After years of league ball, we finally decided to make the plunge to travel. The entire experience was 100 times better than I thought it would be. My daughter improved in every aspect of her game, and she really enjoyed it. The only thing more exciting to her than the 2 hour practices are games.
Last fall we had a list of teams were were going to try out for. On a whim, we tried out for a bad team first just to see what a tryout looked like. This bad team won a grand total of 2 games the year before. The thinking was when we tried out for the teams we wanted to play for, we would know what to expect. Well, they offered my daughter a spot, and for reasons I can't explain, we accepted without ever attending any of the tryouts for the teams we were looking at. The coach should be in sales. He sold me.
While the talent on the team was lacking ( I about passed out at the first practice when I saw them taking drills), the coaches were, and are, just outstanding. They just kept teaching the basics over and over. With only 1-2 real additions to the roster from the year before, we won almost 30 games just this spring. All the drilling and teaching really paid off. Also by joining a team that was not very good the year before, my daughter got to step into the #1 pitching spot from day 1 and had the opportunity to earn her spot in the batting order.
After playing for a year and seeing a whole bunch of other teams, I am thinking now there are only maybe 3 coaches I would let my daughter play for. (Actually there are 5 on my list. My wife did not like a couple of the coaches I was okay with) It seems half the coaches out there are just moms or dads coaching (I could coach a team if I wanted a non skilled coach). Most of the remaining coaches did not treat their girls in a way we would want our daughter treated.
There were, and certainly are, trying moments. The game-day strategy leaves me scratching my head most of the time. When deciding for a team this coming fall, I had to weigh that. In the end, we decided to just stick with our current team and not go looking for the perfect team, which does not exist.
Other observations: there are a lot of bad travel teams out there. I always assumed if you were on a travel team - you were really good player. Clearly that is not the case. Also, I thought that all the better teams had pitchers throwing 55 mph (12u). Ha - not even close. I was generally more impressed with the defense and hitting on the better teams than the pitching (of course there are exceptions).
Last fall we had a list of teams were were going to try out for. On a whim, we tried out for a bad team first just to see what a tryout looked like. This bad team won a grand total of 2 games the year before. The thinking was when we tried out for the teams we wanted to play for, we would know what to expect. Well, they offered my daughter a spot, and for reasons I can't explain, we accepted without ever attending any of the tryouts for the teams we were looking at. The coach should be in sales. He sold me.
While the talent on the team was lacking ( I about passed out at the first practice when I saw them taking drills), the coaches were, and are, just outstanding. They just kept teaching the basics over and over. With only 1-2 real additions to the roster from the year before, we won almost 30 games just this spring. All the drilling and teaching really paid off. Also by joining a team that was not very good the year before, my daughter got to step into the #1 pitching spot from day 1 and had the opportunity to earn her spot in the batting order.
After playing for a year and seeing a whole bunch of other teams, I am thinking now there are only maybe 3 coaches I would let my daughter play for. (Actually there are 5 on my list. My wife did not like a couple of the coaches I was okay with) It seems half the coaches out there are just moms or dads coaching (I could coach a team if I wanted a non skilled coach). Most of the remaining coaches did not treat their girls in a way we would want our daughter treated.
There were, and certainly are, trying moments. The game-day strategy leaves me scratching my head most of the time. When deciding for a team this coming fall, I had to weigh that. In the end, we decided to just stick with our current team and not go looking for the perfect team, which does not exist.
Other observations: there are a lot of bad travel teams out there. I always assumed if you were on a travel team - you were really good player. Clearly that is not the case. Also, I thought that all the better teams had pitchers throwing 55 mph (12u). Ha - not even close. I was generally more impressed with the defense and hitting on the better teams than the pitching (of course there are exceptions).
