re: Kirk Herbstreit slams Travel Ball culture

I'm not bothered by it; it removes these parents from tourist spots. People don't really want to be around these types anyway.

You can just choose not to do travel sports and do local leagues. The cream will still rise to the top in high school.

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Will Clark, Chipper Jones, or any other former MLB player isn’t sending his kids off the some volunteer rec ball dad either. They can rant against “travel ball” all they want but you best believe their kids are getting professional instruction for whatever sport they choose.

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exactly...and if yall think travel ball culture here is bad...yall should see what baseball is like in the DR and Japan. 4+ hours a day minimum of training. in japan expected to pitch 250+ pitches for your hs team if they make the big tournament. DR...ripped from your home at ~10 to go live at an academy. Japan....elementary rec league is 5 days a week practice for around 3 hours a day and corporal punishment is still alive and well.

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yall should see what baseball is like in the DR and Japan.

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A 3rd world country and a place where kids are pushed to mental breakdowns all the time? A couple of places we should really strive to be

arent changing the system so as a parent you work within the system.

Defeatist attitude

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You can just choose not to do travel sports and do local leagues. The cream will still rise to the top in high school.

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99% of kids from rec arent making the big HS teams



and i have said this before...but if your kid is going to go to a smaller 2a-3a school or a more rural 4a school and you have a vibrant rec league...sure play him in rec. but if you go to a bigger 5A school or a private school power house....better get that kid in travel because he wont even get the chance to rise to the top because he isnt making the team. those are the facts, like it or not.


example you certainly arent making West monroe, Barbe, Catholic, Sam Houston, Jesuit, Live Oak, Destrahan and other top 5a programs but you also arent making St Louis, StM, TC, UHigh, Brother Martin, Rummel, Sterlington, Iowa either and you are even not making places like Acadiana, Sulphur, Denham


so you can talk shite on here...but it is what it is

not even mentioning there are only a handful of rec leagues in 13/14u.

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I’ve never seen a culture more toxic than gymnastics. At as an additional kicker, it’s at least 50/50 you get molested

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100% gymnastics is the worse and started all this, then tennis and then soccer as the club culture from europe bled over. IMO soccer has been the biggest influencer on the club culture of other sports like baseball.

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Defeatist attitude

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i mean i will say...someone that is smart like you, resourceful, and was decent athlete can train your kid using internet resources while playing rec ball all for free.

just takes a ton of time, effort and research. Not every parent could. I could and do for the most part other than we do play travel but for someone not getting exposed to the level of competition....it would take 12-15 hours of training per week.

you could also train and pick up on teams locally for free.

and i will say...by 12-13 at the latest you know. stop wasting the money and maybe steer your kid to something more inclined to their skills. Luckily i didnt have to do that with my oldest as he was aware enough to know, but I would have. he found things he actually loves and we bond over those things.

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I have two middle school sons in travel baseball. Kept them in Little League as long as I could. I love watching my kids develop and play sports, but I do not love the way these tournaments take over your life. I’m under no illusions that my kids are getting college scholarships. Despite the stereotype, in my experience most travel ball parents just want their kid to get a spot on their high school varsity team. It’s hard to make a team and get playing time at a 6A school. I wish there were more single A and AA schools. I think an easier path to making a high school team would cause a lot of parents to pump the breaks on this insanity.

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pretty much it.

if you arent going to a big school....you can pump the breaks some but to be honest even on a school that is 2a or so in LA...the starters all pretty much played travel.

in the end, travel ball and LL is just practice where they keep score and hand out bull gum rings and nothing matters until HS. its all just practice to make the HS team.

but its gotten so absurdly competitive that if you want to make the HS team, better be workign your arse off. Now you can make small school teams but even then....you more than likely arent going to be a starter without working your arse off.

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Our director tried to get me to coach our park affiliated travel team but it’s something I’m strongly against. Travel ball shouldn’t exist for coach pitch. It’s silly.

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If you want to hold kids in your rec league as long as possible, which will enable your kid to stay in rec as long as possible, I strongly recommend you reconsider coaching that team or find someone else willing to do it. That hybrid select/rec model is the best that I’ve seen for retaining talent at the rec level for as long as possible. Without it, I promise you will see your league absolutely hemorrhage talent by 9u, and at that point, you will start to feel pressure to put your kid in travel in order for him to continue developing. Just because a team does travel ball, that doesn’t mean that you have to do a tournament every other weekend. In fact, most parents don’t want that, even the ones who put their kids in travel ball. The point of these hybrid teams is to offer a middle space where kids stay in rec and get all of the benefits that come with that while simultaneously getting practice reps and a few tournaments with the better players. It’s the best model that I’ve seen given the current crazy system we are in.