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Terms
by Dave
Monday, April 20, 2009
At this early juncture in the new softball season (season in terms of school, recreational and travel ball), I find it necessary to define some terms. My reasons for defining terms should become patently obvious but suffice it to say that my motivatiopn has to do with some misconceptions I have heard along the sidelines already this year. I also feel that for those somewhat new to the game, knowing a few terms would be handy. So, here goes.
First let's start with some very basic terms. We'll move on to the more important stuff, the crux of the matter, before long so please be patient. The first terms I want to bring up are in regards to playing level.
The lowest level is what is commonly referred to as recreational (or rec) ball. This level is generally sanctioned by a town, village or group of towns or villages. Fields are typically owned and maintained by local government with tax money but can very often involve those owned by the local government which are leased (for very little money) or ceded to some recreational organization for its exclusive or mostly exclusive use. In these cases, the local organization often maintains the fields, runs the snack bar, keeps the common areas clean, etc.
Recreational ball is most often open to anyone within the specific geographic location who wants to play, who signs up in accordance with the league's practices, and who comes out for the league's tryouts and draft. Tryouts is probably a misnomer because nobody is generally excluded based on performance. "Tryouts" are usually conducted to rate players for the specific purpose of balancing the teams in terms of players' abilities. It should be a rec league's goal to have teams playing against each other which are as closely matched as possible. However, often adults involved in rec leagues try to skew talent towards their own daughters' teams which often defeats the purpose behind the league which is, of course, to create an environment for recreation.
There are some (few?) rec leagues which are not restricted by geographic location. These leagues, while often involving town supported facilities, can be open to anyone who wishes to sign up and pay the league fee. They exist mostly for purposes of providing an activity to town residents but for one reason or another the town sought to broaden its draw. Little Leagues generally are restricted to residents within specific postal zip codes, and for good reason, but there are many rec leagues outside of Little League which do not have any such restrictions.
Very often recreational leagues have all-star programs in which the most talented players get together outside the confines of the rec league and practice and play games against other town all-star teams. It should be noted that many town all-star teams feature travel ball players and can be as competitive as any travel team. But we differentiate between "town all-stars" and travel teams because an "all-star" team SHOULD include only players who ordinarilly are found within the rec league which sponsors the all-star team.
Some of the better "all-star" teams will play tournaments against the best travel teams and compete favorably against them. Some "all-star" teams evolve into travel teams which seek the best players they can accumulate regardless of residence or participation in any rec league. These teams often "hide" behind the all-star label and are really travel teams with a town name.
When we refer to travel teams, sometimes referred to as club, elite, or some such label, we are talking about teams which conduct tryouts open to players without regard to participation in any rec league or specific boundary of residence. These teams often are members of an organization which may be incorporated or not, may be for "not-for-profit" or not, may conduct business openly via a baord of directors or not, etc. The goal of most travel organizations and teams is to put the absolute best team they can on the field, to play tournaments, and to compete for berths to some larger, higher tournament while also developing girls into players who will continue to play during their high school days and perhaps into college.
While recreational leagues should exist for the good of all participants, all-star teams for the good of the best players in the rec league, travel teams really should exist for the good of the travel organization and everyone in it. One often hears things regarding the use of organizational funds like, "sure the older girls get more but so will your kid when she gets there." That is a cop-out. Every kid within a travel organization should benefit about equally or expressly agree that the "older kids get more and so will your kid when she gets there" before joining.
This brings up something which is still fairly rare within the softball world and is something we'll refer to as a softball academy. &n bsp; A softball academy generally is a facility and organization, usually for profit and run like a business, which has the express desire of providing lessons and clinics for a fee. Some such organizations sponsor travel teams in addition to providing lessons for fees but usually the travel organization is separately incorporated and keeps its funds and accounting apart from the academy, though that is not an absolute and does not need to be.
Also, as you will see shortly, it is not my desire at this juncture to closely and completely examine the world of softball academies nor the finances of travel organizations. The important parts of this leg of the piece is the differentiation between types of ball and the possible variations on the organizational theme which you may experience. I want to emphasize, before I go any further, that whether an organization is for profit or not may not impact whether your experiences with it will be positive ones. There are too many examples of a "not-for-profit" organization really being run for the benefit of individuals (via legal or illegal means) to list in a single writing. There are also too many examples of a so-called "for profit" organization in which one receives so much in return for one's money that the "for-profit" / "not-for-profit" designation is absolutely meaningless that one should not harp to much on this aspect. Find a place which gives you what you want and leave the corporate terminology for somebody else.
OK, so that is how I see the world in terms of playing level. But that is not my primary goal in writing today. Rather, I want to go over some common terminology in regards to types of fastpitch softball play outside of what we commonly think of as "practice." That is, I want to define and explain some terms like scrimmage, friendly, tournament, and qualifier. My motivations for doing so is because I have heard and witnessed conduct which indicates that many inside the softball world just do not understand the differences between these types of play.
Let's start with the term scrimmage because that is a logical first foray beyond our typical practices. You can work ground balls, flies, and take at-bats to a certain level inside the confines of practice and cause players to develop only so far. At some point you've got to get girls out on the field with a "blue" (umpire) or two, have balls called balls (hopefully), make outs, score runs, etc. In the early season, and sometimes much later on, teams conduct what they refer to as scrimmages in which one team plays against another in situations which are entirely game. The idea behind a scrimmage is to get the girls game experience in addition to what they will gain as the real season wears on.
It should be noted that a "scrimmage" really exists in the no-man's-land (or no woman's-land) between practice and game. It should never be the objective of any participant (coach, player, parent) to "win" a scrimmage. The reason I emphasize this is because I have heard people exclaim "Oh, that team is no good. We played them in a game a few weeks ago and beat the living daylights out of them." There never serems to be the understanding that the other team considered the thing a scrimmage, a glorified practice, and did things it would never consider doing in a game. As a coach, I have had my teams play many scrimmages in which we were up or down by 10 runs and I had a baserunner who is not known to be a good base stealer try to steal when the next three or four hitters are among our best. I figure the kid needs to improve her skillset and learn to steal a little better. And she won't get the chance to steal once tournament season starts.
It is also possible that during the course of a scrimmage I might have my big bopper bunt with runners on second and third and us trailing by a single run. I might also have a kid bunt with bases loaded and our slowest runner standing on third. It is entirely possible that three or more consecutive batters might be given the bunt sign, even while they have two strikes on them in order to get them to put one down. I view all scrimmages as practices and I conduct my players that way. For this reason, I find myself dazed and confused (as opposed to shocked and awed) when we scrimmage against one of those teams which seems to always play to win regardless of the arrangement.
Understand that some scrimmages are played to a win-lose conclusion and in many cases that is the idea behind the scrimmage. I remember being a fan at a high school scrimmage which ended 7 innings in a tie with another game scheduled to start immediately afterwards where they put runners on second to play ITB (international tie breaker) extra-innings and determine a winner. I was confused by this but that was the arrangement under which the scrimmages were played.
Regarding the use of ITB and other situations in a scrimmage, it is not unusual for coaches to agree to certain situations before the game starts. I haven't seen it but I would not be shocked if a scrimmage were to consist of every inning starting with a runner placed on second. Similarly, it wouldn't surprise me if teams agreed to play the first couple of innings like usual, begin the fourth and fifth with the bases loaded, and thereafter to play with the ITB. That's kind of the beauty of a true scrimmage. There are no limits to what you can do. Batters could come up for their at-bats with the count 2-1 or some such.
Another thing you frequently see at scrimmages is a batter walked or hit by pitch and the coach refuses to let her take her base. If needs be, a runner could sub for her on base but the batter takes another at-bat. It is also not unusual, assuming a team has a kid designated to run the bases, to have one kid go out and run for multiple base runners during a single inning. They are not cheating by having their fastest kid run for players when that's not allowed. It is a scrimmage and they are trying to get the kid as many on-base situations as possible. Sometimes, after a baserunner has successfully been sacrificed over to second, the coach will ask that she be allowed to return to first, again for the purpose of gaining experience. The possibilities are endless. The key to understanding is to know that most scrimmages are conducted for the purpose of getting teams and players ready for the real deal. This is not the real deal and there are no bragging rights conferred. To act otherwise is to demonstrate the quality of being "bush league" (amateurish).
Beyond practice and scrimmage are, quite obviously, games. But there are many different types of games. I don't wish to explore high school, middle school, or rec ball any further. At this point I'm really exploring the world of travel.
Within travel ball, particularly early in the season, we have lots of what are called friendlies in which play is not brought to a head by some sort of championship or trophy. Many times these are conducted under a competitive sanctioning body's rules (like ASA, NSA, PONY) and are played just like any tournament game. There could be "MVP" awards (which I don't wish to get into), mercy run-rules (in which one team leading another by say 12 after 3 innings, 10 after 4, 8 after 5, etc.) is declared the winner, and other things you usualloy see in regular tournament games. Most often there are drop-dead times. But most of the time friendlies are not played until a winner is established.
Friendlies are not scrimmages in the sense that you do not see the kinds of odd ball things like batters not allowed to take a base on balls or runners placed on at the beginning of innings during games. They are played under normal game rules.
Friendlies are usually competitive games in which the teams are trying to win. They are a slice above your prototypical scrimmage. One of the principal objectives of teams playing a friendly is to get teams ready to play tournaments. Along those lines, teams are playing using their normal batting order, bunting runners up, stealing, etc. in order to score runs and try to win the thing. We wanrt the girls to get the feel of a real game and we tell them that before we play. But coaches are, or should be, looking to gain more than game experience during a friendly. Coaches should strive to teach. They should be trying out different things. They might come in with a game plan which is intended to work certain aspects of their players or team as a whole.
For example, it is not uncommon to see some pitcher pitching a perfect game or no hitter, or to have a highly contentious game going on, and then see a coach pull the pitcher who has been shutting down the opposition in favor of the team's third or fourth pitcher just to see how she handles coming in in the middle of a game. It isn't unusual for a team to try a delayed steal, even of home, when they are leading by 8 runs and the other team has not had so much as a baserunner yet. They aren't being overly aggressive, at least not most of the time. Sometimes they just want the kid trying the delayed steal to work on that skill. A team might try something overly aggressive like a suicide squeeze when they are down by 6 runs in the last inning and there are two outs with the bases loaded. That would be a little odd but you can and do see all kinds of things in friendlies you don't see, say, in elimination games.
A friendly, while usually not particularly friendly, is a venue in which players, coaches and teams can try things out to improve their games. They are preparation for the real deal. Sometimes bragging rights can go along with the results of a friendly but, once again, this is somewhat amateurish. I say this because I was talking with someone a few weeks ago, after a friendly, and I asked him how his team did. He declared, with obvious pride, that they had won all their games. I didn't bother to tell the fellow that one of the games they won and about which he was most proud, involved a team which, in an elimination situation most likely would have smoked his team and that the pitcher they faced was that team's number 3. I figured it was better not to emphasize the term "friendly" or otherwise enlighten him. He would have left the conversation merely considering me to be a jerk. And he wouldn't have gotten the point.
The next rung on our game ladder is what I hear called a round-robin ("RR"). That kind of play is usually a one-day tournament which is played to a championship although typically there is no trophy involved. Depending on the number of teams, a RR involves winners of first games playing against other winners, losers playing against losers, and then, after round two is played, the same sort of thing. Eventually, the two teams which have won all their games face each other in a championship game. This is often great fun and a great way to prepare girls for what a Sunday might be like. I don't want to get ahead of myself but what I mean is playing in a RR is like a situation in which you win or go home.
Of course, one of the beauties of a RR you don't go home but rather continue to play regardkless of whether you win or not. You might get three, four, or more games in during a single day. This can be exhausting and that's part of the purpose. If you are a parent along the sidelines, know that playing three or more games in a day is tough stuff. By the third game, girls are pretty well exhausted and their minds can wander at the wrong time. If you want kids to be prepared for real tournaments, however, they simply must get used to playing a lot of games. And the single day RR is the best way I know to do that.
Another great aspect of a RR is it really does not matter what the caliber of teams involved in it is. If you win, you get to play another team that has won. If you lose, you get to play against a team which has lost. &n bsp; So, as you move through the day, it becomes more and more likely that you will face a team against which you are well matched. This can be as valuable for very talented teams as it can be for lesser ones. Eventually, there probably is a team which has lost every game and they can leave to go home and lick their wounds. Similarly there is a team which has won every game and leaves knowing they are champion. But in terms of actual experience in more tightly contested games, generally most teams get something sloce to this because of the way the day is organized. It is tremendous preparation for the real deal.
Now, we move from the worlds of scrimmages, friendlies and round robins into the real tournament world. When I use the term "tournament," generally I mean a competition in which a champion is determined after a first "seeding" round followed by an elimination round, and leading up to a championship game.
Some tournaments are conducted on a single day and I'll mention them briefly but most are two or more day affairs. A seeding round involves teams playing to compile records and then ranked from best to worst. Usually this is done via a sequence of ranking criteria like 1) record, 2) head to head, 3) runs scored against, 4) runs scored by, and coin toss or some random way of ranking teams that are otherwise tied in the seedings.
Usually seeding round games are of shorter duration, involving strict drop dead time limits, sometimes as short as one hour. Ties are considered in a team's record and there is no reason for the seeding round games to come to a win-loss result. Of course a win is better than a tie but a team needs to keep the time limit, current score, etc. in mind during the round. Drop dead rules can cause the team leading the game to record a loss or tie if, for example, the score has to revert back to the last completed inning. Before yuou participate in a tournnament, you should fully understand how seeding is done, any time restrictions, and how the thing flows. You don't want to cost your team by not knowing the rules. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. And there is no negotiation of one's seding after the fact. Of course, tournament directors do sometimes make seeding mistakes so you want to understand your seeding and make sure it has been compiled accurately.
Next comes the championship or elimination round in which winners move on and losers leave the competition. In one dayers, the seeding round is often done after a break for, say, lunch during which the tournament director compiles the results of the round and then produces a schedule for the next round. This is a very hard day, particularly for teams which make it all the way to the championship. Teams could play five total games, perhaps more, in a single day. It is great preparation and a wonderful way to play a lot of ball in one sitting. It is also a situation that is prone to director errors in seeding since there are significant time constraints and when people are under pressure, they make mistakes. During any tournament, and particularly in one dayers, it would be best if someone were keeping an eye on the seedings and informing the coaches of how things are progressing.
Because seeding can be critical to how a team progresses through the elimination round, coaches often try to manage their teams with at least one eye on that. For example, sometimes teams will really run up or keep down a score in order to preserve a top seeding. It is not at all unusual for one team to be ahead 30 nothing in the top of the third inning and try to squeeze across one more run. There could be an argument between one coach and the ump or the other coach over whether a runner crossed home before a tag was applied even though the score is 15-0 and the other team hasn't had a runner beyond first yet. A team might be leading by enough to gain a mercy run rule win after the current inning and then when you have a runner on third and your batter bunts, play against allowing the run to score rather than getting the out. These sorts of things are not demonstrative of bad sportsmanship. The parents and coaches on the losing side should not get their noses out of joint because the killers over there are trying to pummel us into the ground. They are trying to protect their seeding. That's it. End of story.
Generally a tournament ends with some sort of trophy to the winners and runners up. of course the physical object is junk but that doesn't really matter. The trophy is symbolic of a job well done. We put all that time in during the winter, we play some scrimmages, we do a few friendlies, etc. all with an eye towards competing for some junk that is put together with screws and glue and will fall apart not that long after the thing is over. The real value is in accomplishing the mission and knowing that hard work paid off.
As a sidebar to the tournament discussion, a select few tournaments provide for what are called A and B "flights." The first round is played and teams are seeded. The bottom half of the seeding moves into a "B bracket" and the top half the "A." The As play to a championship and the Bs have their own. The two sides never meet in the final round. This kind of tournament can be among the best. Highly competive teams can play against other competitive teams all the way to an ultimate winner. Lesser teams, including town rec all-stars or quasi-travel teams can play to their own championship. Having had kids involved with both A and B championships at the same tournament in different years, I can tell you that while it is obvious to anyone when you win the Bs that there are a bunch of teams better than you, it still feels good to win something. I know that when we finished second in the A flight one year, we knew we were better than a rival team that won the Bs but we also slapped them on the back and knew they felt good about winning what they won.
One of the criticisms of the particular tournament I have in mind is that run-of-the-mill travel clubs go into it, play themselves into the B bracket deliberately, and then beat up on town all-star teams. That may indeed happen every now and again. But I went to the particular tournament yet a third time with a run-of-the-mill travel team, we played our way into the B bracket, but we got smoked right out of there in the first round by an all-star team that played at a level well above us. I don't think many travel teams win their way through the B flight unless they just happen to have played very badly one day and very well the next. I don't think anyone does this deliberately.
At this point, I want to add a word or two about a particular type of "tournament" which is called a "showcase." Showcase tournaments, as their name implies, exists for the sole purpose of "showcasing" talent. That is, their mission is to put 18 and under players in front of college coaches, preferably college coaches of their choosing. Some of these are played to a championship. Many are not. In showcases, winning is not paramount though demonstrating how one handles tough and or winning and loosing game situations may very well be. But when a showcase is played to some sort of championship, that championship is not really a valuable commodity.
To explain this a bit, college-aspiring softball players whould make efforts to contact coaches of institutions in which they are interested, before the tournament so as to try to get in front of them. [; This subject is too complicated to insert here but the point is, you don't merely want to play in front of anny old college coach. The idea is to play in front of a college coach from the institutions you aspire to. That's simple enough, I think.
Further, teams playing these games ought not to seek victory at the cost of showcasing kids. I have heard an example of a game in which one particular kid asked to play a little more at a particular position because the college coach of her choosing had promised to be in attendance. Her request was met with one of those "I decide who plays, who plays where, and who plays how long and I do this based on what is good for the team" comments. That is all well and good but it demonstrates a lack of understanding of the purpose of the showcase. &nnbsp; It also shows a disregard for the players on the team, especially if the kid playing second base or whatever for the majority of innings could not care less what the college coaches nearby think of her play and would be happy to trade time in this game for time in that one. This is also not exactly a game changing exchange which favors the continued viability of the showcase team or which will endear the coach to future prospective roster members, let alone current ones.
A showcase tournament exists to showcase talent, not to produce championships. Showcase teams exist to showcase their players' talents, not to win in order to establish reputation. A team which routinely pushes aside requests like this is looking for trouble. If I'm looking for a showcase team for my kid, I'm not going to consider a team on which requests for a little more playing time at a position are pushed aside without even considering the players situation. That's bad ball. That's bush league. That's just stupid!
Finally, with respect to showcase ball, I have heard a few too many comments which indicate some people just don't get it. Sure it may be important to be involved with a showcase team with reputation in order to "get noticed." But looking for a team which wins a lot or coaching a team in order to win regardless of what that might mean demonstrates a misunderstanding of what college athletic recruiting is all about. Many times I have heard folks bragging about how their team won some third rate showcase tournament title or espousing the notion that if a player wants to get noticed, they should play for such and such team since they always win. That's absurd. When you look for a team to showcase you, you should know and like the coaching staff; you should look for a coach who knows the college coaches and is a great schmoozer; find a team which places people at the schools you are interested in and feel you have a reasonable shot at making; and find a good fit for your goals. If you think this is about winning the tournament title, good luck and enjoy your trophy. Put it right next to all the trophies you have won at "B" tournaments through the years. Now back to your regularly scheduled rpogram of youth travel tournaments.
In travel ball, ultimately the winning of tournaments is the goal. But there is something more important than the mere winning of run-of-the-mill tournaments. That is qualifying for, competing at, and making a good showing at something a bit grander than your typical tournament. This bring us to the type of tournament typically referred to as qualifiers (or national quualifiers).
A qualifier is just like any other tournament. It could be a one dayer but most often is conducted, weather permitting, over two or more days. Winning a qualifier, as you might expect, qualifies a team for some higher tournament, perhaps a national championship under one organizaing body or another. These are the real, real deal!
Qualifiers generally involve a ferocious level of play as a team tries to gain attendance at its ultimate goal tournament. Girls put it all on the line, lay out for foul pops, try to intimidate opponents, and generally go all out to win at qualifiers. After seeding rounds and the first few elimination games, things get extremely heated. If you are not used to this level of emotions, it can be off-putting. You may walk away saying to yourself, there is something wrong with those people, perhaps all of society. They act as if winning is more important than anything else. Their lives might be coming apart at the seams and they are out here seeking blood from a bunch of 12, 14, 16 year old girls. "Did you hear what they guy said when the first baseman went for the foul pop? He yelled 'I got it, I got it.' That's really nasty. That girl might have been hurt." While it is true that there is no room for a parent yelling "I got" at any youth game whatsoever, you will see things at qualifiers you will not see anywhere else, particularly as first round evolves into second, as quarter-finals become semi-finals. It can get tense.
As I said, winning a qualifier gets you a berth at some higher tournament, perhjaps a national. Depending on the sanctioning body, there can be other ways to gain a berth but I don't wish to go into this right now. Also, sometimes the team which wins a qualifier has already qualified or is disinterested in attending the particular sanctioning body's national. Maybe when they signed up for tournaments, they aimed to attend NSA nationals but were willing to go to FAST or PONY, if they didn't qualify for NSAs. They won their NSA berth week ago and they don't want the FAST berth they just won. Or maybe the team wanted to go to PONY nationals so badly that they signed up for qualifiers and they have already won two of them. When these circumstances occur, often the runner-uop earns the berth. And sometimes the runner up has also already qualified and made plans to go wherever. Soemtimes the third, fourth or whatever place team gains the berth, depending on the rules under which the thing is played. A few years ago, we earned a berth to attend a national tournament after finishing third and going home with our tails between our legs. Then we learned we won the berth! Sometimers it pays to hang around and learn what the outcome is!!
Our final consideration of types of games involves the national tournament and in order to discuss these, I need to add a word about the sanctioning bodies under which they are played. I think there are some misconceptions out there regarding which is best and other issues like that.
First, national tournaments are many and varied. You wouldn't think that would be the case but there are several different sanctioning bodies and, in this sport, there is not necessarily a clear hierarchy the way there is in other sports. I know in basketball the one top dog is AAU. I understand that in soccer there is one top dog but the name escapes me at the moment. In softball, arguably, the top dog is and should be ASA. But, as usual, on a softball diamond, it is not quite as clear as that.
At the 23U level, I believe ASA is by far the biggest and most important. On the other hand, I do not believe that many in the sport particularly care much about 23U ball. There are far fewer teams at 23U than other age levels excluding maybe 8U and 10U - those may be a lot larger than 23U, I really just don't know. It is not my understanding that a large portion of the top college players play at 23U once they are done or work at it hard the way a 17 year old Gold player might. It ios my understanding that good lower level college teams are often a lot better than the standard issue 23U team. Nuff said?
At the 18U level, I do not believe there is any question that ASA Gold level is by far the best level. I know other bodies sanction nationals at 18U but it is my understanding that the best level of play is entirely ASA Gold. Now there are really three types of Gold tournaments. There are Gold tournaments which are really showcases (see above), those that are merely run-of-the-mill, and qualifiers. Qualifiers and the actual championship are the real, real, real deal. And to my knowledge no level of tournament competes with these.
At 16U, I do believe that most likely ASA is the top. 16U nationals is where college coaches go to watch potential prospects. These games, though I have never been to ASA nat.s, are said to be among the fiercest played. It is my understanding that other sanctioning bodies put on some very good competition but I do not think that comes close to competing with ASA. But below 16U, the waters get murkier and murkier.
I don;t know that I can easily distinguish between FAST and NSA at the 14U level. I can tell you that, over the years, what I have noticed is NSA tends to draw from a more wide geographical dispersion than FAST. FAST is definitely oriented towards Florida teams at all age levels. You could write this off easily except for one thing, Flortida teams tend to be extremely good. Years ago, maybe they were not up to snuff with the west coast teams but that's no longer the case. And travelling to Florida to play only or mostly Florida teams at FAST nationals is not a way to go to a lesser nationals and pick up some easy bling. FAST natiuonals are pretty brutal. Also, I have heard from participants that there can be some home cooking prepared by the umpires. I don't know if the same can be said of NSA but I do know they get good teams from all over the country at the 14U level.
At 12U, the water is extremely murky though it is quite possible that ASA is the top. The trouble is some very good teams go to 12U nationals at Pony, NSA, FAST and, obviously, ASA. Often times, over the past several years, teams which competed well at Pony nat.s or other sanctioning bodies also competed well at ASA or NSA. I think I've written before in these pages that during one year I remember one team which had finished behind several others went on to take second at NSAs while the several others got smoked at Ponys. I know of a team which went to FAST and got really crushed after having beaten several teams which did well at other bodies' nat.s. At 12U, it is a mixed bag and the mix is changing all the time. Most recently, if you asked me to speculate, I guess I'd have to say that NSA is quite possibly the top dog at this level.
I'm really not sure what the mix at 10U is, and I'm not all that sure that anyone should care. before you send me nasty-grams, let me say that, yes, 10U does matter. But 12U matters more since A) the girls are far more mature, B) they pitch the real ball at the real distance (at least until you get to levels which pitch from 43 feet), C) and this is the softball crossroads at which girls decide if they reallt want to play this sport or focus on basketball or soccer instead. There is nothing magic about the 12U age group per se. But I don't know too many 9 or 10 year olds who have already reached their adult height or have any sense of how they are going to deal with life when the kid they were always more athletic than all of a sudden grows 8 inches, puts on 50 pounds of muscle and is doing very well at her velocity training three times a week year round.
Perhaps more importantly than the age and maturity involved in national play, a very good 16U or 18U team might be willing to take the space shuttle to the moon (yes I know it doesn't go there) in order to play against the best possible teams. The parents of a very good 14U team are probably less likely to travel from Oregon to Virginia. An economically troubled gaggle of families with outstanding 12U kids from Detroit might choose to forego the flight to California this year in favor of someplace they can drive to. And so it goes. There is no way any particular sanctioning body at any particular age level can plan a national tournament so as to be certain that they are drawing the best possible competition. And, as a result, there is no guaranteed top dog after you move down from 16U ball to lower age groups. The one thing I can tell you is that there are far more sanctioning bodies than I have mentioned. But the majority of those do not draw in teams the caliber which can be found at ASA, NSA, FAST, and perhaps PONY. I will add only that while the classic cricitism of FAST is it is more than half Florida teams, the same kind of thing is said about PONY which draws majority from a few select states and those states are not classic softball powerhouses.Labels: parents, players, teams, Travel vs. Recreational, Tryouts, Youth recreational softball, youth tournament teams
 
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