- May 25, 2010
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(I wanted to respond to CobraAssist's post without taking any more attention away from the OP's question in the other thread)You are really hardcore against 8u TB aren't you? What about a scenario where the girl lives in a small town, and the competition/coaching is just horrible? I do think that there are different types of 8u TB teams, and some of them are a little over the top hardcore for the age group. However, there is nothing wrong with giving your daughter a chance to play with/against the best players in her particular age group. To see the strides that some of these girls have made because of it is amazing. One little girl has been trying to turn a double play all year, and when she finally did, it was a massive celebration. Another little girl, our catcher, has gone from closing her eyes whenever the batter swings to tracking it's every movement, and now if the ball is popped up anywhere in her vicinity, she's all over it. It's the small victories at this age. We haven't made our team about winning every tournament. We go play in tournaments with teams that are far superior to us, just so the girls can learn lessons on what hard work can bring you, failure, and to see the looks on their faces when we actually beat the best team (don't snicker) in the state. It was epic to say the least. Don't get me wrong, we have also played in tournaments where the teams are more evenly matched, and even won one of them. We qualified for nationals, but did not go. Our girls have learned lessons in defeat, and we found no need to drive 14 hours for them to learn anymore. We don't play daddyball. We're not screamers. All of the parents genuinely like each other, and we're having a whole lot of fun. We're just a group of people who's kids happen to like softball enough to want to play it a lot, and learn as much as they can. What's wrong with that?
If someone ruined the experience for you, or you've seen up close and personal a bad situation, I can fully understand why you feel the way you do. But, don't make such generalized statements that include those of us that are doing it right, and for the right reasons. I am an 8u TB coach, and we're having a blast with it.
Yes, I am generally against 8u TB, and I'm also against parents buying $300 bats for 8yo players, especially since they'd be much better off with a $40 bat and 8 hitting lessons. These are my two hangups, I do admit.
It all depends on the community you live in and the people you've got involved with your team. I don't doubt for a moment that there are unique situations like yours where everyone's getting a benefit from the program, but there's too much anecdotal evidence which indicates that the experiences of the OP are more common than not. The player development issues, specifically, are that playing time is not shared reasonably and that there are too many teams on which players don't get actual game experience at a variety of positions. Tournaments are tough, because even with a 4gg format, coaches feel pressure - whether real or imagined - to do what they feel will help the team advance deep on Sunday. Not pointing a finger at you, Coach, just saying that no matter how we try to fight it, human nature is generally going to kick in at some point with respect to how people will feel about a tournament game vs a regular-season rec game.
As you mentioned, so much depends on geography. We do have the advantage of winterball here in this region, which offers a 'travel lite' experience for players and parents that's pretty cool. Teams from different towns play one another and the cost is only a few dollars more than spring rec. The kids also get to play in a tournament format at the end.
So no, I'm not totally against its very existence, but in general, full-time 8u TB isn't good, with the sole exception of those areas which are all player pitch and I haven't heard of such a thing anywhere in the U.S.