Travel Ball is Killing Rec Ball

[Rocketech1]

My DD started playing softball at age 5 (t-ball), when she was in 10U, in the fall she played on what was called a "tournament team" for a few months as fall rec ball was pretty weak as some girls played other sports. In spring she would come back to her rec league and was picked every year to play on rec all-star teams over the late spring, summer. After her 1st year 12U she (and we as a family) were completely done with rec league and "daddy ball" coaches and joined 3 different travel ball teams over a three year period. At 14 she quit travel ball entirely and only plays Varsity for her high school. Probably going to be her last year as a Junior because she has found other interests (student gov, academic decathalon, and part-time job) and as a pitcher is/was tired of the mostly year round practice and lessons to stay competitive.

The bottom line for our family was that we did rec league for 6/7 years and overall it was a great experience and met some fun families but there reaches a point when your kid is probably ready for a bigger challenge and most rec leagues do not provide that environment as it is really meant for the "recreational" player.

At the end of the day, don't be bitter if some kids leave rec to try travel ball; just enjoy the ride as it goes by in a blink of an eye...

 

[whack]

I’m not bitter.


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[bmakj]

[QUOTE="Rocketech1, post: 507168, member: 7876"

At the end of the day, don't be bitter if some kids leave rec to try travel ball; just enjoy the ride as it goes by in a blink of an eye...
[/QUOTE]

its not about being bitter for a lot of us, it is that we desperately want rec ball to survive, because that is where everyone starts generally, and girls who are decent but not elite need a place to play as well.

I think the real argument, at least in my area (mid atlantic) is that travel ball is so diluted. 50-75 % of the players belong in rec. then rec becomes a much better experience for all the midrange as well as lower end talent (how are you going to learn to catch a fly ball or throw in a game if there are no fly balls hit or no catchable throws?).

 

[whack]

[QUOTE="Rocketech1, post: 507168, member: 7876"

At the end of the day, don't be bitter if some kids leave rec to try travel ball; just enjoy the ride as it goes by in a blink of an eye...

its not about being bitter for a lot of us, it is that we desperately want rec ball to survive, because that is where everyone starts generally, and girls who are decent but not elite need a place to play as well.

I think the real argument, at least in my area (mid atlantic) is that travel ball is so diluted. 50-75 % of the players belong in rec. then rec becomes a much better experience for all the midrange as well as lower end talent (how are you going to learn to catch a fly ball or throw in a game if there are no fly balls hit or no catchable throws?).[/QUOTE]

Exactly. I’m mid Atlantic area as well.


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[Pitcher's DadCoach]

I am sitting here right now trying to figure out how we (upper-middle class family) will afford two out of town tournaments this summer, both of which require six night stays* and one of which requires airplane tickets across country for three of us. The price of travel ball is definitely an issue. And some teams do multiple summer trips requiring airfare; at least we can drive to one of ours.

*Stay to play tournaments, of course.

I agree. Money is an issue for us as well. We have seen some terrible travel teams that shouldnt be playing ball, usually in upper class towns too. So there is some truth to Whack's statement. The factor that Whack is missing is the amount of practice, playing and dedication serious athletes get from joining travel teams. I dont know about where anyone else lives but around here travel teams mostly kick rec teams butts. There may be the exception here or there but as Whack said in his own words " The cream rises to the top".

 

[FP26]

[QUOTE="Rocketech1, post: 507168, member: 7876"

At the end of the day, don't be bitter if some kids leave rec to try travel ball; just enjoy the ride as it goes by in a blink of an eye...

its not about being bitter for a lot of us, it is that we desperately want rec ball to survive, because that is where everyone starts generally, and girls who are decent but not elite need a place to play as well.

I think the real argument, at least in my area (mid atlantic) is that travel ball is so diluted. 50-75 % of the players belong in rec. then rec becomes a much better experience for all the midrange as well as lower end talent (how are you going to learn to catch a fly ball or throw in a game if there are no fly balls hit or no catchable throws?).
[/QUOTE]

This is a great point. My DD would have never played travel ball if she didn't play rec ball first. She started tee ball at the age of 6, then moved to 10u softball (considered "minors") at the age of 7. Before she was 9, I quite honestly didn't even know what travel ball was. A dad was talking to us and suggested taking her to tryouts. She tried out for a 10u team, and was offered a spot. It was only then that we found out that they planned to play 16 tournaments between April and August. We politely declined, although my first thought was "you guys are friggin nuts!!" She actually didn't make the switch to travel ball until she was 12. And honestly, we loved her 7+ years of travel (and counting). Now as a college freshman, we realize she never would have made it to where she is without travel ball. BUT.... She never would have developed his initial love of the game without growing up in the rec league to begin with. Looking back on things, if there is anything I would change, it is that I would have introduced her to travel a year or two sooner. But the first few years of rec were still extremely important to her development.

 

[J.Galt]

A frequent story in So Cal travel ball...

The South City Samurai All-Star team is getting to the end of their tournament season, and want to continue playing together. Maybe they've had a good run, everyone is happy, the parents think their kids are amazing, so the coaches propose keeping that happiness going by making the move to TB. Not only that, but they are going to stay independent from the big travel orgs, so they can make their own rules, and keep costs down. Sounds great!

Next, the Samurai team signs up for a local tournament, and proceeds to get curb-stomped repeatedly by teams deep with experienced and talented top-level TB players. This happens a couple of times, and parents start to lose their buzz. Susie's mom gets fed up with it, and wants her "super-star" kid to play on one of those better teams, so they pull the plug on the Samurai. A few others follow them out the door. Now, the coach is desperate to keep his team together, and just have enough bodies to keep playing games. Predictably, he has trouble attracting good players to a team with a bad track record and an unfamiliar name, so he takes whoever he can find (often more not-really -ready-for-TB rec players) to add to his leftover core of girls that probably weren't really ready to leave rec ball. Maybe he's a pretty good coach, and is able to develop some skills with his players, but it just continues the cycle of better players heading out the door.

Teams like this rarely last long. They tend to have a slightly better chance of surviving if they join with a larger org.

There is a place in So Cal for T shirt startups like the Samurais and not just the +7 RD pool play and then on to bronze bracket. There are lower tier friendlies or organizations like AFA who even have weeknight BLD leagues so the girls can get up to speed.
But if the Samurais want to buy in to the Firecrackers, Angels, As.... they'll all take your money, sell you uniforms and give you name recognition so you can get more people's attention when you post your tryout on HeyBucket

 

[J.Galt]

Rec ball is necessary up until second year 10s. But seeing travel baseball teams get younger and younger, it's only a matter of time until there at 8U travel fp teams
By the time my DD had her 9th birthday she just got tired of playing with and against the same girls, playing just to get to all stars and then things became fun and exciting for her. Then seeing the girls at pitching lessons in the Batbusters or Angels drifits and hearing them talk about where they played that weekend, DD was just ready to make the jump

 

[_MIA_]

Rec ball is necessary up until second year 10s. But seeing travel baseball teams get younger and younger, it's only a matter of time until there at 8U travel fp teams

They already have 8U machine pitch travel teams here in OK along with t-ball. Not sure how much they actually "travel" but they play tournaments 2 or 3 times a month etc...Kind of ridiculous if you ask me but hey whatever floats some parents boats. My DD played rec for 4 years before moving to travel ball at 10U (she was 8 but played up on a kid pitch first year 10U team). She was ready for kid pitch and the rec league kid pitching was bad (as you can expect)..she would have been lucky to see 2 or 3 strikes a game to swing at . Her rec team played a MP "tournament" and she enjoyed the whole tournament atmosphere so we asked her if she wanted to play TB and she said yes. I have a 4 year old son who will start playing rec at some point and we will make the best decision for him regarding moving on to TB when/if that time comes.

 

[1stbasecoach]

Here in the midwest there are 8u travel teams all over. My daughter started travel as an 8 yr old playing 10u. Most of her team was 8 and we got waxed every tournament. The next year we were 9 playing 10u and competed. The next year we were 10 and won at least half the tournaments, which were basically the same as the tournaments we entered the years before.

I don't feel travel is "ruining" rec ball, there is still a place for it. Sports are becoming more and more specialized, where kids can really only have time for 1.5 sports. It is really, really hard to play elite sports at 2 different sports, especially past 12u. Also, rec is ruining itself. The Little League around our area was ridiculous, with crazy rules and cheating. My daughter was too competitive to play rec any longer. I coach a high school team that has several players that play rec ball, and I love them. They are kids with talent that just don't have the money and or the time to do travel. They are all very coachable and are some of my favorite to work with.