re: Who actually likes “travel ball”

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I think you and I are saying the same thing. There is a certain level athlete that belongs at that level if they want to continue being elite.

In the softball world this gets exasperated by the sheer lack of numbers playing the sport. The top 5% in the girl's game is a significantly smaller number than in the boy's game. In order to face that level of competition consistently and continue growth, these girls are forced to play all across the country.

College coaches simply want to see best vs best out there. They don't care if you are elite and beating up on lower level competition. I am thoroughly convinced through my experiences on this journey with her that iron sharpens iron in any sport.

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yea we are on the same page. 100% on same page.

unfortunately for boys the process is accelerated to an extent. and you have to start lifting and training earlier and earlier or you run the risk of puberty and the big field running you out the game.

as you mentioned puberty can be a game changer, same as the big field. you are either getting prepared for it or you arent.

the weight room and the kitchen are the true equalizers along with sleep. can make you or break you and 25lbs of muscle and the strength from that can literally change your whole trajectory of your career.

And you may be right. In my experience, a great foundation from those early ages (swing mechanics, athletic movements, fielding techniques) carry a kid a long way once they do hit puberty.

Most of that can be taught at home, if you have the background, or by solid coaching. My kids didn't lift that early but really caught on closer to puberty and have done fine in that area but that's not to say if they hadn't started earlier it couldn't have been a benefit.

Some of the issue with getting to those higher level teams earlier, is that many of the quality coaches have moved there, leaving more 'dads' and uninformed coaches down at the lower levels. That certainly impacts development and can retard player growth.

Travel ball (soccer in our case) turned my son into a killer. He learned the skill of trying harder than everyone else…but he learned it from himself. Would he have otherwise…I doubt it.

This is going to get buried in this long arse thread but here’s what we’re currently dealing with in my town:

There used to be a private “Dixie” spring baseball league then city recreation in the summer. Dixie would have all stars and those teams would play a few tournaments and that was that.

Fast forward to today and Dixie has dissolved as well as another babe Ruth start up league. So now we’re left with travel and Rec.

Unfortunately Rec has devolved into almost babysitting. I coach and out my kids in it to try to walk the walk but half the team is ok and half doesn’t know how to put in a glove (I’m lucky if they show up with a glove). Then this year they cut the number of Rec games almost in half. So even if a kid likes it, they will get 7 games. On top of all of this, the city has turfed several fields in one of the parks. It’s great. But guess who uses them 95% of the time: travel ball for practice and weekend tournaments. What sense does that make.

My boys also play on travel teams because I want the to play more than 7 games. I’m not in any way thinking they will play in high school, I just want them to have fun play more and have fun. But what sucks is there’s so many travel teams in my area, they’re all watered down and other than a one or two, the rest go out to these tournaments and just get beat down. 75% of this kids should be playing some sort of league ball and being done with it. My kids would do only league if it was viable. But nobody wants to do that, everybody wants to travel to Hammond or Broussard or Baton Rouge to get their asses beat.

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Here’s my question? How many freshman do they cut that can really play? Is it a handful or a bunch? I’m trying to understand the scope of this situation. There is incredible baseball in SWLA but are 100s of kids doing what you are doing with your kids and not making high school teams because the coaches just want very small rosters?

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man its not really hundreds of kids to be honest

dunno how many they cut that can play, would imagine 5 or so, maybe 7-8 max.

so Calc Parish population is only 205k. you have barbe, st louis, sam houston sulphur, westlake, Iowa, Dequincey, vinton, lccp, hamilton that all have baseball teams. i think thats all of them.


westlake/iowa/dq/vinton get what they get due to the size and how the school boundries work. LCCP sucks and doesnt get anything. Hamilton is very small(great coach though) and has 7th/8th graders playing on the team.

also have grandlake and south beau that take some of these players, welsh & kinder too.

so you have total of 6 majors or aaa teams in the area for this class that is 14u. only about 4 that are good. 1 is all sulphur kids so really left with 3 good 14u teams, 1 lower lever aaa and 2 aa teams to make the rosters for the teams.

so what total of 40 kids? only 2 of those teams are majors and one has quite a bit of sulphur kids.

so you maybe have a true 30-35 kids this year to choose from, if that. lets say 25 little in LC or moss bluff. thats 20 kids between sam houston, st louis and barbe.

not a lot this year.



so like in 10u, there is one majors team, 4 aaa teams. thats it. thats at 10...you can imagine it will thin out by then. but it also fluctuates

the 13u area has 4 majors teams and 4 aaa. 12u has 1majors and 7 aaa. 11u has 1/5

understand...i am including teams in welsh and kinder in that as some LC kids play for those teams

so on the best year you are talking 80 aaa/majors kids between all schools to choice from


thats what people dont understand...these schools are doing it with not that many kids to choose from. whole parish is barely over 200k people and we had 2 champs and 6 in the semi and then you had westlake in quarters. then had kinder and south beau which are in the area in and grandlake in quarters.

You are absolutely right and if your kid wants to work you should. The game hasn't changed in the last 30 years since I was coming up through the legion ranks in Baton Rouge.

The kids that work and get 'some' quality instruction on technique will get better. They have to love it or they won't work at it. I give my kids every bit they can handle but once they say enough is enough...

For those kids that want 'more'. The amount of quality information out there is staggering compared to when I was growing up. I watched Will Clark's swing and tried to emulate it...that's about the extent of information out there in the 80's/90's.

Where travel has absolutely gone wrong, is taking the average/below average players and forcing them into tournament ball just to find games to play, with many of the Rec leagues stopping teams at 12u.

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I’ve become very fascinated by this conversation as until now I’ve applied my own experiences with coaching youth baseball to every region. It’s very interesting what y’all have going on down there compared to here in DFW.

So really you don’t have to be an extraordinary player, you just have to be better than 10 or so other similar kids. Are you confident with the path that your boys are on that they will be able to make a high school team in SWLA?

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my oldest...he only plays little league...no way and he knows it. football is his sport

the other 2 yea positive. just have to fight against them doign too much and getting burned out. even at 10 the kids on my middle kids team are being asked which school by the hs coaches.

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my oldest...he only plays little league...no way and he knows it. football is his sport the other 2 yea positive. just have to fight against them doign too much and getting burned out. even at 10 the kids on my middle kids team are being asked which school by the hs coaches.

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We are fortunate here to have really good rec baseball for young ages. My oldest boy is 7 and he has grown up on fields, (We have pictures of him with his pacifier in standing with me in national anthem line) but he’s not ate up with it. He just likes to play when it’s baseball season. Our local league has an insane amount of kids playing different sports. Just in his 7u league there are 18 teams all with about 11-12 kids on each team. That’s just the 7 year olds in our town of 40k people. Not counting the dozen or so club organizations around that start around 7-8u. His team plays 18 games and practice twice a week and it’s been the perfect amount for that age. The numbers dwindle a little as you go up each age due to club teams, kids choosing other sports etc, but they still go all the way up to a 14u all star team that plays the rec all star teams of the neighboring suburb cities and it’s pretty good baseball (not great) but those kids can still make a high school team. (More than likely as program kids but there are many exceptions as I described earlier).

I hate that it’s so mission critical for kids in that area at such a young age but like you’ve said 100 times in this thread, it is what it is

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you have no clue what you are talking about

im all for training over games...but you are completely clueless

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100% not clueless. I've coached for years. There is no need for kids who aren't in high school to spend that much time on one sport. They will not fall behind b/c other 3rd graders are playing ridiculous amounts of games. Kids will grow at different rates, and I've seen so many kids choose to stop playing towards the end of middle school and into high school. They either are burned out, or want to concentrate on other sports.

How about spending the summer swimming or playing tennis to give the arm a break while also strengthening it?