Posted on 06/01/2014 10:50:23 PM PDT by FlJoePa
No. Do you?
The whole thing sounds to me like pure insanity though. I’m not talking part-time, I am talking about the full-time travel.
I would be willing to bet that it is the parent driving the child most of the time. A kid has a little talent and fun, and the parent takes that goes nuts. What normal parent thinks it’s actually good for a kid to live a life like that? What about roots? what about stability? None of that exists with a life like that.
I do. Have the experience of being a parent to a travel athlete, that is. Lacrosse, for the record. Women’s lacrosse.
You have read now one article on the topic and you seem to think that you know everything there is to know about it.
You don’t.
She rec’d a full ride to an out of state Division 1 school, and through the misfortune of a knee injury, was red shirted so she was at said school for 5 years. Turned it into a masters in addition to her undergrad.
Now is the youngest assistant AD the prep school she coaches at (in a major lacrosse hotbed location on the east coast) in their history. Also coaches a club team. In two years has been to the championship game twice, winning one of them.
Oh, and in those same 2 years has given birth to 2 beautiful healthy baby boys (married to her college sweetheart).
Frankly, I think my wife and I did pretty well, not that I’d ever consider us normal.
I’m sorry to suggest the following, but like the old Firesign Theatre album says (on this topic), Everything you Know is Wrong.
my son is in small town little league. And yes, there is always talk of “Travel Teams”.
I guess I’m a dinosaur but I’ll avoid it.
That being said, pitchers are often abused by pitching once or twice a week from March through November. You wonder where the Tommy John surgeries are coming from? Somebody has to pitch to all those position players who are getting all those additional reps. So, parents- guard your son's pitching arm and rely on pitch counts and make sure he gets a chance to rest his arm periodically- hopefully for several weeks at a time, several times a year. Better yet, let him be a position player who just pitches occasionally. His arm will last a lot longer.
Final words of advice, raise your boy to be a lefty. They stay in baseball forever.
you know what was fun southern rock? This past Memorial Day another Dad and his 7 year old son picked up his schoolmate friend (also 7) and met me and my boy (classmate/friend also 7) at the town’s baseball field.
We spent almost 2 hours in the morning doing BP, ground balls and base running.
It was a great way to start the day and it’s getting our boys needed practice for the upcoming season.
I don’t have any problem with travel ball. I just think kids should play community ball or little league until they turn 13. As for Ripkin - he has taken cheap shots at Little League for years.
I agree with you regarding specialized sports that are not “pickup” game in nature like lacrosse.
But this whole “specialized” teams are typical new age crap.
You have latin 3rd worlders who play in rags and lousy equipment that end up kicking butt in the majors. Why? Desire and lots of playing.
Same with basketball. Do you think black kids in the cities became great because of travel teams or clinics? No way, tons of “playing” and then if one is hungry, individual practice.
But this whole “specialized” teams are typical new age crap.
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I have no idea what you mean by this.
I don’t have any problem with travel ball. I just think kids should play community ball or little league until they turn 13.
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I coached rec council baseball until my son was age 10 or so. By the time they get to that age, too many parents were sure their kids were the second coming of [fill in whoever was the most popular baseball player at the time].
I was a coach because my job afforded me the flexibility to do so (reason #2) but primarily so I could spend time with my son and his friends and share my love of the game with them (reason #1).
I don’t know anything about Cal badmouthing little league, would love to see his comments if you have access to them. A jiffy quick google search doesnt turn up anything.
They are also living for the dream of not paying for college. So they place the burden on their kids.
My nephew played for 6 different teams in the 12 years he played travel ball.
He knows lots of kids but never talks to any of them. No friendships were formed.
Of the kids from his longest tenured team that I know, about 6 have been on more than 4 teams and few of them keep in touch anymore.
We had one year were the team was kind of family-like. But after that it was just another minor league business. (My nephew left the team one year later)
My nephew was deprived a normal childhood (with such things as friends and unstructured time to just play) as he was either practicing or playing ball full time.
I hear you. I have even heard parents say “It’s okay if you lose this game, it’s just in-house” to their son. Travel ball is killing our little league. The best pitchers don’t pitch because they are “saving their arms” for the travel game, which is “obviously” more important than the lowly little league game. I feel bad for my oldest son. We are stuck in a SUPER competitive (elite?) little league district. He is a very good all-around player, but not what you’d call “elite”....which means able to hit home runs at will in my town. He can slap singles and doubles just about every at-bat and against the “elite” pitchers, but that’s not good enough apparently. He loves baseball, plays it well and just wants to be able to play and experience it in the summer. He would make just about any other district team in the area most likely, but not in the league we’re stuck with. The same 11 kids have played on the summer team since t-ball. I just wish he had options.
Heck, Little League was like that, even back when I played as a kid.
Hell with travel ball. Life is too short for this kind of nonsense.
I agree, this sounds like the newest “new age” method of ruining a childs most influential years. My 3 sons still have active friendships with a couple of boys they went to grade schools with, played little league with, participated in scouting with and went thru high school with. It is funny to listen to them talk about the good old times that always end up being discussion about little league ball.
My girls (12 and 13) just started with the local fast pitch softball organization. No one is traveling anywhere. I complain about the practice field being 5 miles away and that’s the farthest I’ll travel.
When we moved into our former neighborhood in the Summer of ‘87, we didn’t know any kids lived there until school opened in September. Then each afternoon, the corners near the bus stop were lined with station wagons (eventually SUVs) with Moms waiting to pick up kids to car them to soccer/swim/piano/violin/dance/whatever. ANYTHING but playing in the neighborhood. Often the kid started the day at swim practice at 5am! This is elementary school kids.
The parents’ mentality is that if Suzie or Johnny has the best training, develop high level skills, etc., s/he will win an athletic/music scholarship to XYZ University, relieving mom and dad of that tuition burden. I often wondered what would happen if they just put the extra $$$ into a scholarship fund. Typically, after 13 years the kids are burned out, most aren’t such stars that universities are pursuing them, and mom/dad are still stuck with the tuition bill. In the meanwhile, they’ve had NO real childhood. Sad.
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