Once I moved him to travel it was another world for him. Earn his playing time, earn his position. Now travel is for kids parents who are competitive, and really love baseball. Some travel programs are extreme though. Finding the right team can be an exercise.
fixed
That's just so wrong.
Stop lumping in the new stereotype of crazy parents for every kid that is in travel.
Travel baseball is a wonderful thing for a lot of good young ball players who want to play with kids who can actually challenge them and compete.
Unfortunately in my part of the country Little League as we know it is pretty piss poor. When I played little league it was nothing like it is today. I never thought I was going to have to move my son to travel ball by age 8......but I had to. He was really not enjoying thowing balls to kids who simply could not make a basic catch.
I think the fix is correct.
Ummmmm no. My kid did not want to throw balls to kids that simply could not even catch a ball anymore. Once kids hit 7-8....it starts to become pretty clear who is going to keep playing and who is just there to get fresh air and a trophy for participating.
My kid wanted to play with kids who...you know....catch the ball, throw the ball.....hit the ball.
That is baseball. He was playing fetch in warm ups.
You have two types of leagues today.......and I am not talking about tee-ball or coach pitch...I am talking about kid's pitch.
1.those where kids participate
2 those where kids are competing.
That is the reality of youth sports today. Not just baseball. Basketball, football, soccer. It's everywhere. And there is nothing wrong with it.
If your kid is really good at their respective sport.......why should they not play with kids of the same of better skill level? And if travel is the only way they can.....it is what it is.
I could not disagree with you more
. Travel sports are the runination of youth sports and the invention of travel sports came at the behest of parents, not children. Little League is ruined for all kids because the best at a young age a plucked from Little League and pushed into travel ball. What this does is that it helps a few kids get better while it hurts the kids who develop later as athletes.
I coached Little League ball for almost a decade and prior to the rise of travel ball. I coached 7-11 year olds. Kids at that age want to play and want to be a part of something. Did I have some kids who were stronger fielders than others? Yes. Did we work to bring those other kids up to par with the better fielders? Absolutely. By seperating the baseball wheat from the baseball chaff at such a young age you are classifying those kids left in "rec" ball as not up to snuff possibly before they have a chance to develop. I've seen kids who were athletically mature at 8 and kids who grew into the sport and became good ball players around 11 or 12.
Travel ball undermines the development of those late bloomers for the sake of the kids who mature early.
Think about the development of the young athlete. The kid who is good early isnt really hindered by his team mates who need more time to develop. But his example and modeling him can help other boys and girls get better. Good coaching can help tremendously too, this is another thing that travel ball is siphoning off of Little League. Over time those "other" kids will get better and will challenge the "gifted" kid. I've seen it and I've coached it. I had an 11 year old who no one wanted because he was heavy. The judged him based solely on his weight and the fact that he was slower that the other kids. But we worked with him. He got to be more mobile and he locked down left field for us for 3 seasons. He also hit was about a .600 hitter for us. He just needed a little instruction. He had a great eye for the ball as a hitter. But his swing mechanics were terrible so in that first try out he made little to no contact with the ball. He's not the only kid that I had like that.
Sorry I got off on a little tangent there. But if your worriying about high school ball for your 9 year old son I think youve got you priorities and by extension his a little mixed up. Regardless of how "competetive" high school baseball is in your area. At 9 he should be playing for sheer enjoyment. Its adults who put all this extra pressure on the kids and its wrong in my opinion.
You make a lot of valid points. And I don't disagree with you on several of them.
My greatest joy that I get from coaching youth baseball is developing kids. And I have had a hand in developing a lot of kids over the years from below average and average ball players into kids who love and play better baseball now.
Here is the problem we had in our particular slice of pleasentville. I would have 12 kids on my squad.
2-3 are flat out really good, high potential kids.
4-5 are good kids who need coaching, mental development and maturity, and lot;s of reps and they can and have the potential to be good.
3-4 who flat out do not want to be there. refuse to work hard, refuse to listen and really slow down the development of the other kids. Pure disruptions.
Some teams had 6-7 of those types of kids.
Like I said.......I never thought in a million years I would have had to put my son in travel baseball at age 9.....I never intended that but the fact is he loves baseball, is very good at it and wants to play with kids at or above his level.
I can't provide that for him in rec ball. I just can't. Not in my city.
Victim of circumstance.
Thing is......I was not thrilled with the idea so that is why I with 2 other fathers put together a team for this spring (2014) and we have had a wonderful time with the boys and the families. Unfortunately though as the season wore on half the team stopped developing.....not because of the competition. It's because they are realizing baseball is not their thing, they like other sports more, etc etc.
Kid's pitch is when the weed out starts. The game slows down to a crawl sometimes and action is limited. So the kids are truly loving baseball.....stick around. My son was looking across the diamond at some of the teams we played against and began wondering...hey i am good enough to play with those kids....I want that challenge. that is why he came to me and my wife.....and said "dad....I like my team, I like playing with my friends, but I want to try out for team abc, def, ghi etc etc.
The kid loves it.
Who am I to say no?
And being a former high school and college player....I can think ahead about his aspirations in that regard. Are you kidding me? When I was 9-10 I dreamed of being a pro ball player. What kid who loves baseball never thought about that? My son said dad I want to play for the Yankees.......awesome son....first let's focus on you becoming a better little league player....then if your still loving baseball you will try for high school and if you can make a high school team and excell you can think about college....and then you can think about pro ball (listen I know the odds.....99.99% he will never go beyond college ball and I have no clue if he will even make a high school team....he is only 9 years old I really have no clue).
But I do know one thing.....in my city and in my area of the country (South Florida) High School coaches look at travel ball players daily......they never go to rec fields....heard it from 3 prominent high school coaches. So that is the
unfortunate reality of baseball in my part of the world.
I totally agree that kids develop at different ages, etc. No doubt. But it is very easy to spot potential ball players at the kid pitch level. Once they move to kid pitch the real fun starts for any ball player looking to keep playing. And it is a true weed out of those who just are not interested in the game.
As far as travel undermining development. Your wrong. There are many different levels of travel ball. A AA AAA. There are teams like the one we formed which takes average players and exposes them to better competition and allows them to work hard to improve.
There are plenty of travel teams (yes it is watered down and some are rec ball teams with fancy uni's.....that's just the reality I know) that have plenty of kids who will develop later.
Then you have the elite teams who have every stud they can find and have insane parents and coaches and will win at any cost and pitch these kids till their arms fall off. That is the dark side of travel and I don't disagree about the detriment it has had on rec ball.
But if you had the chance to get you kid on a good solid team with great kids, great families and good baseball and travel is the only way to do it.......you do it.
We don't have a rec ball choice....not for our son. It's just not good baseball man.