Travel team schedules and balance

[SoftSocDad]

How many months out of each year are you committed to your club program(s)? Although I haven't asked the question directly to anyone here, it looks like there are spring, summer, and fall seasons and that the coaches want to have a girl for all 3 during any calendar year.

My DD wants to try out for a nearby travel team in January, just to have that experience. She doesn't have any delusions about her abilities - which is GREAT(!) - but is really determined to make a team after another year or so.

Now, her mother sees her play and knows that she's a natural talent and has already declared that she will someday be playing on scholarship somewhere, a claim she makes without knowing anything about 'how it all works'. She thinks DD simply plays rec ball, then plays 4 years in HS and voila, the world is hers.

A couple of the local teams have their in-season schedules available online and my wife is none too pleased about the time commitment - 2 full practices each week, plus whatever lesson(s) the child takes, followed by 2-day weekend tournaments. I don't see any problem at all doing that 6 months out of the year. She'll probably want to do 6 months of soccer as well.

Even though she practices her pitching 4-5 days a week now, she still goes out with her soccer ball and works on her foot skills several times a week.

 

[sru]

Here in Ontario.....

Most of the club teams are travel teams as well. Our schedule is ussually runs 11 months out of the year, with outdoor ball starting in late April and ending in October. Our league play runs from early May to August. As far as weekends, we will play in 10 or so out of town tournaments per year, plus provincial and national championships if we make it that far.

Try outs for the next season are ussually late August or early Sept, with fall tournaments running in Sept and Oct.

We practice indoors from Oct to April. On top of the league games during the summer, the team ussually practices one or two nights per week, pitchers and catchers will work out another night or two. My daughter is a catcher.

Sometimes I too have problems with the commitment required to play at this level. Does it cause stress sometimes? Absolutely, but we certainly can't discourage her from doing something that she truly loves to do (she would literally spend 7 days a week at the diamond if it where possible). The experience has been fantastic for her. She has had an opportunity to train with the members of the Canadian Olympic and Senior and Junior National teams, has travelled to play in Myrtle Beach, PA and New York, and has made many friends. All of this and she is only 13. The commitment is tough, but has been worth it so far.

I can't relate to your club team vs. travel team, but your not alone with the commitment issues.

 

[fastpitch]

How old is she? She may need to choose between soccer and softball at some point. Some of the more competitive teams in our area (northeast) have tryouts in August... enter a fall league and fall tournament schedule. Indoor winter workouts and a spring tournament schedule with regionals or nationals through the summer. Repeat cycle again in August.

They also usually have 2x weekly practice and maybe enter a weeknight league in the spring...some do less but for the most part most club teams in our area expect an almost year round commitment. If she does town travel, all stars or something similar and less competitive... demands may be less.

 

[SoftSocDad]

How old is she? She may need to choose between soccer and softball at some point. Some of the more competitive teams in our area (northeast) have tryouts in August... enter a fall league and fall tournament schedule. Indoor winter workouts and a spring tournament schedule with regionals or nationals through the summer. Repeat cycle again in August.

They also usually have 2x weekly practice and maybe enter a weeknight league in the spring...some do less but for the most part most club teams in our area expect an almost year round commitment. If she does town travel, all stars or something similar and less competitive... demands may be less.

She's only 7, but there's no way she can play 8u rec next season. She plans to play 10u rec this fall (has to be approved by the board president) and again in the spring, with a goal of making the all-star team for next summer. I think they play 5-6 tournaments in June-July.

In regards to specializing, my wife and I disagree on what her best sport is. While she does enjoy tennis and golf, participation in youth team sports is required in our household, so she's been drawn to soccer and softball. She loves both, has fun with both, and if she stays healthy, I can see her excelling in both for some time to come. The club soccer coaches are a lot more selfish than anyone else around here when it comes to having 'exclusivity' with the athletes, though.

Because neither of us is that well-versed in competitive softball or soccer culture, we don't know what to think, given that the parents of competitive players we come into contact with all seem to agree that, by age 10, a kid needs to have 'chosen' his/her sport.

 

[sluggers]

In regards to specializing, my wife and I disagree on what her best sport is.

IMPORTANT ADVICE: It is your DD's decision, not you or your wife's decision, as to what to play. Give her the opportunity to play a bunch of sports when she is young, and then let her decide when she gets older.

Her best sport will be the one she loves the most at 13 or 14 YOA. At 7 YOA, it doesn't matter much what she does, as long as she is enjoying playing the games.

When the time comes for her to pick a sport, she'll tell you. There will be one sport where she will put in more effort without being asked. You might have to kick her butt to get her to started, but once she starts, she'll keep going and going. With my oldest DD, once she started pitching practice, you had to drag her out of the pitching tube. I don't know how many times they turned out the lights on us in order to get her to quit. With my youngest, it was shooting hoops. If I was feeding her the ball, she would shoot forever.

 

[SoftSocDad]

IMPORTANT ADVICE: It is your DD's decision, not you or your wife's decision, as to what to play. Give her the opportunity to play a bunch of sports when she is young, and then let her decide when she gets older.

Her best sport will be the one she loves the most at 13 or 14 YOA. At 7 YOA, it doesn't matter much what she does, as long as she is enjoying playing the games.

When the time comes for her to pick a sport, she'll tell you. There will be one sport where she will put in more effort without being asked. You might have to kick her butt to get her to started, but once she starts, she'll keep going and going. With my oldest DD, once she started pitching practice, you had to drag her out of the pitching tube. I don't know how many times they turned out the lights on us in order to get her to quit. With my youngest, it was shooting hoops. If I was feeding her the ball, she would shoot forever.

It's probably true of most kids, but she's very much an in the moment kind of girl. We don't want to decide what she'll do for the rest of her childhood, but the backstory here is that my wife would not let her quit softball after last season. Long story short, I held her back a division for a year and she hated the entire experience and 'never wanted to play again'. She refused to do any off-season workouts and told me she wasn't going to play. Her mother wouldn't hear of it, though, so she did her tryout and ended up having a brilliant season. She's really taken to pitching and asked for lessons around mid-season, and her game has gone to a new level. She's upset that our league does not select 8u all-stars, so her season is over. Now I have to force her to take practice days off. That's softball.

In soccer, she's the same way - wants to practice all the time and loves being a good teammate.

Because she's so vested in these two sports (along with golf, tennis, or skiing on the weekends), it's tough to find a space on the schedule for her to try basketball, vball, or swimming etc. I guess she could do a weekend bball league in winter, but that's when she's doing a lot of soccer practice.

I hate to come across as an excuse-maker, but by enabling her to have the best opportunities possible at such a young age - which essentially locks her into 2 sports and excludes the others - are we actually doing her a disservice?? We acknowledge that every kid is different, but in my amateur analysis, she strikes me as the type of child who, even though we'd tell her the choice was hers, would choose to remain committed to a sport she felt we'd sacrificed a lot for her to be a part of, especially if she's having fun and success with it.

Can't put the genie back in the bottle now, but did we start her too young?

 

[Coachmom]

I am a firm believer that kids should play rec softball until 12U at least. Keep it fun, work on fundamentals and do not specialize.
I know lots of kids that started out as the #1 pitcher or catcher at 8U and by the time they reached 12U they did not ever play those positions again.
I don't know why a 7 YO kid would not be allowed to play in her 8U rec division. Please explain.

 

[Coach JV]

I had a couple kids on 14U rec that played for me when they were 9.
They are the exact same players only taller. I had 5 outs in the lineup
every time thru. Yes, 5 girls played 21 games each (105 AB) produced
3 hits 3 runs and 1 RBI. I will never keep stats in rec again.
But my team was 14-5-2.

 

[SoftSocDad]

I am a firm believer that kids should play rec softball until 12U at least. Keep it fun, work on fundamentals and do not specialize.
I know lots of kids that started out as the #1 pitcher or catcher at 8U and by the time they reached 12U they did not ever play those positions again.
I don't know why a 7 YO kid would not be allowed to play in her 8U rec division. Please explain.

Daddy's rules...but my rationale is valid.

It took her a while to learn the basics of pitching, but once she figured it out and learned how to throw strikes in games with some consistency, she quickly became dominant. She was far from perfect as a pitcher, but the level of play isn't going to improve in 8u - the older, presumably better players will be moving up (or out) and replaced by girls coming up from t-ball. The thought of her being a year bigger and more experienced was exciting for Mom and the prospective 8u coaches who love the 'oooo, ahhh' factor, but she'd pitch half the games next spring and would be virtually unhittable.

Even though she was ready, I would not let her move up to 8u when she was 6. She did her best, maintained a good attitude, but after the season, she told me she was done with softball. One of her coaches had heard her say it was her 'last season' and he shared that with me, encouraging me to not let her quit, but I was ok with her moving on to something else.

Her mother, however, was not ok with it, and told me that we were going to make her play this season. Yes, it ended up being the right move, but I've also seen things go in the completely opposite direction when a kid was 'made' to play (had a few of those girls on the team this year).

So, my concern is leaving her in 8u for another season when she's so advanced, especially given the negative experience she had when I held her back with her age group before. Plus, I don't think it helps her teammates if she throws 7-8 great games against smaller kids and her team doesn't get much work in the field.

I did, however, offer the choice to her, but she was already wanting to trying out for a 10u travel team. She's seen some of the 10u select players at the academy and really wants to do that. She has realistic expectations, though, and so HER plan was to play 10u rec before I ever made the declaration.

 

[fastpitch]

Ah. She's 7. I'm not sure what the level of commitment is at that level. I was thinking older. Whatever you decide... just don't burn her out. She does sound like she's going to be a good player though whatever she decides.

Is she fast? have her start batting lefty now. If she decides to play select welcome to the beginning of the crazy world of travel/club softball! Enjoy it. It'll be over before you know it. And I know it's hard but try not to get too crazy. If you are not the coach and can manage to resist the urge to yell instruction from the sidelines you will look like a cool veteran amongst the other crazy parents.