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Middle Ground
by Dave
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
A reader of the site writes in to say/ask:"I have two DD's (darling daughters) who play for our local rec league. The oldest pitches at the 10U level and the youngest has another year remaining with the 8U coach-pitch team I coach ... We had enough teams in the spring to play all of our games in-house but with the reduced enrollment for the fall season, we've had to play games with teams from other rec leagues in our area. We've played games against these other rec leagues in the past and they always had a number of competitive teams. This fall we noticed a sudden drop off in the quality of these teams ... Horrid pitching and games where the other team failed to put even one ball into play. The reason given among our league's officials for this drop-off was the other league's support of travel teams which had depleted most of the talent from their rec leagues which brings me to the point of my question for you. Are parents choices in softball limited to either gonzo travel ball or poor quality rec ball?
It didn't even occur to me to have DD try out for a travel team last August because I had no idea our rec league's competitive environment would be so bad. I am also committed to coach my rec league's 8U team for another season and my oldest loves being the star on a team comprised of her friends from school. Honestly, I'm not sure she currently has the skills to be a travel ball player. While she's good enough to be an ace in her rec league, she will walk a couple and occasionally load the bases before she's able to strike three out. It's not like she's overpowering either. The better hitters in our rec league are able hit her. While I've never put her fastball to a gun, I would guess it to be in the 40-45 mph range and she is just starting to learn the change-up but is nowhere near ready to use it in a game. In terms of her other skills, she is one of the best singles hitters on her team and is better than most at fielding and throwing, at least on the rec level.
I have thought about seeking out a summer-only B level type of travel team for her join after her spring rec season. The problem is that I can't find any in my area, just a couple of notices on other leagues websites in which they also usually looking for a coach. Maybe they start to spring up as the spring season approaches. My other concern with that type of program is that it might just be a more expensive and glorified version of rec ball. I plan to get her more private instruction this winter and maybe gain some insight from the coaches who run them as they seem to be tuned into what's happening with local softball. My wife is also reluctant to get her involved in something as expensive and time consuming as A level travel ball, assuming she makes a team. While we both want to encourage her to improve her game and experience of it, we don't want to burn her (and us) out on it at such an early age ..."
Very Typical QuestionDo I need to explain to experienced people how common this experience is? I am of the opinion that this precise conversation or thought process has occurred to half of all travel players when they contemplated taking the plunge. My kids played rec ball before travel. We were extremely disappointed in the level of play, particularly pitching. Our games were boring affairs filled with walks and few balls hit into play. We went to observe the older rec kids play a game and were even more disapppointed.
At the time, I really didn't know very much about travel. I had heard of it. I had seen kids in fancier uniforms climbing into cars. I had seen girls throwing the ball the way they're supposed to in their yards. I had been told by others that if your kid is any good, somebody is going to approach you sooner or later and ask you to join a travel team. This was in 7-8 year old ball a long time ago. The popular notion was that, if you were going to play travel, you had to be asked based on the skill you demonstrated on the rec field. How wrong of a notion was that? Completely wrong!
I decided to educate myself and see if there was a game girls played which I would find acceptable. As I have said many times before on this blog, I found out where a tournament was being played and went to watch it. I was shocked and almost turned around immediately to go home and forget my fantasy. I was unfamiliar with the fields we visited and ended up at the wrong one. I thought I was going to watch a 10U game but the team I observed warming up was actually an 11 year old 12U one, though I didn't know that at the time. I sat down and watched this pitcher warming up with her father along the sidelines as they waited for the winner of another game to show up. She threw about as well as I had previously expected high school pitchers to throw. This team ended up winning the tournament, despite being young for their class. Over the years I have seen the team several times and they are extraordinarily good.
After that experience, my kids and I worked very hard at their skills, including pitching, in a desperate effort to get them ready to tryout for travel. I inquired with a team that was a travel-lite team but they weren't interested in any new players they didn't already know - they were a closed group of friends who all played travel soccer together. Years later the good softball players would leave them and our travel team would see them around every now and again. Yes, we pounded them into the ground and I enjoyed it!
Another organization finally wrote back to us after we hounded them for several weeks. They told us to join their fall ball 12U team and see how things worked out. I was impressed not only with the skill level of the older girls, particularly the coach's daughter, but also the manner of coaching and the style of game they played. We resolved to join this team right then and there.
Later we would learn that this team was going to be one of two at the age level and my kid was going to be placed on the lesser team. That "B" team would play fewer and easier tournaments than the "A" team. Then the "B" concept fell apart and the "A" coach said we could stay with them though my kid would not get a lot of action. We continued to work very hard at skills, especially pitching and then winter workouts began. At the pitching practices, my kid had improved so drastically that the coaches couldn't believe their eyes. From that point forwards, my kids have played travel and seen a lot of action.
Many Different Flavors of TeamsAlong the way, we have encountered all sorts of other teams. My local rec league formed a "travel team" out of their all-star program. They played a league and 2 or 3 tournaments. Another older program we sometimes play against fields a "travel-lite" team which is pretty competitive. But they play just a handful of tournaments and mostly very local ones at that. These tournaments usually have teams which developed the same way they did plus a couple true travel teams which are looking to fill in their schedules with additional tourneys.
Several towns' all-star teams in our area are in various stages of evolution in the conversion from all-star to travel. One took a team from all-stars and continued to play after Little League tournament elimination. They found several tourneys looking to fill gaps, joined in, and got their heads bashed in. The resolved to learn from their mistakes, continue practicing, play into the fall, work out in winter, abandon Little League, and play travel tournaments in the spring and summer. They've done fairly well but along the way have lost several players to more competitive programs. When this happens, they place ads in the paper and conduct a tryout.
Another such former all-star team evolved into a full blown organization which fields teams at several age groups. They weren't very good to start but have developed into a more competitive organization each year. Their leaders became more and more educated and they have begun conducting clinics. They play a half dozen tournaments and a bunch of lesser leagues in order to season the girls. Most everything is local though sometimes they go further away to try something out for the first time.
In addition to the teams I have mentioned, I understand that there are some leagues just outside my area where travel-lite teams come into contact with town all-stars. Usually this causes two things to happen. First of all, the better travel-lite teams steal the all-stars who are looking for travel-lite. Secondly, the better town all-star teams often decide to take the plunge into travel-lite. They return to these leagues but they have their team together from the previous year, have drilled the girls all winter and attended clinics as a team, and the coaches are more well versed in aggressive "travel-style" tactics.
This is a constantly evolving landscape. This year's all-star team becomes next year's travel-lite program. This year's first-year travel-lite program becomes next year's good travel-lite program. This year's good travel-lite program ventures out and becomes the newest true travel team. Sometimes teams or organizations crumble when a group of kids leaves because playing or commitment levels of teammates don't live up to expectations. Sometimes organizations fracture or teams at given age groups jump to other organizations. There is a constant motion and a constant game of musical chairs. The result of the continous turmoil is usually opportunity for the first or second year travel player. But because ambitions vary so greatly from organization to organization, team to team, you have to ask about plans in order to make sure you are where you thought you were.
The thing to remember when you are first contemplating jumping from rec into travel is that your rec league's level of play is not going to improve. Don't get me wrong. Leagues do improve but it takes a long time to accomplish that. I know of several rec leagues where the level of play and competition are quite good but those are few and far between. And they result from the efforts of very knowledgeable people who had a vision, very early on. Very rarely were they the overnight result of a poor league whose leadership changed. A rec league is like a large mass of anything. It has tremendous inertia and resists change unless a long-term concerted effort is undertaken.
Answer Is In Front Of YouGoing back to the initial question, I am of the opinion that a good place for you to start looking for travel-lite programs is in the the very rec league you are trying to leave. You can start by inquiring about the travel teams the other leagues support which draw off all the talented girls who normally would play in your fall league. One of those probably is a team which fits into your desires for a lighter travel program. But, again, ask questions. You may not find a "summer only" team but you may find one which offers you a better level of league play in the spring, summer and fall, and which plays a couple tournaments here and there.
Lighter travel teams will usually play games in a "travel league" and then maybe 2, 3, 4, or 5 tournaments made up of mostly similar type teams. Ask what their plans are before you join. If they say 8-10 tournaments with some big out-of-state tourney, you haven't found travel-lite. You have probably found an ex-travel-lite team which now has bigger ambitions. If they say something about a league and a few tournaments, you're probably in the right place. Ask how many games, tournaments, practices, etc. These are normal questions for a parent to ask any travel coach before committing.
An important part of any competitive travel program is going to be a winter practice regimen. Most travel-lite programs do not perform extensive winter practices but some do. If you want your daughter to make real progress before her first year of travel, I suggest you try to find a team which does some sort of indoor workouts before the weather warms up. But if you are really not interested in that, ask the questions, learn the plans.
You may also want to know about the warm weather practice commitment. If your interest in travel-lite is really just about a slightly better level of competition with a few more games but without all that commitment stuff, you need to inquire about every aspect of being a member of the team which impacts your already busy schedule. You don't want to sign up for a team which plays 3 tournaments and then learn that they practice 3 times a week from March through September. Heck, you'd be better off with a true travel team, if that were the case.
Right Time To Join Travel?In terms of age specific considerations, 9 to 11 years old is a good time to venture into travel. My personal belief is 8 is too young unless you are capable of playing for a travel-lite 10U team. A team I was involved with had an 8 year old on the team who was very good for her age and was pretty sure she wanted to be serious about softball already. She was enrolled in private pitching instruction and, while not as good as most of the 9 and 10 year olds, she held her own. She was able to play and the next year when she was 9, she was a good player. By the time she turned 10, watch out!
On the other hand, I think 8U ball should really just be for fun. I have watched several competitive 8U teams play and I don't like the way the coaches act. They seem to think they are on a crash program to make these girls into real scholarshipcontenders. For the most part 8U teams are about skill development and enjoyment of the game. That is the way it should be and if you were to get there and find some sort of maniac coaching the team, I would pull my kid off immediately. My preference is, again, to jump into travel no sooner than 9.
I wouldn't want to try to get involved in travel any later than 12 years old. I have seen kids who could do that at 13 but they mostly played in very competitive rec leagues or played baseball with the boys before jumping into travel fastpitch softball. 14 is too late as the girls have developed skills which a 14 year old is going to have trouble with if she has only played rec before this point. 12 years old is not too late but if your kid is 12 and you are in travel for the first time, you have to recognize that you have a lot of catching up to do. You must be committed to working on your skills on your own. It's kind of like trying to pass college calculus after a ten year layoff from school (something I did once). You must throw in the yard several times a week. You need to get batting instruction and go to the cages at least once a week, in addition to your team practices.
So, my point is, if you are 9, 10, 11, or 12, come on in, the water is fine. The ideal age for entry into travel is probably 10 since you are one of the older kids in your age group. 12 is OK for the same reason but after that, you're asking for trouble.
Good Enough For Travel?I have heard all sorts of people state that they are not sure if their kids are good enough to play travel ball. I've said it myself a few times. The truth is, you'll never know what your kids are capable of doing unless and until you give it a try. You may be shocked to see the lack of ability some "experienced travel players" possess. I have personal experience observing third and fourth year exclusively travel players who can't field, can't throw, and can't hit. They found teams through persistence and maybe one day they'll learn to play better but they are travel players.
You can't let fear, apprehension, and appearances throw you for a loop. Things are, in reality, not always what they seem. If I had a dollar for every time somebody wrote to me about how they went to tryouts, their kid certainly wasn't the best but held her own, and they were surprised when they were asked to be on the team, I would be a very rich man. The best way I can explain this phenomenon is by telling you a story about my tryout experiences.
I remember the first time we went to a tryout and there were about 40+ girls there. Our objective was not to make the team - we already had one - but rather to give my kid experience trying out for a team. We never heard back from the organization because, as it turned out, they usually conduct numerous tryouts, expect kids to just comeback without being told to, and then they conduct additional tryouts endlessly with the girls who return until they spin it all down to 12 kids. But the presence of 40+ applicants for 12 slots might have scared me off had I not started to go to multiple tryouts, ostensibly because we had nothing better to do and my back was sore from hitting grounders!
When we began venturing to multiple tryouts, we again found 40+ kids trying out for various teams. It finally struck me when I began recognizing people that it was the same 40+ kids at all the tryouts! Let's say the real number was about 60 kids at 5 tryouts. Well, it doesn't take a genius to recognize that each of these teams is going to eventually take 12 girls and in the end all 60 kids are going to find slots!
Another phenomenon I see is the number of girls who are apparently already on the team. This is made plain by the presence of girls who wear their practice or game unfiroms to tryouts. Out of the 60 girls at one tryout, 9 were dressed in team colors. We wrongly assumed this meant there were 3 slots for the remaining 51 girls - not particularly good odds. In this instance, we were really looking for a team, were asked to join, and decided this was the right place for us. When we got to the team, we saw that many of the girls wearing team colors at tryouts were not on the team. Some of the kid were not as good as the other girls and had not been asked to join. Some had been asked to join but had decided to join other organizations. Many were looking to move up in age group, whether they had aged out of previous teams or not, and the team coaches really did not know these girls from the other kids who were in tryouts. The organization simply wanted to put together the best team it could from the available talent. As it turned out, we had seen many of these girls at other team's tryouts.
So my points are, things aren't always what they seem. Sometimes your kid will just make the team because the team needs her regardless of your perceptions about her abilities or who at the tryouts has "automatically" made the team via prior year participation. Don't make the decision to not tryout because you think she's not good enough. Let the coaches make that decision for you. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Don't be shy. Just do it. You can always say no, if the team turns out not to be what you were looking for.
Private Coach As Information ResourceYour local private softball coaches can often be your best resource when it comes to finding a travel program. Chances are pretty good they have girls playing for dozens of teams. They know who the teams are, where they are based out of, who is coaching each, how good they are relative to each other, how intensely they practice and play including the number and type of tournament, who needs a kid just like yours, etc. I dare say that if your coach doesn't have all this knowledge, maybe you should find another coach.
In our "pitching gym," there are about 60 girls who go to the same coach we use. They run the gamut from 8 year olds who can barely hold a ball to somebody who just left on a full scholarship to join a top 20 NCAA Div I team. These girls represent probably more than 20 travel programs. And that doesn't count the kids who have come and gone from the gym while remaining friends and the organizations they play for. Many of these kids' parents are the travel coaches.
Almost every significant detail about each team is obtainable for the asking. The information flow is two way. When I hear things, I run them by our coach. If a team is being pulled together and so and so was at tryouts, I tell him. If a team is looking for kids, he tells me. We talk about almost every aspect of travel and high school ball you can think of. He educates me. I feed him information. And when I'm pulling together a team which needs a player for a particular position, I not only hang a sign up in his place, but also tell him exactly what I'm looking for. The last time I pulled together a team from scratch, I filled at least 4 of 12 slots with kids he sent to me.
My Daughter Wants To Play With Her FriendsWanting to play with one's friends can be a bit tricky. Some kids don't really want to play softball, they want to play anything with their school friends. For me, this is something you cannot judge unless you try something else. You can always come back to the rec league and just play with your friends if that's what you want.
I have a daughter who was not very socially adept. We held her back from first grade because of her social immaturity. When she first played travel, she didn't say a word to anyone unless it was in response to a direct question from a coach. Halfway through the year, she changed. Most recently, a parent of a shy kid expressed some regrets about his kid not mixing it up like the other girls do. I told him my kid was that way. He pointed at my daughter and said, "you mean that kid? You have got to be kidding me. There's no way she was ever shy."
Kids change their views and perspectives on things but that usually comes from personal experiences. Say your kid likes macaroni and she likes cheese. She may never want to try macaroni and cheese because the stuff looks funny. She can't imagine the two together and is unwilling to try it. But as soon as she does, she'll realize they are good together and may never eat them separately again!
I know my kids wanted to "play with their school friends" when we first started in travel. I allowed one kid to remain in the rec league because her travel schedule was decidedly light. But after a year of that, she no longer wanted to play because "the kids all stink." It helped that a kid from school was on the travel team but they weren't friends before travel softball because they weren't in class together. Now they are friends despite the fact they still have few classes together and are no longer on the same travel team. They still have travel softball in common and often talk about their respective teams.
Also, while I certainly understand what you mean about school friends, friends are friends. Your kids are friends with their school friends because they have school in common and because they spend time with them. They have common experiences with the same evil teachers and evil homework assignments. But kids in travel softball also go to school! Your kids will have that in common with them too. They just won't be complaining about the same teachers.
And trust me, after one travel season, your kids will become very close to their travel teammates because they spend so much time with them. I've yet to see the travel team which didn't become it's own sort of clan or gang. These girls win together, lose together, and complain about their teachers and parents together. They will become at least as tight as the school friends.
They'll also have softball generally in common. My kids have historically been as attached to their school friends as any kids. But via our experiences in travel softball, they also have friends all over the place. One kid has several friends who live as far as 40 miles away. They talk via text messages every day and then see each other at practices and tournaments. Several of these friendships have continued when the kids have switched teams. My daughters both expressed desires to play softball with their school friends before we jumped into the travel world but have never mentioned it since. They still have their school friends but their experiences are, unlike their peers, not limited to that.
I am as confident that your current experiences are not unique as I am sure you will find a travel team that is right for you. You need to do a little leg work but that comes with the territory. I strongly urge you to jump into some sort of travel. The competition in your rec is not going to get better as your girls age. The disapppointment you feel today is going to become stronger and stronger. Eventually your girls will get sick of softball because it will lose the interest it originally engendered as skill levels drop off.Labels: Travel vs. Recreational, Youth recreational softball, youth tournament teams
 
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