re: Youth Baseball Thread: the "What Are We Getting Ourselves Into" edition.

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The reality is...the only reason he plays "travel" is because of the demise of quality league ball. He's a good player but by no means do we have some delusions of grandeur regarding his ability. He wants to play in high school which means he needs to play and with a lack of league play, we are stuck..



This IS the reality in most of South Louisiana. There are very few "Rec Leagues" left that are competitive. Most parents that want their son/daughter (which have decent ability) to play competitive baseball/softball are forced into some sort of "travel ball."

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The quality of coaching is down as well. Dads who know baseball want to coach and know how to teach the game are either coaching a travel team, or, finding one with a coach who knows how to teach the game.

A pet peeve I had with league/ rec ball was kids are drafted and get maybe 4-6 practices before starting to play games, then there really was no place to practice once games started. There is no way to teach kids anything beyond simple fundamentals in that time frame, much less proper pitching mechanics, catcher work, bunt coverage, etc. Then you get a whole new set of kids the following year who were taught next to nothing. At least on a travel team the kids practice enough to move beyond the basics.