re: Travel Ball Powerhouse B3 Elite 7U just picked up a huge commitment

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My cousin is DEEP in this shite. I went to watch his 8yr old son play over the summer and the entire thing from the time I pulled in the parking lot to the time I left was a walking, talking stereotype. It was eye opening to someone on the outside. Lots of fat, bushy bearded, tatted, flat-bill wearers. One parent from his team even brought their own hitting coach to the park that day. They were not ashamed to tell people they paid a guy that played at Pensacola State 2 years ago.

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Travel is too saturated. 75% (being generous) aren't good enough. 777 is arguing from his POV because his kids probably are good enough and he's on an actual travel ball level team/league. But that isn't the majority. The USSSA A, AA, AAA teams are mediocre baseball players. I can't speak on the upper level travel leagues, but I know kids that play in them. They are outstanding athletes and they play every sport. Also, 3 of them have had elbow surgery....so there's that

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Kids whos entire family's lives dont revolve around baseball for their 10+ most formative years of life.

Im impressed that you dont know anyone whose lives became consumed by travel baseball. It seems most everyone else here does, and most everyone else sees that it isnt a good thing.

Kids becoming highly specialized in single sports at young ages, and pushing out the kids who dont specialize in single sports at young ages, is bad for both sports and kids. You are looking at it from the perspective of the kids - be more competitive be better win more. Its kids sports. From a high level, they are worse now than they've ever been.

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i know some, the ones that I do know though it was the family driving it and the kid was out of the sport after 12u. I didnt say i didnt know pieces of shite families and kids that do travel ball, i said some of the best families and kids I know also participate

but also some of that is your view from the outside looking in. you see an 8th grader traveling to Team USA or WWBA as consuming the whole families life. when its not

as far as specializing, I dont know many kids in travel that dont play other sports, at least until middle school. teams in LA dont even play that much in the fall because to really play a lot in any decent tournament, you have to go to Houston.



as far as the high level comment...are you talking about the play or your feelings about the overall game? because the play on the field is better than its ever been. if talking about your feelings...thats your feelings and its coming from someone that is not in the game


in the end it can be summed up really easy, do what you feel is best for your kid/family situation and dont worry about what others are doing. if you or your kids arent willing to commit to the time commit to be good enough to make a HS team....thats perfectly ok. sports in general do not define who you are, just something you do. plenty of other things like fishing and golf that help you out later in life


that seems to be the issue or the point where we disagree. You see travel ball as that is who the kid is instead of just the chosen sport they love to play and it just being something they do.


many people seem to have an issue on here...not with travel ball, but with anything that takes a lot of effort and they tend to put those that participate down. Its the fact they do not want to sacrifice the time and effort doing those things take.....but also the fear of them or their kid getting left behind so they bash things

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"Travel ball" isn't about going across the country at this age

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yea no shite... how many teams do you think are actually doing that? at 7...maybe 1 or 2. even at 12...999% of teams in the country never travel more than 2 hours.

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It's about leaving the park system to go on a fake "travel league" where they enter tournaments for entire weekends in the same city or state they live in. The only justification is the "better competition", which I don't buy at 7 because your son can still practice all the fundamentals against a crappy team. This is big business for local sport organizations.

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local sports org barely make money. now perfect game and tournament host...sure but not the teams.

who cares if a kid doesnt want to play in the lake park system? why do you care what others do? why is ok for a kid not to play at all....but how dare they go play somewhere else not with your child? do you feel the same way about private school? because its the exact same concept

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In a post on 7U (and even up to 10U) travel baseball, you think that it's the kids driving this?

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you ever been around 7 & under kids that set alarms to wake up an hour early before school to go hit by themselves in the garage 3-4 times per week? ever known kids like that? or kids that come home from school, finish homework then go hit on their own for an hour? I have, know quite a few

i promise their parents didnt wake up one day and say....know what sounds awesome...let me give up my weekends and a bunch of money so i can force my kid to play something he hates

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The kids just want to play with their friends and have fun. They don't know the community's public v private sporting options.

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their friends are on the travel team. nobody gives a frick about your community rec league anymore than they care about your community school. parents want whats best for their kid and what gives them a leg up on their peers. life is a competition.

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I always wonder how many kids miss their true, passionate sport callings because they were forced fed only one sport. The early selection and obsession in one sport to the exclusion of all others is not in the best interest of the child.

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every travel kid i know played at least 1 other sport through middle school, most I know play other sports until high school.

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"Some degree of sports specialization is necessary to develop elite-level skill development. However, for most sports, such intense training in a single sport to the exclusion of others should be delayed until late adolescence to optimize success while minimizing injury, psychological stress, and burnout."

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so exactly what most do. this view that kids in travel in louisiana are playing year around is so laughable. they play very late feb at the earliest thru june.

very few teams are playing in july and certainly not in aug. very few play more than 1-2 tournaments in the fall because frankly there are not many good ones in the state

as far as florida and texas and cali....most of the good kids train in the off season and dont play a ton. maybe 1 tournament a month if that. and most still play other sports

specialization isnt really needed until high school at the earliest. you can train and play other sports at the same time.

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No it doesn't. Most travel ball schedules in the 8-10U ages are 6-8 tournaments a year starting in the beginning of March and going through the beginning of June. Most of those kids are still playing soccer and football in the fall and basketball in the winter. There are some organizations that play more frequently and deeper into the summer and some that play in another 2-4 tournaments in the fall, but it's pretty easy to avoid those organizations if your kid wants to play other sports.

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cant tell them nothing...they read in a NYT article it was year around starting at 5 and you have to travel across the country every weekend and spend 3 hours nightly training starting at 6

Man.. they check all the boxes for an exurban travel ball family.

Things were simpler and far cheaper back when little league was more like the league in Bad News Bears.

But back then our parents also smoked inside, drank way too much, and had little of the commitment to major league development of the travel ball set.

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cant tell them nothing...they read in a NYT article it was year around starting at 5 and you have to travel across the country every weekend and spend 3 hours nightly training starting at 6

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I'm seeing this firsthand in my son's class right now. There are kids who have been jumping from one "travel" or "select" team to another since 7U, chasing whatever team they can get on. Some are moving up to 9U this year, while others are still 8U.

These aren't kids who just play a few extra tournaments here and there, either. Some of them were playing baseball tournaments during Mardi Gras and traveled everywhere from Texas to Tennessee for tournaments from February through the last week of July. They're taking a break right now, but one of the dads has already posted a tryout on Facebook for their fall team, which starts in October.

So, yes, obviously not every travel-ball family makes baseball their entire personality. But that's also not the argument. The point is that there are plenty of families who absolutely do, and at 7–8 years old, playing organized baseball for essentially the entire year is pretty damn intense.

You can't point to the families who keep it reasonable and use them to dismiss the very real culture that exists around youth travel baseball. Both things can be true.

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Yes, because you see this site raging on parents sending their kids to chess tournaments or math competitions?

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umm yea they do that shite all over X

have you seen the video on insta where the mom made a video with the kids about them going to vandy and WF? shite load of comments from people just hating on them and the mom without even knowing a damn thing

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No, dude, it's not the skill or effort that is in question-- it's immediately clear when you go to a travel tournament why this energy and money is being spent - for the parents.

While I'm sure chess, golf, track, all have parents that are doing something similar to travel ball, the scale and apparentness of the problems isn't even close to the current state of travel baseball.

I saw a parent/coach absolutely yelling at his 8U player one weekend at a "travel" tournament and I wondered if the dad treats schooling the same -- because that's more likely to affect him long term than any 0.1% chance he has of making a D1 college team.

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1) stop paying attention to trashy people. everything attracts trashy people. most of them are gone after 12u.

2) stop assuming kids that play sports dont make good grades

3) stop assuming your little snippets you see of the most outlandish stuff in travel ball is some how representative of most of it

rule of thumb, the younger the tournament and the lower the level of the tournament, the trashier the fans are. not always certainly but its a stereotype for a reason

go to a team usa invite only event and its pretty exact opposite of every single thing you are describing.

I've never understood why some people get so wound up about what other people do with their free time and spare money.

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I'm seeing this firsthand in my son's class right now. There are kids who have been jumping from one "travel" or "select" team to another since 7U, chasing whatever team they can get on. Some are moving up to 9U this year, while others are still 8U.

These aren't kids who just play a few extra tournaments here and there, either. Some of them were playing baseball tournaments during Mardi Gras and traveled everywhere from Texas to Tennessee for tournaments from February through the last week of July. They're taking a break right now, but one of the dads has already posted a tryout on Facebook for their fall team, which starts in October.

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then those parents are retarded. sometimes you cant help stupid

im ok with doing the pigeon forge trip or beach trip at the end of the season if thats what the families want to do, but 100% not needed

nothing wrong with playing during mardi gras....some people think mardi gras is trashy.

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So, yes, obviously not every travel-ball family makes baseball their entire personality. But that's also not the argument. The point is that there are plenty of families who absolutely do, and at 7–8 years old, playing organized baseball for essentially the entire year is pretty damn intense.

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of course there are some but to act like its the norm is what im pushing back against.

sure you can find 7u kids flying all over the country...but that is not even 1% of kids that play travel

you can find families, teams like in the OP....but yall understand how rare that is right?

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The point is that there are plenty of families who absolutely do, and at 7–8 years old, playing organized baseball for essentially the entire year is pretty damn intense.

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i agree...now at 8u its prolly the least stressful time to play a bunch but I still dont agree with it.

i really dont like more than 2 fall tournaments, especially as they get older as Im a huge believer in having an off season to train.

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You can't point to the families who keep it reasonable and use them to dismiss the very real culture that exists around youth travel baseball. Both things can be true.

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i agree.....point out the craziness like in the OP. i bashed it too....its the acting like its the norm I pushed back on. its the post where someone like downshift bash all kids playing travel ball because it makes it too hard for his little timmy to make the HS team.

but the ones who do what you are describing, do what is in the OP....absolutely bash that


but that is not the norm, especially in south louisiana. when i say not the norm....im talking might be 1 team in the whole BR area that travels outside the state more than once a year and even them...they will play in BR or Lafayette 95% of the time