Changing local rec ball leagues- Whats your experience?

[canyonjoe]

Do you what you think is best. She is only 10 it's not a big deal either way.

 

[Orange Socks]

Do you what you think is best. She is only 10 it's not a big deal either way.

Have y'all seen that video? A young child is given a choice. Some oreo cookies or $10,000. The kid choose the oreo cookies. Kids for the most part can't make logical decisions...and some adults. LOL.

 

[bsbs]

Between basketball and softball my daughter has played on a lot of teams over the years. She's made a lot of friends along the way. A lot more than if she had stayed with her first softball / basketball teams.

 

[Orange Socks]

Between basketball and softball my daughter has played on a lot of teams over the years. She's made a lot of friends along the way. A lot more than if she had stayed with her first softball / basketball teams.

I was about to say the same thing. Many parents at the younger ages feel as thought their kids will melt away if they don't know anyone on their team. Once they get on that new team, they now have 12 new BFF's. This is important in their growth as human beings and will help with resiliency. DD played on 24 different softball teams, 7 soccer teams, 6 basketball teams. Always new kids on the teams. Rec teams were always redrafts--I could usually draft a kid or 2 that DD played with previously.

Softball--Wow! that's a lot of teams!
REC Spring 6u, 8u, 8u, 10u, 10u, 12u, 12u, 14u
REC Fall-10U, 12U
All stars-10u, 10u, 10u, 12u, 14u
TB-14U, 16U, 18U, 18U, 18U
College 4 years

 

[CoachCeetar]

Between basketball and softball my daughter has played on a lot of teams over the years. She's made a lot of friends along the way. A lot more than if she had stayed with her first softball / basketball teams.

This isn't true of everyone though. Lots of people further along the introverted spectrum struggle with new people and depending on the mix, won't actually make new friends. Sometimes ~12 random people are actually not great. Suddenly kid is thinking "I'm not having as much fun at softball as I am at cheer/soccer/dance/girl scouts/band/etc" and cuts softball out of their priorities.

 

[DryHeat]

The league the DDs grew up with dwindled as well. I think lack of pitching was a huge contributor, and once there are few enough teams, it cant sustain itself. The families that committed in 10u to develop their kids as pitchers (lessons, work at home, etc) felt they needed to move on to higher competition levels by 2nd year 10u or 12u. The last year I think the pitching was actually better in 10u than 12u because those kids left by 12u.

DD1 went to club ball after 1 year of 12u before the league collapsed (during Covid). DD2 went to a nearby, and bigger, league coming out of Covid. It was worthwhile being in a bigger league, but ulimately wasn't that different. Better pitching. She went to club ball in 7th grade after 1 year of that. Tired of playing with newbies.

Follow the pitching. The kids that get more reps against quality pitching do well later on.