newbie baseball question: kids are 10
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Anonymous
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Mom to twin boys who are turning 10 this month. They did a one-week baseball camp this summer and loved it. Never been in Little League. They were on swim team, and they've done tennis, and currently doing basketball. So somewhat athletic. They want to try Spring baseball.
Question: How much time is the commitment for weekly practices and games? They currently do music on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and so they won't be able to do anything else those evenings. Does baseball at this age group have twice a week mandatory practices? I understand weekends are for games, and can commit to those. But not sure if we would be able to do 2X practices, unless they are definitely on Mondays and Thursdays. They are so excited about joining, but I am just not sure if logistically it would work out. Any feedback? |
Anonymous
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For rec/house ball you might have twice a week for a couple of weeks but once games start expect one night of 90-minute practice, one weeknight game and one weekend game.
It’s like watching paint dry at this age just fyi |
Anonymous
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It’s just a roll of the dice depending on what team they get placed on, at that age they’ll most likely be with kids from the same school. In my experience the practice times aren’t set until after the teams are formed.
Some baseball levels only have 1x practice a week though which would make your life much easier! |
Anonymous
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Your twins have good birthdays for little league since they were born in Oct (the age cutoff is Sept 1). What baseball league are you signing up your kids for?
But league baseball is probably not for your family if you can’t make games and practices Tuesdays and Weds. that’s not the way it works at age 10. And there is no guarantee your twins will be on the same team. Leagues try to make it happen but most leagues can’t guarantee it because of the draft. If your twins are the worst in the league because they have never played then it isn’t fair for one team to get them both. They have to balance the teams. |
Anonymous
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Our LL had a rule where siblings were automatically placed on the same team, even if the teams were formed by draft. You had to request for them NOT to be on the same team.
We also have weekday games. Often a particular level of baseball have games on same weeknight (say 3A teams play on Tuesday nights, plus weekends) but I don’t know if that schedule is known prior to team formation. |
Anonymous
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The baseball league that our kids are in can be really time consuming.
Practices in the spring are twice a week and games can be two days a week, maybe three if they're trying to squeeze a make up game in. And games can be at 4:30 during the work week. So with kids on different teams baseball ends up taking 6 days a week and I think one time there was a streak where we had baseball 7 days in a row. With kids on one team maybe the max would have been 5. But it's a lot of fun and why we deal with it. I'm not sure if it's like this everywhere but in our league Fall sounds like is more lowkey. With just one practice a week and one game a week. We've never done it but one of the things I heard is that it's a little bit harder to run practices because it gets darker earlier. |
Anonymous
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For your case it might be helpful to know the team/coach you're trying to get your kids onto to see what days they're trying to submit for practices.
But often teams don't know when their practices will be until permits are issued. Which is understandable but why it makes it hard for families to schedule things. If you end up getting placed on a team where practices conflict, you can try requesting to get moved to another team with a schedule that works better for you. Some coaches might be okay if you have conflicts and miss a practice here and there. But I'm not sure how it'd work out if your kids can't make any of the practices on that day. |
Anonymous
| This really depends on what league you are looking at. For some, it’s going to be really difficult to start at 10. In little league you are looking at AAA which can be very competitive and kids will all have been playing since T ball. Also if you have 2 kids of 12 on the team and our regularly going to miss a game per week you’re leaving your team with only 10. |
Anonymous
Disagree, this is the age is starts to get more interesting. Doubles, triples, double plays. Age 8 when they started player pitch, I would agree with you. |
Anonymous
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Baseball is a lot in the spring. For kids who have never played, 10 is kind of old to start. My kids play babe Ruth league, and I’d assume that little league has the same cutoff for age, which is May 1st. My kid is 10 and in 4th grade (October birthday) and there are kids on his falls team who are in 6th and 7th grade. They pitch at 40-45 mph.
In spring there is a practice or two a week and then two games a week. One on Saturday and one during the week. I would not count on them having no baseball on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and it’s not fair to the team to never show up at practice especially when they have a ton to learn. It is a safety issue. |
Anonymous
| If they are just starting, sign them up for AAA American. They will be able to learn more that way. At AAA National, they will be a huge liability to the team and you have two of them. |
Anonymous
| Stick with it. Baseball is such a great sport and it gets extremely interesting once they are about 13. It is a smart game, not just athleticism. |
Anonymous
Little league is Sept 1 to august 31 - seems like Babe Ruth follows travel ball age grouping instead. |
Anonymous
| OP here: thanks everyone. This was very helpful info. |
Anonymous
This is meaningless without specifying which area/league you are talking about. There is certainly no National/American split in our Little League, it just depends on your address. Age 10 could be AA or AAA. I would do AA which is the first kid pitch season. |