Travel ball high school balance

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inumpire

Observer, but has an opinion
Oct 31, 2014
277
43
Isn’t it sad that we ask middle and high school kids to put more time into their sport than a college athlete? I wish there was a way for one person to fix it, but man, youth sports are broken…and probably permanently.
Gee…….maybe if mom and dad just tell the TB a coach they are taking time off……they will get the hint. But the parents have to speak up, and not just on here.
 
Mar 10, 2020
734
63
This year has been a busy one for my dd, between high school ball and travel. Once hs was over she got maybe a 2 week break and then the summer travel season started, once that summer season wrapped up, there was no break between it and fall, her team played 6 or 7 fall tournaments. Now she’s on a no softball break till January, but her travel team is already talking about tournaments before high school starts up in the spring.

To me it’s too much right now, and I worry about her getting burnt out mentally and over use injuries.

What are other guys yearly schedule like? Would you approach the travel org coach and talk to them about it being just too much? By the end of the fall season you could see kids in the team were just done, and most of them didn’t also play hs, but do play other sports. All the teams we’ve played on have some sort of break between summer and fall except this one.
One way to gauge if travel ball schedule is too much or too little is by the response of the other families. If you are one of the few that think it's too much you might have to evaluate if you need to step up to it or remove yourself from it. What I notice is coaches will push their teams because they are trying to develop them. Providing a strong schedule wanting everyone to be on board. If you're not on board make a different decision.
 
Apr 17, 2019
194
28
So I think what people are missing when the compare tb to college, is college to be full time your going to class maybe 4-5 hours 2 days a week at least I did. Then depending on your degree and classes another 10 hours a week in homework. That’s 20 hours a week to school, my DD gets up for school at 6 every morning and is gone by 6:45, doesn’t get home till almost 3. Then she’ll have homework, any hitting/pitching lessons we do are 3 hours between driving(traffic or distance). So let’s say she has school and a lesson, she’s up at 6am, gets home at 3 has time for a snack, then off to a lesson, by the time we get home it’s 9, if she has homework she has to do it. Nowadays everything is done with chromebooks so she can’t do it in the car. So she’s in bed to do it all over again by 10:30-11, that’s the equivalent of working a 14-15 hour day, if you had to do that consistently you’d be whipped out in no time. That happens quite often, but that’s only in the fall. Hs is a different story, last year she was on 3 of the teams for hs, so everyday of the week was either practice or a game.

I’m also curious I’d anyone’s dd’s sit out the hs year and only do travel. We know if at least one girl who left her travel team and is playing hs only and she only played freshman last year.
 
Aug 5, 2022
361
63
So I think what people are missing when the compare tb to college, is college to be full time your going to class maybe 4-5 hours 2 days a week at least I did. Then depending on your degree and classes another 10 hours a week in homework. That’s 20 hours a week to school, my DD gets up for school at 6 every morning and is gone by 6:45, doesn’t get home till almost 3. Then she’ll have homework, any hitting/pitching lessons we do are 3 hours between driving(traffic or distance). So let’s say she has school and a lesson, she’s up at 6am, gets home at 3 has time for a snack, then off to a lesson, by the time we get home it’s 9, if she has homework she has to do it. Nowadays everything is done with chromebooks so she can’t do it in the car. So she’s in bed to do it all over again by 10:30-11, that’s the equivalent of working a 14-15 hour day, if you had to do that consistently you’d be whipped out in no time. That happens quite often, but that’s only in the fall. Hs is a different story, last year she was on 3 of the teams for hs, so everyday of the week was either practice or a game.

I’m also curious I’d anyone’s dd’s sit out the hs year and only do travel. We know if at least one girl who left her travel team and is playing hs only and she only played freshman last year.

If it’s any help my dd uses a hot spot to do her electronic work in the car back and forth. It’s hard to find all the time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jul 13, 2019
54
8
This year has been a busy one for my dd, between high school ball and travel. Once hs was over she got maybe a 2 week break and then the summer travel season started, once that summer season wrapped up, there was no break between it and fall, her team played 6 or 7 fall tournaments. Now she’s on a no softball break till January, but her travel team is already talking about tournaments before high school starts up in the spring.

To me it’s too much right now, and I worry about her getting burnt out mentally and over use injuries.

What are other guys yearly schedule like? Would you approach the travel org coach and talk to them about it being just too much? By the end of the fall season you could see kids in the team were just done, and most of them didn’t also play hs, but do play other sports. All the teams we’ve played on have some sort of break between summer and fall except this one.
 
Apr 17, 2019
194
28
If it’s any help my dd uses a hot spot to do her electronic work in the car back and forth. It’s hard to find all the time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ya that’s the tough thing is a lot of the places we have to go service is spoty.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
Maybe I did college wrong (or, you know, very right), but I had so, so much free time. I didn't play a sport, but I definitely would've had plenty of time for it.

I think it's because all my college work was easier than what I had to do in high school. The adjustment of college was trying to figure out how to spend all that free time (I opted to stay in my room, not socializing, for most of it).

Also I was an English major, which probably contributed to that free time. All your daughters are out there trying to earn real degrees.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Split workout times also fill schedules for college athletes like agility or weights training in the a.m. and assigned hitting in the afternoon and then team practice.
Time Balancing Act for sure!
 
Apr 20, 2018
4,581
113
SoCal
Split workout times also fill schedules for college athletes like agility or weights training in the a.m. and assigned hitting in the afternoon and then team practice.
Time Balancing Act for sure!
Some coaches are probably too controlling, too old school, too dumb to use split workouts times. Split workout times and being trusted to work on your own (or small group) to balance schedules is a much better way to manage/coach a team.
The modivated self starter type will rise and the lazy tic toccers will fall to the wayside.
Somebody on dfp once said something along the lines that adding a few players to your team that threaten the existing players playtime will produce better results than adding another hour to practice. Work smarter.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
Some coaches are probably too controlling, too old school, too dumb to use split workouts times. Split workout times and being trusted to work on your own (or small group) to balance schedules is a much better way to manage/coach a team.
The modivated self starter type will rise and the lazy tic toccers will fall to the wayside.
Somebody on dfp once said something along the lines that adding a few players to your team that threaten the existing players playtime will produce better results than adding another hour to practice. Work smarter.
In the brief time I played, we had testing before spring practice and you couldn't practice unless you passed (had to increase your bench by a certain percentage from what it was in the Fall, run a mile in 6 min, etc). We didn't have assigned team workouts at all but if you didn't workout you were not going to pass the tests. Before the spring when I stopped playing, unbeknownst to me I had mono when I tested ( I just thought I was sick/tired from not getting enough sleep). Took me 5 times to pass the mile test (which I had to do at 6 am before practice started at 6:30..which I couldn't go to 4 times because I failed by like 5 seconds 😂 )..that was a blast.
 

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