re: Who actually likes “travel ball”

quote:

---

Disagree. Logical, reasonable people are not going to piss away time and money on travel ball if its not a prerequisite for their kid to have a change to play high school sports.

---

I don’t agree with this at all..

My 9 year old is playing because he really just likes baseball, and the 10-12 games the Rec Dept provides isn’t enough to scratch that itch

I find it interesting that travel ball is at an all time high while MLB seems to not be nearly as popular.

You’d think college baseball was some huge thing based on this board but most of the country could give two fricks.

I havent watched a complete baseball game in 15 years.

quote:

---

How do we reconcile teaching the very important life lessons you mention with the very, very low stakes and ancillary purposes of high school athletics in general?

In some sports (e.g., wrestling or track and field) there are kids on the high school team that are never featured in the meets and are essentially practice players. They compete every day in practice for a few slots. This is regarded as a positive and necessary, because there isn't as widespread a club/travel team system as one might find with baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer. We're okay with this because these are more niche sports, so there is an element of meritocracy. Also, there are weight classifications or different events; maybe the most talented 1/4 miler will represent the school in the feature race, but 3 other kids are needed for the relay.

In contrast, the popularity of club/travel teams in baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, lacrosse, etc., has engendered an environment in which every ounce of talent and skill have been extracted from average kids who either aren't good enough to play in college or are marginal college talent. Team sports (minus football) don't offer the opportunities for on-field participation. Meaning that there could be kids that are good enough to make the team that never see the field or have limited opportunities to see the field. Some of these kids may even be starters on travel squads. The result of this is you have a team that only serves the starters and a few select subs (most likely underclassmen with high upsides). The stakes for high school sports are low, and over 90% of the players on teams won't play after high school. Thus, the cold war arms race of travel ball/club teams has begotten an existence that is antithetical to the purpose of high school sports. Instead of being about life lessons, team sports are serving to validate people who pay to play in travel ball/club and its associated ancillary training/costs. In essence a chinese wall that didn't need to exist and is of limited utility has been erected.

---

this is stupipd and totally not teaching kids that you need to work to be the best. you are rewarding being average.

should we give the valedictorian to one of the other kids too because its "UNFAIR" that they had parents that cared and worked with them and spent extra money on tutoring?

Should the kid who, after taking tons of prep courses, makes a 35 on thier ACT share their score with others? I mean its only fair we reward mediocrity....right?


sorry but high school sports are low stakes. all sports are. but the best players should get to play...period. There is no...your too good bullshite.


and Baseball and basketball are sports that cut. they dont have the resources to keep whomever.

but explain why its a good thing to reward kids who are not good enough? explain the life lesson that teaches?

bottom line is life aint fair. its not as a kid and its not as an adult. Guess what...nobody cares, work harder. if you want to play, outwork your competition.

now a days you could get away with not doing travel if you are willing to work with your dad or a sibling 2+ hours 4-5 days a week while playing rec ball. tons of free programs out there and tons of youtube videos where you could film yourself, find your flaws based on research from the internet and come up with a plan to fix those flaws. but the chances of that are so slim that its not even feasible. then have to talk about lifting weights etc etc

you could pay 150 a month to drive line and straight up train with them year around and only play rec ball....still gonna be behind but going to behind and hard to catch up but its doable with right kid.

but its not going to happen.

but HS sports isnt to validate those that played travel, its about the best players playing for the love of their school. if that means its only travel kids left, its because they are best out there.

quote:

---

Disagree. Logical, reasonable people are not going to piss away time and money on travel ball if its not a prerequisite for their kid to have a change to play high school sports. Lake Charles Barbe or the other programs with the huge rosters that other posters have mentioned would bifurcate into a elite travel ball contingent and a high school sports centric contingent. High school soccer (in more developed/talent rich areas) has evolved like this: kids in some sort of pro developmental academy/team aren't allowed to play for their high school if they play for the more advanced team; however, this doesn't preclude kids playing for travel or club teams. This way, multi-sport athletes or athletic kids aren't automatically precluded from an opportunity to play for their high school team.

---

coming from somebody that is involved in travel ball and has been for years....wrong. many love, absolutely love their travel ball team and its become family. plus they can go play competition that is equal to them instead of having to play half the schedule only who LHSAA tells them to play.

take team like barbe or catholic or jesuit or west monroe etc etc

they would immediately hire the head coach(if he is good enough) for the whole 15-18u org.

they would hire 2 coaches for each age group

would create 4 monster teams. with the best playing 18u, the others playing in order of how good they are or with their age group.

you would have more kids participate...but they arent goign to just take the kids only at their school. the whole town is gonna come together and prolly create 2 teams per age and stack the hell out of them.

they are goign to fund the shite out of them and within 10 years high school baseball would be gone. it would become club sport only.








not trying to be mean....but i find your whole arguement embarrasing. In my view..being average and being OK with that is the worst thing in the world, not matter when they hell the activity or job is. Never be ok with being average.

the travel kids are mostly the same way. They have goals and want to be the best and be the best they can be. Your arguement is....that is not right because it leaves some people behind...guess what the sport doesnt care.

its the same as people using the money arguement. The game of baseball doesnt care if you have a bunch money and have every advantage or if you are poor as dirt and have no advantages. The sport doesnt care, you either perform or you dont.

its the same arguement i got in with a strength coach from dallas a while back. She said my recommendation of needing body weight to be 2.75x height in inches and recommending tons of food to get their did not take into account some peopel cant afford that and it was somewhat racist of me to suggest that and it displayed my white privilage.

i told her....the great thing about sports, particularly baseball....is it doesnt care if you cant afford it or can afford it, baseball rewards those who are the best at the sport. and to be good at it...it takes what it take.

im gonna leave you with a couple of nick saban quotes you may need to read and think about......and in the end, remember...to be great...it takes what it takes

also i wanted to add...

people on this board have no clue what it takes to be great at something. the amount of work, most would be absolutely shocked at how much work the kids at the great HS programs put in. Shocked

many, like mr mustang here have pity on the weak and want to reward them with things like playing time......thats ok jealousy and envy are earned and its on full display by many on this board.

they would almost call what those in golf and tennis do to be great...child abuse, especially tennis

most would consider the work put in at the very high levels of dance, national level gymnastics, national level ice skating etc as abuse.

zero clue what it takes to be great. many here had dreams of being something great and now spout off about....letting kids be kids and what about this sport or that sport...but bottomline is they have no clue the amount of work it takes to be truely great at something.

do you think the players on LSU Baseball suddenly woke up one day and found themselves that good at something overnight? Hell no....years and years of 5-6 day a week, 4-5 hour a day of grinding over and over. passing up parties and drinking with buddies and passing up chances with girls....why....because they had bigger things in mind. They passed up the immediate gratification for a chance of great happiness down the line.

most of you have zero clue about that and its why this state is the way it is. so many people happy with being mediocre and being around the median and being average. frick that, frick being like everyone else and being normal and plodding through life with an average exsistance. Never ever ever be ok with that in anything in life.

quote:

---

Some parents enjoy doing things for and with their kids, and happily sacrifice their time and money for their children’s benefit

---

Me and my two kids do all kinds of fun stuff together...all the time. And it doesn't involve sitting at a baseball field every weekend.

quote:

---

Me and my two kids do all kinds of fun stuff together...all the time. And it doesn't involve sitting at a baseball field every weekend.

---

cool....did the thought ever occur to you....some kids like sports and some like baseball....alot...like way way way more than your kids?

so are we suppose to tell the kids that love a sport and want to play all the time....."hey dont do that..how dare you desire to be better at something" because some parents on TD have other desires in life?

Kids around here play baseball 8-9 months out of the year now, I would've hated that. We only played baseball after the time changed in mid March through May. Summer was off to be a kid, fall was football, winter was basketball.

My problem is that every one of the big three sports has a travel team associated with it now and they mostly don’t want your kid to play the other two. That is silly to me.

I get what you’re saying and agree with some of it mostly the training but elite talent will be elite talent even without sport specific training. Plus like I told the basketball travel coach they’re nine not 15.

quote:

---

at 9 if a coach tells you or encourages you not to play other sports....run

---

You nailed it we ran our baseball coach made it easy and he never bitched about basketball