If Travel Ball National championships actually meant something then I would say yes but since they mean nothing, I think its overkill and sounds more like a job than what it is supposed to be. My kid wouldn't play for that organization.
Team Rules~No player/parent interaction at the ballpark
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control vs cooperation - the age-old issue.
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From warm-up to after-game chat, the players belong with the team.
Anything beyond that is out of bounds, and is a symptom of low EQ coaching.
I don't care how many all-stars, D1 players, Olympians, Oscar winners, 5 star generals, and cosmonauts a coach has produced - requiring full body control in order to effectively do your job is the definition of low EQ. Such coaches are also putting themselves and the team in peril unnecessarily. Indeed, the more top players a coach has produced, the more likely they are to be cognitively dissonant about the pitfalls, dangers, and consequences of their no-contact policy: grown men in charge of a group of girls and young women for 12-14 hours every Friday, Saturday, Sunday with no other adults around - what could go wrong? why even risk it?
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Potential for abuse aside, I can cite many examples where control-freakishness caused problems and where a more collegial, transparent atmosphere won the day.
But don't take my word for it.
Ask yourself:
Why would coaches not want players to have contact with their nearby families between games? What are they trying to accomplish? What is the message they are trying to send?
Taking agency away from players - what lesson does that teach? Who gains from that?
How would I feel about this policy if I were coaching?
How does it feel being restricted to only making eye contact with your child during the course of a 12-14 hour day?
Does this type of no contact policy exist anywhere else in your child's life?
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radness
Possibilities & Opportunities!
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That is a good discussion topic whether or not travel ball national championships mean something or not.
This particular coach was around many years ago before the Advent of all the internet media attention players can get.
As for nationals
am going to say that
YES Elite level national championships can mean a lot especially in 16u & 18u.
(Going to back that up by saying otherwise the premier D1 colleges in the nation would not be attending,
*they attend every year!)
To the coach and team of this post it is undeniable that his players were noticed and recruited from travel ball.
So much so that colleges start following teams that produce the results like his due. Not all coach the same, but still coaches follow successful teams like that.
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I wouldn’t do it and wouldn’t want my dd on a team that does it. Don’t talk to parents during pregame warmups I’m good with. Shouldn’t have to make that a rule. Should be a norm. The rest of it is silly. Softball isn’t jail. It’s a game. He’s not successful because of these rules. He’s successful because he has good players. My experience has been that coaches that don’t want players talking to parents during the game are insecure. Maybe that can be a rule at 10U or 12U but not older than that
This is the reason they are playing in College. The crazy parents got weeded out. For the most part the only time we can talk to our kiddo is between the games or until they get on the bus. During home games we take DD to dinner on Friday night. Then we can talk to her between games during the DH, but as soon as that last game is done, we get on the road back home. Away games, we get time at breakfast in the hotel, and then between games. Usually Sunday facetime calls is our time to have deeper conversations.
The Scrapyard Dawgs (Internationals) 18U team when they used to have a team would travel on a team bus and those kids were basically sequestered away from their parents almost the entire time. A parent told me it was crazy. But Connie May wanted to prepare the players for the college life. I disagree somewhat. They are still kids and can live the college life when they get to college. Others may disagree or agree. But at least you have choices. Too bad the organization fell apart due to Wokeism.
radness
Possibilities & Opportunities!
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That is a great post topic!
See this as coaches have to come up with some sort of standards and parameters for their teams.
Otherwise parents/players will decide how and when they want to cooperate because there is no control.
Players and families get to decide who they're going to try out for.
Coaches have to decide who they will let on their team.
if everybody knows upfront how the team is ran, it should make it easier for those who want to try out and those who don't want to.
For this team,
It was of no surprise to the list of players who wanted a spot on his roster.
Who would gratefully become available for a chance to try out.
radness
Possibilities & Opportunities!
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Yes choices!
Between games.
Travel ball team I played for did not have that Ridgid of rules guidelines. But as a team we wanted unity and collectively always sat together. If one of the players was to go try and be a loner over with her parents we would bug her about it until that would stop so that she could be part of the team and sit with the rest of us. But it was not coach regulated.
On rare occasion it would happen that somebody just didn't fit in with the group and it was just a bad fit. But most of the time any new person would be absorbed into our team unity.
During games
Most of the time players don't want their parents being parents and bugging them in the dugout. That kind of became a non-issue because it was like over bearing helicopter parenting that as young teenagers we wanted our independence from that.
Hmmm
we had a couple pitchers that were over pampered by their helicopter parents...that seemed to be over nurturing of the princess in the circle syndrome LOL
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I sat behind the Texas A&M parents at a regional once. Believe me, the crazy parents have not been weeded out.
Them Aggies are a different story.
