re: Who actually likes “travel ball”

Does Little League not exist in LA? A kid playing LL and All-Stars and supplementing with camps, practicing, etc. is more than enough baseball for kids 12 and under.

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Does Little League not exist in LA? A kid playing LL and All-Stars and supplementing with camps, practicing, etc. is more than enough baseball for kids 12 and under.

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Little League isnt very popular in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama for some reason. It’s very popular in Teaxs, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Virginia.

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Being honest, if by 10, you aren’t on travel, you are too far behind. And if being completely honest, if you wanna play at barbe, you better be high level aaa or majors by 10. Got to think by 14, you have to be top 8-10 in the city to make it, top 25 in the area or you better find a way to go to another school if you want to play.

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Won’t be a popular opinion but I was told the same thing by a baseball guy with zero affiliation to tournament baseball. Not a blanket statement by any means but for a kid to have a chance to make Barbe or even Sam Houston, he will likely have had to have been playing high level tournament ball (AAA or Majors). AA ball is not much different than rec league in SWLA. And Rec league is not good in SWLA.

Moms and divorced moms love it.

I went to my nephews tournament over the weekend and these women were smashing white claws, gossiping and being loud as hell. During long breaks between games they’ll all keeping drinking at lunch.

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We have some friends whose kid is on a low level A or AA team that won like 2 games out of 45 last year and traveled to tournaments out of state. They’re doing it again this year. That’s absolutely insane to me. Why pay $1000+ plus travel costs and general time commitment just to get run ruled every game and get zero development? Facebook pics? The problem for them (and most other people) is that travel ball has killed city rec leagues to such a degree that it has rendered them almost unplayable.

We play AAA/Major and are pretty miserable with the sheer number of tournaments we play, but we’ve got a fun group of coaches who weave a lot of positive/life messaging into practices, and our son still likes it. First question we always ask after a game or practice is “are you having fun?” and it’s the main thing we tell him on the way to games — “it’s all about having fun and enjoying the sport.”

We got sucked into the travel ball vortex a few years ago and got to a point where we were spending $50 a week on hitting or pitching lessons and then found ourselves putting pressure on our kid because of the monetary investment until we had the stark realization of “what the frick are we doing?” That realization sort of changed everything and put us on a better trajectory.

However, this will probably be our last season unless he just begs to play next year. Too much time, money and effort, and it splits our family because we have a younger child who doesn’t want to sit at the ball fields (I don’t blame him).

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if your kid isnt in it for the long haul aka playing HS then i would suggest stopping. not worth it

but in louisiana.....all these idiots on here can say what ever the frick they want....if you are not playing travel and ill be honest by age 9 at the very latest....then you are not making a good HS team in 3a and above.

and being honest, at the good schools, if you arent taking pitching and hitting lessons and playing at a minimum very high level aaa or majors ball, you are not going to be in any position to play. if by 12 you are not playing aaa ball then its prolly a waste of time in South Louisiana and around monroe area. is what it is


people wonder why SWLA is so good in high school ball

1) most of the travel teams here are only playing 50 or so games, playing 1-2 fall tournies and every other weekend in the spring march-mid june. so not nearly the amount of games some schools are playing, instead lots more practice

2) Kids are starting individual lessons at 7 or 8 usually. they get their mechanics right and by 9 are strating to focus on bat speed and velo and glove work.so lots more training than playing

3) lots of kids starting S&C very early. by 5th grade many of the elite kids are actually lifting.

4) because they arent playing as many games they are playing other sports. in fact many of the travel teams are almost forcing the kids to play a fall sport. i know flag football is reeally big with the baseball kids 5th and below. manyplay middle school fotoball and basketball. even kids like jordan Griffin and even landon victorian play football so they are getting lots of stimlus in other sports. Middle school basketball is big too.


9% could care less about college scholarship that i have talked to. its about getting ready for HS and being a parent that supports their kids goals.

i know many like to say LL is plenty but its not. sorry but playing 10-15 games and then putting the ball down for 6 months is not ideal for baseball. to get where you want or need to be in HS you need to be having true off season programs that include on ramps and time for throwing velo and you have to be training bat speed and lifting. sorry it is what it is.

If you think "travel ball" is bad, try competition cheer!!

This class had the Little League World Series in it's grasp but let it slip away...And was set up for Fontenot, who was unhittable, to pitch the Championship game...

Bunch of parents in here trying to make their kids out practice their talent while spending thousands and all of their free time.

Travel ball is for suckers

After reading some of the posts in here... that sounds like no fun at all for the kids or the parents. Then add in the costs on top of that. Baseball isn't a job at age 10 or so just to make a damn HS team.

There are about 5 posters in this thread who are 100% wearing their kids travel ball team’s hat while they are posting