Travel baseball

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it necessary to do travel baseball to get looked at by high school coaches?

i'm interested in this. I think probably yes just because kids generally don't get to be really good just by playing Little League games (8 fall games, 12 spring games plus play-offs). Playing travel ball in addition to Little League adds in another 16-20 games per season (or 40 games a year).

It's not the games that make them good, though, it's the reps. Presumably they could get that on their own without travel, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the cost of travel baseball depends greatly on the program. We have kids in both travel baseball and soccer and baseball is much cheaper.
It does take more time though---about 5 hours each Sunday for a double header vs 1 hour on Sunday for a soccer game.

PP here-I can completely see that this is true. For us, it wasn't even just the double headers that took up a ton of time, but the winter practices were difficult, too. There was literally never a break from baseball, except for maybe two or three weeks in the summer. I understand that travel sports require a higher level of committment, but at some point, it can really just be too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the cost of travel baseball depends greatly on the program. We have kids in both travel baseball and soccer and baseball is much cheaper.
It does take more time though---about 5 hours each Sunday for a double header vs 1 hour on Sunday for a soccer game.

PP here-I can completely see that this is true. For us, it wasn't even just the double headers that took up a ton of time, but the winter practices were difficult, too. There was literally never a break from baseball, except for maybe two or three weeks in the summer. I understand that travel sports require a higher level of committment, but at some point, it can really just be too much.

PP, did your kids wind up playing in h.s.? Are they playing any baseball now? If not, at what age did they stop?

[Anonymous]

BCC is parent coached at the select level. Too much politics for a kid who gets drafted on to a team where they are the outlier of the core cohort.

[Anonymous]

We've found a major positive of travel ball is having paid (not dad) coaches. Dad coaches are rarely impartial especially in baseball where some positions are more valued than others. In soccer it doesn't matter as much because the only variable at play is playing time. In baseball the coaches' kids are often the pitchers and catchers regardless of their skill. It gets frustrating. Travel is much better in this regard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the cost of travel baseball depends greatly on the program. We have kids in both travel baseball and soccer and baseball is much cheaper.
It does take more time though---about 5 hours each Sunday for a double header vs 1 hour on Sunday for a soccer game.

PP here-I can completely see that this is true. For us, it wasn't even just the double headers that took up a ton of time, but the winter practices were difficult, too. There was literally never a break from baseball, except for maybe two or three weeks in the summer. I understand that travel sports require a higher level of committment, but at some point, it can really just be too much.

PP, did your kids wind up playing in h.s.? Are they playing any baseball now? If not, at what age did they stop?

My oldest son, who is now 16, initially decided not to play in high school. He played for the "B" travel team in 7th grade (the first year we allowed him to try out for travel) and then made the "A" travel team in 8th grade, but had also played travel basketball for years and wanted to focus on that in high school. He's played varsity basketball and AAU since he was a freshman, but changed schools this year after being recruited by a private school and will play baseball this year.

My youngest son, who's 12, would like to play travel baseball but we've limited him to two travel sports. He had played travel baseball, soccer, and basketball for two years but it was just too much, with the baseball being the biggest commitment by far. Last year, he played rec baseball but then this past spring, he played AAU basketball instead of spring rec baseball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've found a major positive of travel ball is having paid (not dad) coaches. Dad coaches are rarely impartial especially in baseball where some positions are more valued than others. In soccer it doesn't matter as much because the only variable at play is playing time. In baseball the coaches' kids are often the pitchers and catchers regardless of their skill. It gets frustrating. Travel is much better in this regard.

The travel baseball teams in our area are coached by fathers and there's some "daddyball" going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it necessary to do travel baseball to get looked at by high school coaches?

No. For one thing, most serious travel players don't play high school. The talented kids chasing scholarships gravitate to travel/select leagues because it's easier for scouts to go to good travel tournaments than chase a bunch of high schools. Same thing for fastpitch softball.

[Anonymous]

When you say they don't play high school, does that mean that they continue playing for their travel team in high school but not their high school team? How does that work with school sports requirements?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it necessary to do travel baseball to get looked at by high school coaches?

No. For one thing, most serious travel players don't play high school. The talented kids chasing scholarships gravitate to travel/select leagues because it's easier for scouts to go to good travel tournaments than chase a bunch of high schools. Same thing for fastpitch softball.

I think it depends on where you are. In our area, there's a direct connection between the high school coaches and the travel programs. Having said that, I think where there isn't as much of a connection is between playing in high school and playing in college; there's much more of a connection between playing travel and playing in college (which I think is what you're getting at).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it necessary to do travel baseball to get looked at by high school coaches?

No. For one thing, most serious travel players don't play high school. The talented kids chasing scholarships gravitate to travel/select leagues because it's easier for scouts to go to good travel tournaments than chase a bunch of high schools. Same thing for fastpitch softball.

I think it depends on where you are. In our area, there's a direct connection between the high school coaches and the travel programs. Having said that, I think where there isn't as much of a connection is between playing in high school and playing in college; there's much more of a connection between playing travel and playing in college (which I think is what you're getting at).

Is that true for the DC private schools, also? Don't those programs/coaches connect you with you college programs or do you still need to do travel for that?

[Anonymous]

Independent school coaches will connect players with coaches at appropriate schools, but it is often when the player/student is narrowing school choices and is asking the coach to make that connection.

[Anonymous]

The guys that play high school ball are the biggest, strongest and fastest... get your kid working out and running sprints... it will be more helpful.

[Anonymous]

Koa has an 'evaluation' program which is a quick one-on-one with a coach in their organization. They measure some things (throwing speed, hand-eye, something else..) and show you where you stack up versus other players in that age group. They then recommend their developmental league (where we ended up) their travel program, or other select leagues in the area depending on where you fall on the metrics scale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NWDC travel teams are Win Within and DC Dynasty. Tryouts for the fall for both were in June (Win Within) and July (Dynasty) and are set for the fall. All these kids also play little league (generally through NWLL or Cap City--depending on where they live). I don't know of any boys (under age 13) who just do travel ball.
It's hard to break in to Win Within over u10 as their teams form then and generally stay the same unless someone moves They're very loyal to returning players. Dynasty has added a team at the u11 or u12 level which adds spots.

This is not true about travel not playing LL. We are on dynasty. Half the team also does LL. Half only does travel.