re: How many kids wish they lose in travel ball and tournaments?

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The OT's version of travel ball would be absolutely miserable. But the OT's version of travel ball is packaged as all the bad aspects, and bad stereotypes and nothing else. It's mainly the opinions of people who either don't have kids, or don't have kids that play baseball.

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I work with a travel ball coach. Our version is pretty accurate.

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Believe it or not, most of the kids that play at that level love it. Some don't.

I would say 7 or 8 out of the 10 or 11 kids on the team love it and want to work almost everyday. 3-4 of the kids on the team don't love it and are just along for the ride.

I would say it's complicated. I've got 8-10 former players on tournament teams ....

Tournament ball is difficult on many levels because you're playing 3-5 games per weekend, which means you have to cover 11-20 innings of pitching. The teams you're playing are built just like yours and winning 60% of your games is pretty good. Getting on base 60% of the time is pretty good. This means there's a lot of failure.... AND it's a business.

And then there's that 1-2 kids on each team that aren't on the same level as the other kids. Talent-wise, they may be better suited for a rec league BUT---

The Rec league we play at struggles to find coaches. Let alone good coaches. And then some of the teams are bad. Like, circus bad.

So, of the 5 teams in a rec league, 2 of them probably have good strong coaches, while the others may not.

So putting your kid in a rec league may really be counter-productive. It's risky.

Most tournament teams practice 2 times per week and play every other weekend. So they do have weekends off..... but not many.

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exactly this


and

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People whose kids have not participated in a fairly high level of competition will never understand this stuff. It's never about chasing a scholarship. It's about having a kid that really likes whatever sport and is halfway decent at it. Not fabulously talented. Just average or a little better, loves it, and is a hard worker. You have that kid and as a parent, it's up to you to find them the best coaching you can and get them the best opportunities you can.

My kid (grown up now) spent countless hours in a gym, training gymnastics 25 hours a week, 5 days a week. She was off on Sunday and one day during the week. Meets were mostly in the Houston area at first. But as they're in it longer, you do have to do some travel to go to meets with good competition. And you want good competition.

Eventually kid gets injured and switches to diving. Dives during HS and does end up diving NCAA. But it's not about that. She received minimal scholarship money.

But the lessons she learned along the way...priceless. What amount of money can teach hard work, determination, keep on trying when it hard, delayed gratification, time management...basically so many fabulous qualities you want in an adult, in an employee, etc. She will never fail at anything she really wants to do and most of that came from lessons she learned in sports.

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thank you. it seems people that quit playing sports in junior high or in 5th grade seemt o tank any and all of this is crazy or they were the ones that just played football in high school.

i have said it before on here and its worth repeating

go ask anyone that played in high school and truely played if they regret practicing too much.....you will get the following response

"too much?? hell no, i regret not practicing enough!!"

ask any true competitor that loves the game and is playing for the love of the game, not for a parent if they regret playing too much as a kid...they will say certainly not.

now....there are a lot of kids now a days that are very high level and are taking off their 8th grade year to just go fishing and other things because they have played their whole life and this is their last chance to do it before high school and they are taking advantage of it.

I applaud that but those kids have stayed in lessons so they dont get passed up but its a risk. luckily these kids are good enough and can do that and still make the HS team.

Many on here talk about parents living through the kids...you see that more at the younger AA level imo. its the kids that arent very good or dont really love the game so they dont put in tons of work. The kids that are in really good.....by 9 are putting in shite loads of work. They are the kids that the parents have to make rest because all they want to do is put in work

my 9 year old is like that. he is sitting on the bucket waiting for me to get home almost every day. just waiting for me to hit to him. he has been like that since he was 6. My current 6 year old goes home and gets the tee out and hits a bucket almost every single day after school.

i dont tell them to do that. in fact i usually bitch about having to go hit to them the moment i get home from work without getting a second to rest. But i do it because its their passion.

my oldest love the throws in track and football. With baseball i would have to remind him he needed to practice....now he is outside working almsot everyday without a word said to him.

Some kids love sports...not all kids love every sport and sometimes it takes a while for them to find their passion. Best thing we can do as parents is support them in their goals and teach them how to have balance in life and that grades and god have to remain the top priorties.

some kids dont like sports....again thats ok. Best thing we can do as parents is support, help them find their passion and teach them how to have balance in life and that grades and god have to remain the top priorties.


lot more to sports than getting a scholarship thats for damn sure.

the OT is more obsessed with travel ball than the travel ball families and kids involved

Rec ball parents here. JaBraxxtonBaws can push us to do more if they want, otherwise we'll keep it casual. Also they suck.

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the OT is more obsessed with travel ball than the travel ball families and kids involved

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Aren’t they though?

I’ve never seen so many grown men whine and moan about kids playing ball without having kids playing ball.

I have a couple dads on my Facebook page that make snarky comments about tourney ball all the time like they’re above everyone else. All the while, I know FOR A FACT that if their boys wanted to play, they’d be out there. But their boys aren’t far enough along to do so. I even talked to one one day and he was thinking about starting his own and it never came about. Now he makes snarky comments about “calm down tourney call dads” any time there’s a post about it that discredits anything that’s NOT rec ball.

Those are weeded out pretty early. I've had it happen but you don't see it much past 12 at all.