cut-throat travel teams

[gophert]

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. In the world of cut throat, PGF birth seeking, travel the country and play THE best competition possible development is one of the last things a kid should expect. Many of the players may only see the coaches and rest of the team on tournament weekends. Louisiana kids playing for SoCal teams or a Jersey girl play for southern Florida team,these situations are not rare at all. These teams are looking for kids that are developed and polished, with the exception of a pitcher that has a ton of upside. They are not out looking for diamonds in the rough that could help them after a season or two of development. On younger teams, 8u - 12u, you see teams that develop or attempt to develop players. To be honest most kids that excel at the sport develop their skills away from the team they play for. There is usually a mom, dad, pitching/hitting coach that is spending numerous hours of one on one time with the kid.

There is a lot of truth in this statement. Even on a regional level, super successful teams pull from connecting states and team practice is just not realistic due to distance. Our team will practice for 5 hours on an off weekend, but zero practice while playing tournaments. You are expected to be working on your skill on your own and that does not only mean pitchers. AND....you can tell those that do and those that don't. I'm gonna be honest, this is the best thing I've ever seen as far as practice. We practice 5 days a week on our own which includes (pitching, hitting, and outfield work). I would rather do that and give my DD the individual attention she needs to be successful rather than have her at a 2 hr practice once or twice a week doing some drill that will never help her in the long run.

 

[Dusty]

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. In the world of cut throat, PGF birth seeking, travel the country and play THE best competition possible development is one of the last things a kid should expect. Many of the players may only see the coaches and rest of the team on tournament weekends. Louisiana kids playing for SoCal teams or a Jersey girl play for southern Florida team,these situations are not rare at all. These teams are looking for kids that are developed and polished, with the exception of a pitcher that has a ton of upside. They are not out looking for diamonds in the rough that could help them after a season or two of development. On younger teams, 8u - 12u, you see teams that develop or attempt to develop players. To be honest most kids that excel at the sport develop their skills away from the team they play for. There is usually a mom, dad, pitching/hitting coach that is spending numerous hours of one on one time with the kid.

Who said anything about travel teams looking for diamonds in the rough that could turn into good players in a year or two? A high level travel team that seeks to get players into high level college programs will try to get players who are highly developed enough to excel in competition at their current level of play but that doesn't mean a college coach potentially recruiting them considers them ready to play at a high D1 level immediately. For better or for worse 14u is now considered the age division that gets the most college coaching exposure and while I'm sure the college coaches find incredible talent there I would find it difficult to believe that they think they are recruiting fully developed players. I wouldn't know for sure though because my dd certainly isn't one of them.

Anecdotally, I know of one kid who was the top pitcher on her 14u team that went to PGF nationals and she ended up going into her freshman year of high school with a verbal from a university that wasn't a softball powerhouse but was in one of the country's top conferences. Early the next year with the same org at 16u she isn't getting much pitching time which is attributed to either: A-she wasn't getting it done in the circle, got her verbal and lost her edge and physically developed early which by 16u the other kids caught up to her or B- the travel coaches were focused on getting college commitments for their uncommitted pitchers (the story varies depending on who is telling it). This player eventually left this travel org for another team across the country in a move supposedly brokered by the college coach.

I know of another player who got verballed as an underclassman in a travel org she grew up in but at the start of her junior year she moved to another out of state travel team. She had tons of talent and the kind of work ethic that wouldn't cause her to lose her edge by all accounts. She would have certainly played all she wanted in the org she grew up in but her future college coach referred her to a different travel org they had a closer working relationship with which she joined with his recommendation.

Perhaps "player development" wasn't the best term to use in my previous post since its most closely associated with 10u-12u teams but my main point is that player development evolves and is applicable to higher levels in different ways than at younger ages. So back to the topic at hand, the cutthroat travel coach thinking about churning the bottom of their roster should also be concerned about his/her team or orgs ability to meet the player development needs of the top of their roster as well.

 

[Lobster Birch]

Those girls are lazy and they should have worked harder, SoCal!

 

[CoogansBluff]

As MNDad alluded, I think we're getting caught up on the definition of player development. Is it just learning the mechanics and fundamentals of hitting and throwing, or is it also the improvement that comes from competing at a higher level? If my daughter joins a high-level 18U team, that's not where she learns to turn the barrel. But I would certainly hope the schedule/competition that this team provides would allow her to improve as a hitter.

 

[MNDad]

A few years back, DD's team played one of the 7,256 Firecrackers "franchises" in a 16U tournament. The FC team had 5 girls that sat on the bench the whole game. One of my coaches asked the FC coach about the 5 on the bench and whether they were injured. The FC coach said those girls are "legacies" but will only get into a game as a pinch runner - and they and their parents (paying $$$ a month in dues and uniform rental fees) are OK with it.

Sorry - but that's just f'ing stupid...MHO...

In the case you described I’d agree 100%. I wasn’t talking about programs that carry extra players just to collect their money. I referred to highly skilled players at 16U/18U that aren’t quite ready to break into the top 9-11 on the best programs. Those girls will learn far more playing friendly or pool games and competing for a starting spot than being the #1 player on a B team. In an earlier post I also mentioned it depends on the girls goals. If she’s not looking to play in college she’s better off where she’ll get more playing time.

 

[MNDad]

Coaches vs Managers.
Cut throat teams are Manager driven. As in they don't really care about player development and the win for the organization (or manager) is the top priority.

That's not true for the majority of highly competetive programs. In fact I haven't seen any coaches with that attitude since rec ball.

 

[CoogansBluff]

A few years back, DD's team played one of the 7,256 Firecrackers "franchises"

That's funny right there.