How Strict is Your Travel Ball Team?

[Rocketech1]

Thought I would bring this lively discussion back to softball reality and not WWII

I would say that the majority of posters do not like running/sprinting being used to "punish" players and that was really the reason I started this thread to see what others have experienced on their teams. With that said, I think you need to pick your battles and look at the totality of coaching received by the TB organization, not just one aspect of it that you may or may not like. Last night I asked my DD her opinion of having to run after games sometimes for players committing mental errors, not paying attention, etc. and she said "what's the point of having to do that?" Clearly she is not a fan of this coaching practice but I have a gut feeling she will survive this season and won't lose her love of the game.

 

[KCPRK]

There is a new team in our area named Pitch Slapped. Girls 14u...........

 

[JJsqueeze]

RT- you just ruined possibly the all time thread derailment in DFP history. We were two posts away from an analysis of post cold war Russian economics.

 

[Classof2020]

There is a new team in our area named Pitch Slapped. Girls 14u...........

Holy cow did we need that!! A true LOL moment at my desk right as I was about to bring Winston Churchill into the conversation

 

[JJsqueeze]

^^^^if I ever start a team I am stealing that name.

 

[KCPRK]

Heres the best part. Their registered in a Benefit tourney for domestic violence awareness put on by a local team.......

I really think someone is trying to be funny but u have to pay for a background check in our local league to register a team and be able to register for a tourney.

 

[cuzmail]

I call BS. Today's America would have answered the call even quicker. We had to be dragged into WW2, we waited until we were directly attacked before we jumped in. IF England were at war today we would be there with them in a heartbeat, I also believe we would all make the necessary sacrifices to see it through. Just because we disagree on a lot of BS as a nation does not mean we don't stand together when confronted.

I hope you are right because I believe that time is almost here, but I just don't share your belief we are still that united.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

In fact, I would wager there is less team practice now, in favor of individual lessons and games.

I will agree here. Everyone and they momma go to a private instructor now. Most of us, 30 years ago, before the dawn of every few blocks there is a TB team, learned skills from our father who played the game.

My dad, who knows 1000 times more than I could ever dream of, trained 5 collegiate players from his own children and grandchildren. Unless you were fairly wealthy back in those days, a parent was all you had.

In a city of 750,000 when I was a young buck, about 100 played travel ball as we know it today. Coaches of those teams were former mid-top D1 players, some had MLB experience.

With the expansion of TB in general, you're going to find more nuts than diamonds as far as coaching ability.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Look, it is a myth that somehow practice was hard-a-- in the old days and soft now.

But it is fact that treatment of the players was hard(er) a$$ then and is soft(er) now.

 

[riseball]

How do you know? Did you play softball back then or even baseball past age 10? It was not. I was never once made to run for any transgression or otherwise in any sport I played. I was never bullied or even yelled at. I asked my sister, my brother and two cousins how they were treated. I asked my dad how it was when he was a kid on baseball and then fastpitch.

One cousin even played kids' football with a coach that never raised his voice. But we worked hard and yes coach held us accountable. But girls sports did not have facilities, uniforms, etc., so we valued our practice time and made use of it. It is one thing to discipline bad behavior but making yourself king of a bunch of teen girls is ridiculous.

The kids are getting rid pretty hard today, most often by their own parents. It is not soft to play 7 games a weekend for 12-15 weekends a year BTW and suffer overuse, tommy john, acl surgery, etc. like they do today.

Sounds like Fantasy Land is synonymous with Out in Left Field. I played in the 60"s into the early 70"s and it was much different. Most of the kids today would go home crying or wait for mom or dad to pick them up in the helicopter. Winners got trophies and losers learned to work harder. Kids got cut in tryouts, sucked it up and learned to deal with failure. No phone calls from parents, no lawsuits filed. Pop off to a coach you did not get a timeout, you got smacked upside the head. If you were late to practice you didn't have a conversation and talk it out, you ran till you puked. We carried pocket knives while in school and drove pickup trucks with shotguns in the gun rack. There were no zero tolerance policies and teachers had to exercise proper judgement. The kindergartner was not sent home for the pop tart shaped like a gun, and the valedictorian was not expelled for the steak knife she brought to cut up her salad. Mouth off to your mom and you got your butt kicked for disrespecting her. Was it perfect? No. Did it sometimes cross lines? Yes. Have we gone way too far in the other direction. Absolutely!