re: Who actually likes “travel ball”

I like the idea of the 2d tournament and the rules for the younger kids, but the low pitch counts make it rough unless you have a ton of kids who can throw.

I prefer OTC's limitations on pitching.


Umpiring is not good at either. Had an ump lose the count 3 times in a game this season, striking out one of our kids on 2 strikes and giving the other team 4 strikes. One didn't know batter abandonment rules and was on his phone constantly while working the field.

With the amount of money people spend and these organizations make, the umpiring should be addressed.

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The most dominant teams are owned by a multi millionaire who bought up several independent teams over the past couple years and replaced their parent coaches with paid staff. Their best two teams are top 4 in the country at this age. Insane. They have zero weaknesses but keep in mind their roster is made up from kids across a 100 mile radius, conroe, Katy, Kingwood, Cypress, Woodlands, Pearland. None of those players will play together in HS.

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If only there was a John Curtis in Houston

What kind of weight program do I need to get my 20 month old on? Her fastball sucks right now to be honest.

Let me say this too -

When my oldest one went out for Freshman team tryouts, I could look at the 40 kids out there and see 25 or so that were very refined. I could look at them and tell they had had lots of experience and had private instruction and lots of tournament ball experience.

We've never done tournament ball because my oldest one didn't want to work outside of regular practice and games. No matter how many times I asked and offered - he wasn't interested.

And there was a summer team put together for incoming 9th graders that he didn't get info on until after the tryouts.

Our HS is a large 5A school. When the kids were working defensive drills, he was just as good as everyone else. But once they started hitting, those kids were on a whole different level. So I knew he was going to have a hard time making the team.

I had him graded out around #24 or #25 of the 40ish kids I saw. So I knew..... I think coach took 20 kids to that team and we obviously didn't make it.

My point is - I would say 90% of the more talented kids are playing tournament ball, generally by at least the age of 11. It's just about your only shot to play highschool ball.

Yes - there are cases where kids hit puberty and really grow or pick up the game late and can make a team.

But nowadays, you almost HAVE to play tournament ball in Louisiana if you want any shot at playing HS ball.

That's good news. I can tell that she loves the sport and I am not projecting anything onto her in any way. She loves the sport, not me.

This is my first season in travel. My son is enjoying it. We did 4 seasons of Rec league and he didn't know how to slide or run bases properly. He looks twice as fast running bases just from the 15 games we've played so far. This one doesn't seem as full fledged as others as most games have been 10-30 minutes away. It looks like we have 1 travel weekend that is 2 hours away at end of season. My other son is in a hybrid or sorts. Half is little league/rec and the other half is travel. Half his rec team literally cannot throw a baseball. They've played half a season and half the team has zero hits for the year. Rec is a boring brand of baseball compared to his travel games.

We have a local shop that sells used equipment. I've always gone there.

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There are 2 issues with kids arms. The first is during a growth spurt. The space it creates and the tender ends of the bone can be ripe for a growth plate injury. If a kids shoulder hurts, don't let him throw, up to 2 months.

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rest alone does nothing to heal a shoulders, the underlying problem is still there. its rehab and strengthening and monitoring of IR/ER both the ratio and vs baseline to monitor for fatigue. Its why i like the armcare.com app so much

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the second is overuse injuries. Think of the UCL ligament as a rubber band. When you stretch it over and over, very tiny tears occur on the edges. After each season you play, shutting down throwing for 2 months will allow the micro tears to heal. If you let them get too big, the healing takes much longer. Even bigger, Tommy Johns comes to town.

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most of the time a ucl injury is not from overuse in the traditional sense and Andrews and his like have pushed that and their mechanics for 30 years yet the number of injuries go up every year

first off the ucl alone cant come close to handling the elbow valgus stress applied when throwing hard

the stress has to be radiated out and supported by the surrounding musclarity. mianly the muscles in the forearm. this is why grip training and monitoring of grip strength is so important. and again why i like the armcare.com app so much and a dynamometer to test and monitor fatigue in grip strength

but you also have to have the ability to properly decelerate the muscle. the main deceleration muscles are the lats and its why its so important to have strong lats and why full range chest to bar chins are so important.


the other thing is stability at footstrike. this is where the reverese lunge comes in and why its so important


the other things is to video kids and make sure they are not in an inverted W at footstrike and to make sure they do not have an aggressive trail leg. if they do have these mechanical issues they need to be changed asap as those 2 are the 2 leading mechanical flaws leading to UCL tears.

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Let me say this too -

When my oldest one went out for Freshman team tryouts, I could look at the 40 kids out there and see 25 or so that were very refined. I could look at them and tell they had had lots of experience and had private instruction and lots of tournament ball experience.

We've never done tournament ball because my oldest one didn't want to work outside of regular practice and games. No matter how many times I asked and offered - he wasn't interested.

And there was a summer team put together for incoming 9th graders that he didn't get info on until after the tryouts.

Our HS is a large 5A school. When the kids were working defensive drills, he was just as good as everyone else. But once they started hitting, those kids were on a whole different level. So I knew he was going to have a hard time making the team.

I had him graded out around #24 or #25 of the 40ish kids I saw. So I knew..... I think coach took 20 kids to that team and we obviously didn't make it.

My point is - I would say 90% of the more talented kids are playing tournament ball, generally by at least the age of 11. It's just about your only shot to play highschool ball.

Yes - there are cases where kids hit puberty and really grow or pick up the game late and can make a team.

But nowadays, you almost HAVE to play tournament ball in Louisiana if you want any shot at playing HS ball.

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no man, thats not true....flytheW08 assured me that throwing hard and swinging hard, running fast and being strong are things you only worry about once you get to HS....throwing 65 as incoming 14 year old is perfectly normal and its not normal to compare where you are and how you are progressing.....Jeff Frye told him and told him teacherman and driveline are run by idiots..




in all seriosness...sorry your kid didnt make it. my oldest is similar and will play his last LL game on monday. Its sad but he didnt and doesnt want to put in the work his younger brothers put in and he has other interest. So i get it as a parent. Its upsetting to watch him being upset after each game lately when he realizes on the way home the end is closer and closer.....but he made the decision, not me.

but what you are speaking of is pretty common across south louisiana, atleast at 3a or above schools that compete for atleast district titles. Frnankly your school keeping 20 is uncommon as most do not keep close to that amount. Hopefully your kid finds another sport he really likes.

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I like the idea of the 2d tournament and the rules for the younger kids, but the low pitch counts make it rough unless you have a ton of kids who can throw.

I prefer OTC's limitations on pitching.

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otc uses innings like usssa and frankly those rules are bullshite and setup to get someone hurt

the 2d and PG rules using pitch count are way better. they allow 35/65/110 so 35 or less to be able to pitch next day, 65 one day limit and 110 3 day limit. for 13/14 its 35/85/120

why would you ever want your kid or someone elses kid to throw more than 65 pitches in a game? yea it forces you to use lots of pitchers....aka develop pitchers not just rely on 1.

I once saw a 10u kid throw 110 pitches in a usssa game, do you think that is a good thing? because same thing could happen in otc.

2d/pg have best pitching rules by far in travel. i would prefer pitchsmart rules across the board but the whole inning thing that usssa/otc use is total bullshite and gets kids hurt

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Umpiring is not good at either. Had an ump lose the count 3 times in a game this season, striking out one of our kids on 2 strikes and giving the other team 4 strikes. One didn't know batter abandonment rules and was on his phone constantly while working the field.

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its not great. i find pg nad 2d have best umps especially if 2d has the lhsaa umps there. all of the struggle to find umps, expecially in late may and june due to heat and lots of umps falling out.

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With the amount of money people spend and these organizations make, the umpiring should be addressed.

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it should but many umps dont want to deal with the BS. and i see 90% of the time, its parents and coaches not know rules more than anything. but consistency callign balls and strikes can be an issue.