Can't say I disagree but I don't practice it.
Tanner Allen speaks on travel ball...
- Thread starter dawgstudent
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Can't say I disagree but I don't practice it.
I'm not a huge fan of baseball especially MLB. Never played it growing up. My son loves it. He could sit in front of the TV and watch most of a MLB game at age 3. The day he says he doesn't want to play anymore is the day we stop (he will finish what he committed to of course). He drives the train.
I agree. If you can play local tournaments then not that big of a deal as long as you maintain balance. But having recent college players “coaching” teams and doing “camps” and “lessons” based on recent name recognition is also part of the money grab that gets overlooked as well.
If you have a child with some talent, to some degree you have no choice. Our rec league is so bad it’s a waste of time for any kid that can actually play. No way in hell am I spending gobs of money, but a 1 day tournament 2 hours from home? Sure. And not year round either.
We have friends that travel ball. Their son loves it and the other kids play ball too and want to be like their big brother. I just couldn’t do that lifestyle but in my line of work it would be impossible too.
If the kids like it, do it. If not don’t throw a bunch of money at something so you can live vicariously through your kids.
If the kids like it, do it. If not don’t throw a bunch of money at something so you can live vicariously through your kids.
I agree with the 12 year old part. I can remember my daughter playing coed ball at 7-8. This meat head was going team to team at the city park recruiting better players off the t ball teams for travel ball. 8yo!
However I know TA lived in mobile but played for Dulins out of Memphis in his HS years. I ran into someone related to him at the sec tournament one year. I was amazed to learn how
Much they traveled in those years. But he was good enough to be drafted so... I get it.
However I know TA lived in mobile but played for Dulins out of Memphis in his HS years. I ran into someone related to him at the sec tournament one year. I was amazed to learn how
Much they traveled in those years. But he was good enough to be drafted so... I get it.
I’ll also add on to my previous comments, if you could get recent former players to donate their time and expertise to park and rec ball, I have a feeling it could go a long way toward helping re-energize it.
Sadly the travel craze has almost completely killed Rec. It is also flooding the junior high tryouts with probably 5x the kids that used to play. In the old days not making the All-Star team would weed kids out before junior high ball. Now, if you aren't playing where or how much you would like on one travel team you move to another one, because clearly your kid just wasn't getting the opportunities they needed on the previous team***.....
It is here to stay, but travel ball has created monster parents more than monster kids. I feel sorry for every junior high baseball coach out there who has 60 kids try out and every parent thinks their kid should play middle infield and hit leadoff. It also pigeon holes far too many kids into specializing in just baseball who would have traditionally played multiple sports, and let's be honest that baseball does not teach the life lessons that some other sports provide...
It is here to stay, but travel ball has created monster parents more than monster kids. I feel sorry for every junior high baseball coach out there who has 60 kids try out and every parent thinks their kid should play middle infield and hit leadoff. It also pigeon holes far too many kids into specializing in just baseball who would have traditionally played multiple sports, and let's be honest that baseball does not teach the life lessons that some other sports provide...
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TLDR, but yeah, travel ball is a joke. It's done more to ruin baseball for kids than anything else.
These parents living vicariously through their kids because they weren't able to do it themselves is comical. And if your one of these dads, don't come for me. You're the one who looks like an idiot.
These parents living vicariously through their kids because they weren't able to do it themselves is comical. And if your one of these dads, don't come for me. You're the one who looks like an idiot.
A part of the money grab that TA actually partakes in. He is being very hypocritical of a system that he's currently using to get paid. He needs to get off his high horse. Lot of bad takes.
Is travel ball bad? As a whole, no. Are there teams where daddy ball exists and kids don't develop? Absolutely.
Baseball is what you make it.
Sounds like TA’s nephew didn’t make the team.
But he’s not saying don’t play travel ball, he’s saying don’t play travel ball with younger kids.
Folks ain’t paying a premium for hitting lessons to send their kid out to the rec game on Tuesday night.
For most kids it is likely a monetary waste of money (the kid won't make money off baseball in the future), but if the kids and parents like it, then it would be more a "recreation" expense than an "investment." Folks send $5k taking the family to Disney landworld (whichever is in FL). Unfortunately too many parents can't discern that their kid likely won't play high-level HS baseball, much less beyond that. So, if you have the time and money, do it, but understand it's purely recreation, not an investment.
If opposing higher level coaches aren't constantly recruiting your kid, then your kid likely doesn't have a future in baseball. A buddy of mine coached his kids in lower level travel ball, before the season he would tell the parents that their kid likely wouldn't make his HS team, much less play beyond that. Who the parent chose to mate with had much impact on their offspring playing college sports than any amount of coaching/practicing/playing.
Friend of mine's son 15-20 years ago lived in Laurel and was playing some travel ball tournaments with a team out of Knoxville TN, as well as his regular team out of Hattiesburg (or maybe Jackson). It's insane. They were traveling to Florida and Texas probably 15 times per year for 3-day weekend travel ball tournaments, so minimum 3 weeks off work just for that.
This is the approach we took. He has absolutely loved it. We are at the end of of 14u and he has gotten o the point where he is ready to do something else and has really gotten into golf. Told him we will finish the season and move on to whatever he wants to do
I will say, soccer seems a lot more manageable than the horror stories about baseball. There seems to be a level between rec and super travel 3-night minimums to all over the country every weekend. At least in the soccer clubs around here, the fees are probably $2500/yr and you travel 8-10 weekends per year, and all those are 1 or 2 nights and driveable. Like Birmingham or Memphis or Baton Rouge is the furthest you have to go.
I thought that was bad enough before, but hearing about travel baseball makes Rush or IFC seem like a breeze.
I thought that was bad enough before, but hearing about travel baseball makes Rush or IFC seem like a breeze.
As soon as he has a kid playing baseball or softball, he will be playing travel ball too.
It’s easy to preach when you don’t have kids or they are too young to play.
And it’s not travel ball that’s the problem, it’s the whole obsession and industry. Even if you don’t play select tournaments, if you do a short rec season then play all stars or whatever all year, it’s the same stuff.
It’s easy to preach when you don’t have kids or they are too young to play.
And it’s not travel ball that’s the problem, it’s the whole obsession and industry. Even if you don’t play select tournaments, if you do a short rec season then play all stars or whatever all year, it’s the same stuff.
My 10 year old has only played little league and no select ball. We've got a great group of kids and parents at his age at our little league and have had a ton of fun doing the all-star stuff. It sucks, but the talent gets so thin our regular season at this age, that the competition is too weak to keep developing so you almost have to select ball at the 10 or 11 year age if your child wants any shot of playing high school ball in the suburbs of Houston.
On the ride to our all star game last night, he said he wanted to go try select ball to face the better players and keep developing. I hate that idea, but I know it's way better for him than to keep playing for me and in the little league organization. I also despise the idea of 5 or 6 games on a weekend.
Preach TA.
If you're lucky enough to live in an area with good Little Leagues or Cal Ripken Leagues, you get it. So much club or travel ball is watered down that it doesn't make any sense to exist. I get the cream of the crop top 5-8% kids doing it.... But even then it's out of control with the amount of games. We have 11u teams playing 70+ games a year. My 11u kid is at 24 and I won't let him cross 30 games. We'll go fishing and backpacking after that. Then football in the fall and wrestling/jiu jitsu in the winter.
We just played the top team in the state with his all star team. That team has been together for 3 years and played 50+ games as 9u, 70+ at 10u and is pushing 50 so far this year with several tournaments left in June and July. It was a beating for sure 22-2, but my kid has played in maybe 40 games in his life. He lined out to left field and singled to right in 2 at bats. He had 2 assists and an error at 2B. He struck out 1 and walked 1 giving up 2 unearned in an inning on the mound.
Their top pitcher (5'6" 120ish lbs) throws 64-65 and my kid (4'11" 90 lbs) hits 52-54. The only kid faster than him on the field is one of his teammates that is a 4 sport athlete. A year ago my kid couldn't throw the ball from the mound to the plate hardly. It's so easy for an athletic kid to catch up in baseball, the biggest problem is most athletic kids dominate in other sports too and choose football or basketball over baseball.
Give me a 13 year old highly athletic kid that knows how to hit a little and throw like a boy over a 13 year old mediocre to average athletic kid that was a top level travel ball player at 12u. Let's see who develops into the better player by their junior year of high school.
Travel ball regions are killing their potential talent pool. There's no reason a kid under the age of 14 or 15 should not be able to play quality baseball, football, and basketball throughout the course of the year. But the specialization of baseball and basketball and year around clubs are preventing it in many ways. Football is getting bad too with all the spring/summer 7 on 7 stuff.
If you're lucky enough to live in an area with good Little Leagues or Cal Ripken Leagues, you get it. So much club or travel ball is watered down that it doesn't make any sense to exist. I get the cream of the crop top 5-8% kids doing it.... But even then it's out of control with the amount of games. We have 11u teams playing 70+ games a year. My 11u kid is at 24 and I won't let him cross 30 games. We'll go fishing and backpacking after that. Then football in the fall and wrestling/jiu jitsu in the winter.
We just played the top team in the state with his all star team. That team has been together for 3 years and played 50+ games as 9u, 70+ at 10u and is pushing 50 so far this year with several tournaments left in June and July. It was a beating for sure 22-2, but my kid has played in maybe 40 games in his life. He lined out to left field and singled to right in 2 at bats. He had 2 assists and an error at 2B. He struck out 1 and walked 1 giving up 2 unearned in an inning on the mound.
Their top pitcher (5'6" 120ish lbs) throws 64-65 and my kid (4'11" 90 lbs) hits 52-54. The only kid faster than him on the field is one of his teammates that is a 4 sport athlete. A year ago my kid couldn't throw the ball from the mound to the plate hardly. It's so easy for an athletic kid to catch up in baseball, the biggest problem is most athletic kids dominate in other sports too and choose football or basketball over baseball.
Give me a 13 year old highly athletic kid that knows how to hit a little and throw like a boy over a 13 year old mediocre to average athletic kid that was a top level travel ball player at 12u. Let's see who develops into the better player by their junior year of high school.
Travel ball regions are killing their potential talent pool. There's no reason a kid under the age of 14 or 15 should not be able to play quality baseball, football, and basketball throughout the course of the year. But the specialization of baseball and basketball and year around clubs are preventing it in many ways. Football is getting bad too with all the spring/summer 7 on 7 stuff.
Look, if your kid ain’t being asked to fly in to join a team for the weekend at the big kid tournament in Atlanta, Houston, or Orlando, you’re wasting your time. Have you considered dance lessons?
People always say this, but it's a self eating apple.
When I played rec ball, I was on several teams that would smash 95% of today's travel ball teams. Rec leagues were good. My all star team almost made the LLWS when I was 12, and our small town routinely made it far many years.
People started taking the talent out a little at a time and travel ball diminished a lot of rec leagues. Ours is nowhere near what it used to be, but we have several of these travel ball "stars" show up every year, and they far from dominate things. They are among the better players for sure, but I've only seen 2 or 3 over the years that just stood out like they were on another level.
If travel ball ceased to exist, all those kids would come back to rec leagues, so the competition would level out just like it used to.
The real difference between when I played and now is the Dads. There were always plenty of Dads willing and able to coach. They put a lot of effort into it, and they were good at it. The Dads that didn't coach would at least show up to games and work with their kids at home. There are no longer enough Dads to coach and even less being good Dads at home. Many players don't even have Dads at home. It's sad. I think that's the real difference with travel ball. More Dads involved. Unfortunately, you guys also get all the overbearing Dads that make their kids quit baseball before they get out of High School.
Not necessarily. There are baseball folks out there that just refuse tobgetvintonit until later. Mickey Callaway’s brother had his son in our rec league. He could have had him in competitive years ago but just refused to until he turned at least 12. He did start a hybrid team outbid the rec league which gave about 20 kids extra reps and extra games against other teams in the city to ease in to the competitive side.
My son is playing 3 sports right now. We try not to let the seasons overlap. He has done flag football in the past but this will be his first year of tackle football.
Our little league started a select team for 9-10-11 and 12u this year. They play along side the regular season on Saturdays and Sundays in the spring and play a few summer outlaw tournaments before all star districts in July. It takes a commitment from other local leagues to create the select league, but Houston is plenty big enough.
In the spring our 12u kids were getting beat pretty bad, but they're catching up fast and starting to win... Because our team is full of kids that play football in the fall and are better athletes, they improve faster than club/travel teams IMO. It's a game changer for the competition level. To be eligible they still have to play in 80% of the 12 regular season rec little league games. So in total the kid will play 35ish games before districts, 20+ at the higher competition level.
Here's some scores from March and now in June against some of the same teams...
Early Spring
Summer
I’m going to be faced with this travel ball world shortly. I don’t really know a way around it. Rec ball clearly ain’t what it was when I was growing up. If you have a kid that enjoys playing and shows a little talent, it almost feels like travel ball is a must. Feels like if you stay in rec you’re gonna see the kid fall way behind because he’s not gonna be challenged. But at the same time, I really have no desire to turn my entire existence into my 7 year olds baseball team.
I always enjoyed coaching rec baseball. When my son finishes up with football, I will probably go back to volunteer.
Yep, a former AAA player that lives down the street from me has his kid playing little league with my youngest. A former Ole Miss assistant and D1 head coach had his kid on one of the other little league teams they played against.
When he was at UMS he would fly in from the northeast to start at QB on Friday nights. No joke. They used to be in our region.
Tackle requires Tuesday-Friday practice from August to October out here. Saturday games.
Do your travel, club teams in baseball not have fall practice and games, winter workouts, etc? All of them require basically a year around commitment here. Only a couple of days a week in the winter, but September and October is as busy as spring baseball.
Many in Memphis break once football practice starts and resume when football ends.
The baseball people with talent generally know that innate talent is more important than the quality of competition they faced at 10 years old, much less 8 years old. The problem is all the parents that have doomed their kids genetically but think that playing travel ball at 8 years old is going to be enough to over come their genetics. Really their best hope is that when they get in school ball, their JR. high coaches are idiots focused on trying to win in junior high rather than identify and develop high level athletes and chase off the better athletes that don't have as many reps. I'm assuming that is actually a decent bet at most places but not sure.
After this year it’s over for me. Next year we’re playing JV as a 6th grader. Anything beyond that will be done sporadically just to stay sharp.
You aren’t wrong, but I have seen the type of issues these guys are describing about rec first hand. Baseball already isn’t for everyone due the the pace of the game, but you put a kid in rec who has the capability and he isn’t facing pitchers who can throw strikes and on the flip side in the field is either seeing the other side constantly walk or strike out, he’s going to get bored quickly and want to move in to something else.