What commitment level do you expect

[riseball]

She got it off of a Sue Enquist interview. Although it has nothing to do with tournament ball. As we all know TB is getting larger but the little league numbers are declining. Guess most have decided to wait for High School before they have their first rec coach experience. (Depending on the program of course)

And since the Sue Enquist interview was on the Internet anything she said must be true. It is amazing how some people set forth bogus statistical information as facts when the data simply does not exist.

 

[Lobster Birch]

How much is your organization paying my daughter to play for them again?

 

[chinamigarden]

And since the Sue Enquist interview was on the Internet anything she said must be true. It is amazing how some people set forth bogus statistical information as facts when the data simply does not exist.

There is a thread on here somewhere with a link to the study that Enquist quotes. I like your participation here and find many of your contributions very helpful, however your dislike for OILF seems to cloud your opinion on everything she writes.

 

[Jquick823]

How much is your organization paying my daughter to play for them again?

But what commitment level is expected at the 14U A/B level? I coach I don't run the team, I don't do lineups, I don't select positions I volunteer my time.

If your actual response in a real life situation is how much is the org paying your daughter to play I guess an equal response would be how much money aren't you getting refunded when we tell you your daughters services are no longer needed.

 

[riseball]

There is a thread on here somewhere with a link to the study that Enquist quotes. I like your participation here and find many of your contributions very helpful, however your dislike for OILF seems to cloud your opinion on everything she writes.

Point taken and I will admit that every once and a while OLIF has some valid points. However, along with her transparent agenda she is the queen of passing off her personal experience or anecdotal stories as fact. As a result my BS meter goes off. As to the study she provided, it was sorely lacking in terms of empirical data. I find it hard to swallow any alleged stats based on data that is all but impossible to collect.

Case in point her claim that the commitment in terms of cost and time for Travel Ball has doubled in the last 10 years. How would you even attempt to quantify such a claim. BS is BS.

 

[YOCOACH]

This is a general topic to help me understand what most people on here expect the commitment level of their team to be, and if others share my frustrations.

So at the 14U A/B level playing mainly NSA/ASA what commitment level would you expect from players? This team is preparing to move to 16U Showcase play next season.

I get extremely frustrated (I keep it private) with the parents who don't show to fundraisers and don't send their player to them either yet complain about practice locations/times/tournament travel distances. Is this a common issue around all areas of TB? I'm in the mid Atlantic area of the US so I'm not in a softball hotbed. My area is more, Soccer/Field Hockey for girls than Softball.

My wife often tells me that not everyone loves the sport like I do and that I can't expect them to put so much into it. I do coach but the Manager is the only true decision maker within the organization.

My question to you is how do you define commitment? As you can see from the previous posts, there are already various answers to how different people define it. Some define it as showing up for every practice/scrimmage/game/tournament and paying fees. Others may define it as going beyond that and volunteering time, fundraising, etc. There is no one right answer to this since the circumstances will vary for every family and each situation is unique.

Since every situation is unique, you also must understand that different players are playing TB for various reasons. Not every player is playing for a scholarship let alone to play in college. This was the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around when we moved from rec to TB years ago. As much as I love my first year 16U team, out of 12 girls, only 4 want to play in college including DD. 5 others are only playing so they can make their HS Varsity team by their Junior year and the other 3 are playing because they love the competition.

Because so few of my players want to move on to the next level, it's extremely hard to get the parents of the other players to travel more than 2 weekends a year. So I feel your frustration.

Does this mean that the other players or their families are less committed? Not really. It just means that their level of commitment is commensurate with their DD's goals within the game of SB.

The nice thing about TB are the options. You and I always have the option of moving our DDs to another team where every player is on the college scholarship quest.

 

[slingnit]

But what commitment level is expected at the 14U A/B level? I coach I don't run the team, I don't do lineups, I don't select positions I volunteer my time.

If your actual response in a real life situation is how much is the org paying your daughter to play I guess an equal response would be how much money aren't you getting refunded when we tell you your daughters services are no longer needed.

For many kids this is the age of "do or die". Either they are sick of ball and want out or they are gonna be there til end of HS or college. If your dd is voluntarily committed 100% and the team she is presently on has several families that are not then maybe you should look into getting her on another team.

In our experience freshman year/14 yrs old is when the decision to quit all other sports and concentrate solely on softball was made. She knew that she wanted to play college ball and committed 100% to obtaining that goal. As far as that commitment went she put softball first above everything other than school. The same was said for the rest of our family. We did some fund raising, depending on the team she was playing with, did some nationals and exposures pick up with multiple teams. Getting her to games and practices was often difficult but that is why it is called commitment. Practices with her TB team were 3 times a week and games almost every weekend. We did live about 45 mins from practice facility and with school activities she did miss an occasional practice. HC knew that she still threw and went gym on the days she missed so there were no problems. Like I said before if she is moving to 14u and playing competitive travel ball then you want her on a team full of like minded families. Common goals, player/parent commitment, work ethic, team chemistry are some of the things we looked for in a team.

 

[Jquick823]

I see a lot of people saying look for a new organization but that's not the problem as the org is great and there vision aligned with my DD's goals. Both managers 12u/14u (they work together to run the org) have DD's that play D1 and have helped plenty of girls play in college.

At the end of the day I'm probably not cut out for the 14U age group lol. 10U/12U was a blast with the girls because it was about fun and learning. 14U I believe it's time to commit to this fully or play C ball (probably unfair) 16U/18U was a blast helping out there because those girls are trying to get seen.

 

[riseball]

Aspen is a well respected research group, numbers drop between 2008 and 2014:

Most of our largest sports are seeing major drop-offs in participation, as organized opportunities consolidate around the most talented, committed or well-resourced players. Among children ages 6-12, participation rates have declined in basketball (down 3.9 percent since 2008), baseball (14.4 percent), soccer (10.7 percent), softball (31.3 percent), and football (29 percent). Some newer, smaller sports have seen increases; lacrosse, most notably. Hockey, due in part to major policy interventions, has reversed declines. But on balance, millions of kids and teens are fleeing sports.

Facts: Sports Activity and Children | Project Play

If you want to pat yourself on the back for having the largest decline of any sport, have at it.

Ok, so you figured out how to cut and paste. Unfortunately this study appears to be based on roundtable discussions, telephone surveys, and conjecture. Where is the hard data that backs up the stats that your are citing? Otherwise it is just more of the same BS.

 

[nicelag]

I think part of the problem is the statement infers TB ages 6-12 have dropped 31%. Actually the article stated that softball ages 6-12 declined 31%. It did not specify TB. In fact speaking for California not much 6U or 8U travel ball here, and I guarantee you that TB has not declined 31% in the last decade. Those numbers have gone the other direction and are waaay up, which may account for part of the estimated 31% drop in rec ball numbers.