its very clear there are people in here that had a bad travel ball expereince that have warped their idea of travel ball.,
While i agree the fact that they set these tournaments up to make money is very real.. and players/families pay a lot of money to be part of it..
the reality of it is.. good travel teams are good experiences.. and for the most part you can find one that meets whatever needs you have if you really look for one. Whether that be playing 2 times a month, hardly ever practicing, picking up players.. or even teams that practice 2 times a week and play every weekend. Its all out there.... and it is all worlds better than any rec ball league.
From my anecdotal experiences listening to parents, I would say most travel teams are not a better experience for most families compared to rec ball and that most families are doing it either out of fear of missing out or because their rec league has already been killed. Certainly it's fine and enjoyable, but not more than rec would be.
I also think it depends on what age you are talking about. I don't know that anybody really cares or complains about travel ball for ages after 13 or 14. But it's a little absurd to watch people travel for coach pitch, pay for hotels, play against another team from their area that they could have played on a weekday night, and complain about it the whole time, and then watch their kids quit baseball in elementary.
And I also think it's probably geography specific. If you are in Atlanta, and you were a college athlete and/or your wife was a college athlete, maybe you do get onto travel ball teams that do generally have kids and play competition against other kids with parents that were college athletes or above, and maybe that does make a difference in development over time, even starting at age 8 or 9. But if you're in Petal or Rankin County or where ever and playing on a travel team and showing up in Foley or Birmingham or wherever and in the same tournaments as other people from your area, you're clearly not really on an elite team and probably not doing much beyond eliminating some of the weakest competition.
Again, I do think a lot of families enjoy it, but most of those families could and would enjoy rec ball and a very small minority of families are so eaten up with it that they really couldn't enjoy doing rec ball and then adding travel ball outside of rec season. And an even smaller minority of those families actually have kids that are going to be athletic enough that they will eventually need travel ball to play good enough competition. And I'm not sure any of them need better competition at age 8 or 9. The only kid I've seen playing travel soccer or baseball before age 10 that I thought legitimately needed more competition than rec could provide still had players catch up to him, even though he actually had parents that plausibly could have played college athletics.
AND yes travel ball teams and numbers are shrinking.. largely due the fact that some people are realizing its not for them or the money isnt worth it. Travel ball peaked some 5-7 years ago.. there has been a huge drop off since then.. and the numbers of teams, tournaments, and players have dropped each year for the last 3 seasons.
I hope that's true, but in our area, it looks like it's more of just a shift in the time that the teams exist, with more teams being formed for earlier, and then a lot of those players quitting earlier, but still basically the same number or more players getting involved with travel at some point and the only drop coming from Rec leagues.
