re: Who actually likes “travel ball”

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I graduated high school in 2009 in VA, for context, so maybe things have just changed that much

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They have.

For example- a baseball team now will have pre-programmed innings they play. Like the parents will show up for the 3rd and 4th inning for example. It's 100% individual "development"

They legit don't care about winning the game. Think more along the lines of minor league baseball but with 12 year olds. It's a sad state of affairs.

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i do love TD though...."KIDS NEED TO PLAY MORE and STOP SO MUCH SCREEN TIME"..................also TD "KIDS PLAY TOO MUCH ORGANIZED BALL, TRAVEL BALL IS A RACKET!!"

which is it?

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You speak a lot of truth. To play HS baseball in areas like SWLA, takes a lot of work, time, effort. Having experienced it as a parent, I can say that VERY few 7 year olds want to wake up at 5am and "work out". If they do, its probably because they want to please their overbearing parents. The trend of young kids "grinding" at younger ages is disturbing to me. I am big fan of introducing them at young ages to many different activities, and THEY will tell you/show you where their passion is as they get older, THEN they can "specialize". I did the travel ball route with my sons, a little bit of league ball, and while it was necessary I am not liking the year round trend of baseball games, lessons, trainers, etc. It's too much to put on young kids but IMHO it is a product of the success of programs in SWLA and has the parents in a frenzy over getting their kids "ready" for HS sports.

A guy I went to high school with was probably the best athlete I've ever seen in every sport, did travel baseball, basketball camps, football camps, etc. He was never offered any scholarships after high school. I think he still lives at home with his parents if I remember correctly. He's 42.

Dads with straight bill caps and tats... nobody else likes it

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lsu777td

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Great stuff. I've done PPSA workouts from the H&F board in the past. I Look forward to seeing recommendations for junior resistance training.

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The "you have to play travel ball to play high school ball" I think is kind of a coincidence, not a cause. The kids who are the most talented are being drawn to travel ball, along with a lot of other kids who are not talented at all.

The best 25 kids in your school district are going to play varsity baseball, whether they played travel or not. It's just that... 100 kids in your district are playing travel ball, including the 25 that will make the varsity team.

But if a kid showed up from another state freshman year and had the talent to play, unless your coach is an idiot, he's going to make the team.

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umm what has happened is the better kids wanted more instruction and better competition so they started going to travel and leaving the leagues.

other parents saw how much their kids were falling behind just being in rec so they pulled theirs out and started going to travel.

cycle continued until we are left with what we have today.

in many cases its a better system. same system europe has for soccer, same as caribbean has for baseball(they actually get pulled to academies at 10 or so and live, go to school and train there away from family)

it allowas the kids who just want to play for fun to play rec ball and not be overwhelmed by comeptetion, play positions they would never get to play and get way mroe playing time.

the complaints usually come from parents who dont feel their kid will make HS ball but the kid still wants to play travel as they feel they will make it. the parents know they arent putting in the work and know its a waste but are scared to be honest with the kid.

my oldest was in this spot. he played travel and was barely good enough to start on lower level AA team. he actually was honest and said...dad im not willing to come home after football practice, do my homework and then 3 nights a week go practice for an hour in the garage and he knew thats what it would take to make a HS team cause he sees his younger brothers and what it takes just for them to be on higher level teams. Luckily i have an amazing kid where football and discuss are his first loves and he understands that everyone is not meant for baseball. He told me dont waste my money and he would play rec with his friends and have fun.

parents dont want to be honest with their kid or they just dont know.

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When done right, with qualified instruction, this is great. But I keep having this picture of the daddy travel ball coaches trying to get their 5th graders to lift in the garage... and the results being a disaster.

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honestly man, with youtube and the programs out there on the internet, you dont have to be an expert. I take all the certifications i have because its my passion but that doesnt mean a dad cant go read and watch videos and do pretty much same thing.

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As far as number of teams and team size... school size has nothing to do with it. My less than 800 person catholic school in the mid 90s had varsity, JV, and freshman baseball teams... with each having about 25 players. The bigger Catholic schools with 1300 or so kids often had 8th grade, freshman, 2 JV, and a varsity team.

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yea my 3a school had a freshman team, JV team and varsity. about 35-40 kids back in late 90s. being honest other than about 6-7 freshman, most were horrible and had no business out there. coaches dont have the time nor the resources to deal with that now a days.

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But... the problem with the Louisiana schools is a lack of resources and coaching. Our middle school always had two teams... this year, the coach (who coached both teams) left and the new coach only wanted to coach one team, and no one was willing to step up to find a second coach. And I consider ourselves lucky... many public schools in SELA don't have middle school teams at all.

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there isnt much middle school baseball in louisiana. i dunno of any to exact. softball..yes, baseball...nope.

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To an extent. But a 90+ arm is god given. There is a ceiling to training that you aren't going to push through.

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no it isnt. every single competitive varsity pitcher can hit 90 if they are willing to put in the work. above that, its individualized. but every single comeptetive varsity pitcher at a 3a or above school.....can hit 90 if they are willing to put in the work

go see the work of Dr heenan and the 90mph formula, go read Bens stuff at thread, go read bill millers stuff, go read top velo stuff, driveline etc etc

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Travel ball made a wrong turn about 10 years ago…

It used to be predominantly “Majors” ball. Now, you have Majors, AAA, and AA.

-Majors is still majors even though you have a few kids that don’t belong on that level.
-AAA is good development in my opinion but these are all kids who will not make it past high school but are talented enough to not have to play with rec kids
-AA is paid rec ball yet the parents call it travel. It’s not travel. It’s a bunch of unathletic kids who pay to play.

The problem people see with travel ball relies on the parents of the AA & AAA teams. Those are the delusional parents who think their kid is better than what they are. High drama, very emotional, mentally unstable people.

Majors is entirely different. Yeah you still have a few shitstain parents but not even remotely close to the other ones.

Then you have cost. Like everything else in life, people realized how much $ you can make coaching, owning an organization, etc. Anyone would do it, it’s not just baseball. Cheer, dance, softball all have “travel/select” that’s just as costly.

There’s nothing wrong with rec ball. It was created to have fun. The kids suck, the parents are laid back, everyone has a smile and a bag of Doritos and a juice box after the game. But, you can’t put a majors level player in rec ball. 1, they would dominate. 2, most major level players put in the work every day. Rec kids do not.

If AA was eliminated which it never will be now that it’s just easy $, and a league was formed with AA & AAA kids, then travel wouldn’t get a bad rep.

Point of all of this: Majors level travel baseball is highly competitive and exists for a reason.

The last team I coached was a 14u Majors team. 12/12 made their high school squad and 12/12 made Varsity at some point. 5/12 made it past high school. 2 D1, 1 NAIA, 2 juco. That’s the real numbers and unless you’re a school like Barbe, only 1-2 kids from high school might make it to college playing baseball. Without travel and preparing them, those 5 wouldn’t have made it. That’s the point of true Majors level travel baseball.

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100% spot on. AAA ball is great 12 and below. at that point, after that it better be upper level aaa or it becomes waste of time in some respects


i get the AA ball thing but at some point, have to be fricking realistic with the kid or with yourself.

but year everything you said is spot on.

i will say though, even putting a aaa kid in rec...they dominate like no other. and honestly at 7-10...its dangerous especially at the 7-8 year old level. you got 8u kids in travel hitting 200 plus and throwing 45 across the diamond and then in rec you have kids that dont even know which batters box to get in. becomes dangerous to some extent.

LOL that state is so bass awckwards. You just have to laugh.