Too many or Too few??

[Coachmom]

Thanks for clarifying, I was always confused about that!

 

[Easton33]

If that's the goal just save the money and have your DD walk on somewhere and use the saved cash for tuition.

Now the real answer. It's not ALL about the college money but I don't live in CA either. My DD won't be trying to play at a CA school, TN, UT,UT,UA,UM or whatever other top 25 school is around. I will spend triple in travel ball this year than it will cost my DD to attend the local D1 State school that won their regular season conference last year. So I'm not sure why playing travel ball has to be an elite society of those chasing $$$. My DD plays TB because she's head and shoulders above the rec players and she want's to play in college but not necessarily on a $60K a year scholly. She's a 4.0 student that like most 13 year olds watches teenage mutant ninja turtles before school, and vampire diaries on Netflix at night.

But yes in some areas it is all about the top named team playing in front of 15000 people every weekend and trying to get paid. It's just not that way in my area and moving to where big named teams reside is not an option.

If you are spending that kind of money on softball each season, is your company hiring?

 

[nicelag]

It's great to give girls the opportunity to play softball at a higher level providing you have coaches that can coach at a higher level, and players that can handle it. The chances of having 15 quality coaches in your organization are very slim. So a good chunk of your teams are playing travel ball with rec ball coaching. I think there are definitely too many teams. If there were fewer teams, all with quality coaches, then the ones not ready for travel will go back to Rec where they belong and get better. Especially at the younger ages. It's a win win for travel and rec.

Should all girls have the opportunity to play softball? Yes. Should all girls have the opportunity to play travel? Yes. But the opportunity to play travel ball is having the ability to go to the tryout, not being guaranteed a spot on a team because we are trying to fill our fifth 10U team.

Are there a lot of girls in travel? Absolutely.

Are there a lot of girls in travel that do not belong there? Absolutely!

 

[Little Angels Softball]

It's great to give girls the opportunity to play softball at a higher level providing you have coaches that can coach at a higher level, and players that can handle it. The chances of having 15 quality coaches in your organization are very slim. So a good chunk of your teams are playing travel ball with rec ball coaching. I think there are definitely too many teams. If there were fewer teams, all with quality coaches, then the ones not ready for travel will go back to Rec where they belong and get better. Especially at the younger ages. It's a win win for travel and rec.

Should all girls have the opportunity to play softball? Yes. Should all girls have the opportunity to play travel? Yes. But the opportunity to play travel ball is having the ability to go to the tryout, not being guaranteed a spot on a team because we are trying to fill our fifth 10U team.

Are there a lot of girls in travel? Absolutely.

Are there a lot of girls in travel that do not belong there? Absolutely!

I don't quite agree. These girls are what "B" and "C" level teams are for.

 

[CoogansBluff]

If there were fewer teams, all with quality coaches, then the ones not ready for travel will go back to Rec where they belong and get better. Especially at the younger ages. It's a win win for travel and rec.

I don't understand how going back to rec ball is going to allow a player to improve quicker than staying in travel ball.

Besides, if a kid is playing in travel ball, I assume she wants to play travel ball. Why would this girl choose to go back to rec?

 

[Easton33]

It's great to give girls the opportunity to play softball at a higher level providing you have coaches that can coach at a higher level, and players that can handle it. The chances of having 15 quality coaches in your organization are very slim. So a good chunk of your teams are playing travel ball with rec ball coaching. I think there are definitely too many teams. If there were fewer teams, all with quality coaches, then the ones not ready for travel will go back to Rec where they belong and get better. Especially at the younger ages. It's a win win for travel and rec.

Should all girls have the opportunity to play softball? Yes. Should all girls have the opportunity to play travel? Yes. But the opportunity to play travel ball is having the ability to go to the tryout, not being guaranteed a spot on a team because we are trying to fill our fifth 10U team.

Are there a lot of girls in travel? Absolutely.

Are there a lot of girls in travel that do not belong there? Absolutely!

And if there were fewer teams then the orgs would get out of control with costs/profits. There are bad examples on both sides but I guarantee that if the number of TB teams decreased (with the same amount of players interested) the cost of joining an organization would at least triple.

 

[nicelag]

True, but I want to play on the PGA Tour. In California we have pretty competitive rec ball for one. "B" level and "C" lever are for rec and travel is travel. I see plenty of girls tryout for travel that can barely protect themselves. Again, I also mentioned at the especially at the lower levels like 10U where I am at with my DD

Granted I have friends from weak leagues that go travel because it is not beneficial for them to stay in rec which I do not have a problem with, but I also see plenty of girls who are middle of the road, or worse, on their rec ball teams that want to play travel. Oh, and when you tell my daughter to not throw so hard or take it easy during a travel practice because your daughter "doesn't catch very well" I have a problem with that. That's why we left rec to begin with. Just saying it's not for everyone.

 

[nicelag]

And if there were fewer teams then the orgs would get out of control with costs/profits. There are bad examples on both sides but I guarantee that if the number of TB teams decreased (with the same amount of players interested) the cost of joining an organization would at least triple.

Good point! They are going to get their money one way or the other. As you stated there is room on both sides of the fence here, and there are several things to consider when making a decision.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

Everywhere else there is B and C level travel that is not exclusive to the rec leagues. I wish ASA did that in California.

In my experience, girls who are marginal for A level teams can progress quite rapidly if they are given a chance to play at a higher level and to practice a bit more often under competent coaches with like-minded girls of similar or better ability. That's why I wish girls could play lower-level travel and not have to deal with the rec BS if they don't want to. It would be a heckuva lot better way to feed the A-ball programs, IMHO.

 

[CoogansBluff]

True, but I want to play on the PGA Tour. ...

Oh, and when you tell my daughter to not throw so hard or take it easy during a travel practice because your daughter "doesn't catch very well" I have a problem with that. That's why we left rec to begin with. Just saying it's not for everyone.

They aren't asking to be on the PGA Tour. They are asking to play tournaments. They are asking to play more softball. So my answer isn't that we're full, we don't have room for you. It is let's accommodate them.

The situation you describe with your DD's teammate is not an issue of too many players, IMO, but the distribution of players.

Say you've got 100 players in the area who want to play travel ball. You have 10 teams. Rank the players 1-100. Do you have teams of #5, #15, #25, #35 ... #85, #95? Rather than #3, #7, #12, #15 ... #35?

The solution, IMO, is not to block the #95 kid from playing more softball. It's to provide better avenues for teams and players of similar ability to congregate. Tournament directors have found there is a market for entry-level, weaker teams.

So, how to we change the distribution of talent within teams so that your daughter is playing catch with players of similar ability? What is the ideal distribution?