re: Travel Ball Weekend. Where you guys playing?

quote:

---

Yeah. That would be my ultimate goal. Hopefully he will still enjoy it by then. He will be going to a 5A school, so there will be plenty of talent. But like I said, in the end it’s not worth ruining his arm or his enjoyment of playing ball/sports.

---

When you do start looking at teams, spend a season before your kid is ready and go to some tournaments. Watch how the coaches interact with their players.

Also, make sure the coaches philosophy fits yours... do this by watching them in action, not by what they say to you. They all will tell you what you want to hear. We found a program that fits our personality and priorities. The program’s 10U, 11U and 12U teams are all sub-.500 teams. Their 14U and high school aged teams are absolutely killing the competition. He places more emphasis on learning how to be an athlete and baseball fundamentals early, and by the time they get to be 13 or 14 they are excellent ball players.

Also, I was turned off by the programs that field 3 10U teams, 3 12U teams and only 1 high school team... that screams money grab to me.

And for OP- we’re in Round Rock this weekend. I’m not ashamed, no matter how the OT is anti-travel ball. My kid played rec ball for 3 years. My son was losing the passion for the game because of the rec-ball Dad coaches running the league like a high school popularity contest. He now gets evaluated based on effort and performance, not on the fact that I bought term life insurance from the coach’s wife. Most important, he loves the game and is having fun. During the season, frick off minecraft and Xbox. That’s a solid win right there.

I was happy that my kids chose to compete in sports every weekend rather than wanting to sit inside and play video games all weekend, every weekend.

You’re right though, some of the parents and coaches give travel/showcase ball a bad reputation