at 7 (almost 8) after playing rec machine pitch for 3 seasons and I felt it was time to move to kid pitch. The 10U rec kid pitch was horrible so we moved 🤷
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
Here in Minnesota we have community based teams that call themselves travel, but are really more glorified rec. Theres hundreds of these statewide and maybe a dozen that would be considered travel teams outside of the area. Sadly most parents don’t know the difference.

DD started travel at 14U. Should have started her at 12U for various reasons unique to her situation. As others have stated the biggest signs are if she’s bored or clearly one of the best players on the team. I’m basing these others on the kid bringing them up or expressing frustration at them.

-Girls skipping practice and expecting to play games that week.

-Girls missing games/tournaments to go to the lake. (Or any other excuse that wouldn’t go over well on a travel team.

-Girls skipping games/tournaments to play another sport. (If softball is in season and the other sport isn’t)

-Your kid worries about hurting teammates if they throw the ball hard and they can’t catch it.

-Receiving participation trophies.

-Losing first two bracket games and playing in the “friendship game”.

-Teammates not being engaged in the game.
 
Sep 19, 2018
928
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DD played the fall season of first year 10U travel. It was too intense and we allowed her to quit the team after the fall season ended. She continued to play Local Rec.

Note: Even though that travel coach is no tougher than her current coaches, she is still terrified of him. sigh.

Her intention has been to play on the middle school team (7th grade). Knowing that the middle school team will be made up entirely of the local travel team (she just quit), we let her know that she would HAVE to find a travel team by the Spring of 6th grade. She was falling behind very quickly.

Heading into 2nd year 10U, covid hit and the spring Rec season was canceled. We happened to find a travel team looking for players. We forced her to play because laying in bed 24/7 was not an option. At the end of the summer she said she wanted to continue playing with that org and is now on the 12U B team.
 
Dec 15, 2019
69
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My DD played t ball and then coach pitch. When she was 8 she was in a 3 day summer clinic, had a blast and played well. She tried out for a 10u travel team and didn’t make it as it was a second year 10u team and her skills definitely weren’t comparable. That fall she participated in a program for 7 and 8 year olds for that organization. After the third week (once a week “practices”) the 10u coach asked if she wanted to join her team for practice. She continued to practice with the 10u team, was deemed the bat girl and was able to get in couple innings over following summer.

Once that team moved up to 12u she made the new 10u team and unfortunately Covid hit but was still able to play about 30 games, mostly scrimmages between the fall and Covid summer. Half of this team moved up, a few moved on to other organizations.

She is now in her final 10u season with 3 girls from last year and will play 12u rec this spring. She is hoping to get in some tournaments this summer since there were none for us last year.
 
Jan 14, 2020
81
18
Our DD played our Rec League All-Stars and was in it to win it, so we tried out and made a travel team to see how much she wanted to play. It's a great test to see where the commitment level is, because of the money, travel, practices and loss of your weekends... lol. Our DD made huge strides in her softball knowledge and play, but as all kids she doesn't like the fact she misses out on activities with her school friends during the summer. in my eyes, 10U and 12U is where your DD will decide if she really wants to play competitive softball or does she enjoy playing with her friends. there is an abnormal amount of experience on here and Good luck with whatever path you take
 
Apr 20, 2015
961
93
Our DD played our Rec League All-Stars and was in it to win it, so we tried out and made a travel team to see how much she wanted to play. It's a great test to see where the commitment level is, because of the money, travel, practices and loss of your weekends... lol. Our DD made huge strides in her softball knowledge and play, but as all kids she doesn't like the fact she misses out on activities with her school friends during the summer. in my eyes, 10U and 12U is where your DD will decide if she really wants to play competitive softball or does she enjoy playing with her friends. there is an abnormal amount of experience on here and Good luck with whatever path you take
Love this! Mine has never cared about having friends on her softball team. Its a bonus to her that they get along. Fortunately for my oldest all of her friends are super competitive softball players so everyone is generally not available on those summer weekends. She has missed out a little because she has played on an out of state team for several years but we work hard to try to make some balance for her. There is softball for what every kid and family wants and its important to find that right fit. Nothing is more irritating than listening to a family and kid whine about how they're missing their lake house or camping trip or whatever on what's supposed to be a highly competitive team.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
Jun 30, 2020
67
18
We hit a point where our rec league wasn’t competitive any longer even with my DD playing up an age level. Most of the talented players, and pretty much all the decent to good pitcher left for travel teams. It made games painful to watch so we ended up moving to travel just before middle school.
 

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