IS TRAVEL BALL leaving people/players/rec & school behind...OR...

[radness]

It might be different at the top end of travel, but the overwhelming majority of travel ball is volunteer too though. I have no way of checking this, but if you counted all the teams in the country, from the top of the top, all the way down to the worst 'C', I'd guess 80% are volunteer coaches? That % might be really low????

Absolutely agree that the majority of rec/school/travel ball softball is volunteer facilitated. That is why brought up the discussion point of
is travel ball leaving rec ball and school ball behind or is it simply because people are taking the initiative in travel ball.

( within that discussion income disparity is not so much relevant when people are simply choosing where to spend their time and money more. And where people are choosing to volunteer their effort more.)

If anything it would probably be cheaper to stay in rec ball a heck of a lot longer. And for some people they don't even do rec ball anymore.

 

[radness]

It has been a day or two since I read this thread and I have not had the time to read all of it so I apologize if I cover something already discussed. There was a comment made by someone that most of the TB coaches are volunteers. I really would not know the percentage but I might agree with that. However, and this is important, if that is the case then most of the TB teams are nothing more than glorified rec teams. TB falls into the same category as terms like "Elite." When the suggestion that TB might be leaving HS behind, while that might be true, in a lot of areas, it isn't leaving HS behind in coaching. I have yet to see a JV squad in both baseball and softball of mine as an HC that has players who know basic fundamentals. While I am only one and my experience might be different, the coaching staffs I have been a part of are consistently shocked at what incoming freshmen don't know.

If we are putting teams into categories and wanted to say rec ball is a level and that there are a lot of glorified rec ball teams in travel ball now, Would agree to that level of softball is now included in travel ball.

Evidently there's a reason why people are choosing to start a travel ball team that's going to go compete against more developed Talent instead of stay in a category that is more in line with where they are developmentally.

I've brought this up before that perhaps people do not like the restricted regulations that are involved with City programs and therefore choose to go off and do things on their own. They get to make their own decisions about playing time, who gets to play, who doesn't play, who they get to have on their team and so forth.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

To put it bluntly, most TB coaches here in OK at the levels I have been paying attention to (at this point 14U and under) suck. I would bet that more 3/4 of them wouldn't know how to teach somebody the fundamentals of how to field a ground ball.

This is so very true. Bill Edwards, 25 year former coach of Hofstra, says we don't have a soccer and lacrosse problem here on Long Island. Sure, they're popular for the girls, but the issue is poor coaching. The Dopey Dads have zero clue how to teach a swing or how to throw a ball overhand, let alone underhand pitching. They think because they played baseball in high school 30 years ago that they're experts. P.S. I'm one of those former dopey dad coaches who was smart enough to realize I wasn't good enough to teach mine or someone else's children.

If you teach the proper fundamentals at young ages, the game is more exciting, and therefore, you don't lose as many players to those other sports.

 

[_MIA_]

When I was 13 I had the choice of playing in my local LL Senior League or playing Pony League in a town over (bigger city). The bigger city league had better players so my Dad and I chose the Pony League. When I was in HS I had a choice of whether to play Legion in my hometown or in the town (same city I mentioned above) where I went to HS. The Legion team in the city was an Independent team (I think that is what it was called) so it could draw players from other towns and it was a better team. Regularly went to States, etc. I chose that team.


This was 30+ years ago. Like I have said numerous times, good players leaving to play for better teams/better competition isn't a new thing. Also parents creating other avenues for their kids, when they are not happy with their current situation (eg creating TB teams) is not new either. There was a father of a kid who played in that same LL I mentioned above who created his own Independent Baseball League (it was called SIBL) when his kid didn't make the LL All Star team. It is just a lot easier to do so now with the advent of tournament softball. No need to create a league, all you need is to get 10-12 kids together and form a team.

 

[KrisHur]

Poor coaching/training at younger ages can be an issue but TB is not a guarantee of good coaching/training. Being a parent with no sports experience, I had no idea and trusted they knew more than me but learned simply b/c a woman is a former college player doesn't necessarily make her a good coach or trainer of others. My DD went from rec to travel at 12. By then my DD had poor throwing mechanics ingrained and was prone to tendonitis - I just thought she had a weak elbow b/c if there was an issue surely the coaches would see/fix it. Even on her TB team (professional coaches, former college players) from 12-14U they didn't identify it and fix it. Only until she joined this new team at 16U was the problem identified (at the second practice) and solved - no elbow pain since last July. Had we started with a good TB team she might have been spared all that elbow pain but not necessarily as experience has shown.

 

[radness]

Poor coaching/training at younger ages can be an issue but TB is not a guarantee of good coaching/training. Being a parent with no sports experience, I had no idea and trusted they knew more than me but learned simply b/c a woman is a former college player doesn't necessarily make her a good coach or trainer of others. My DD went from rec to travel at 12. By then my DD had poor throwing mechanics ingrained and was prone to tendonitis - I just thought she had a weak elbow b/c if there was an issue surely the coaches would see/fix it. Even on her TB team (professional coaches, former college players) from 12-14U they didn't identify it and fix it. Only until she joined this new team at 16U was the problem identified (at the second practice) and solved - no elbow pain since last July. Had we started with a good TB team she might have been spared all that elbow pain but not necessarily as experience has shown.

... good coaching is not a guarantee in college either.

 

[Westwind]

This thread is absolutely full of great reading.

Players ARE getting left behind. It’s financial. It’s the luck of whether the right adult comes around to coach the kids strengths and weaknesses. It’s whether they are at the right place at the right time.

And make no mistake- “playing at the highest level” happens because one of the “Oligarchs Of Softball” told a college coach that he/she should recruit the kid either as a stand alone recruit or part of a package deal. The reasons that Vlad The Org Director decides to do this has more to do with how it benefits him than how it benefits the player.

Also- your goal may not be D1. And it sure doesn’t have to be. Just keep in mind that The Oligarchs need the non-P5 spots for the dues paying “regular folk” who they bait and switch onto the lower teams and franchise teams.

 

[_MIA_]

The reasons that Vlad The Org Director decides to do this has more to do with how it benefits him than how it benefits the player.

I don't know, sounds like Vlad needs to be sanctioned...

 

[Westwind]

I made a Putin joke and didn’t realize it. Putin jokes are a whole lot less funny than they were a couple years ago. Sorry folks.

 

[Westwind]

I don't know, sounds like Vlad needs to be sanctioned...

He works on the KGB Directorate Of Softball

SIEZE HIS YACHT!