Anonymous wrote:NP here with a question about ATB tryouts. Their FAQs indicate your child has to try out each year with the teams being a blank slate.

I’m wondering what people’s experience with this is. If a kid is overall athletic, improving and listening to coaches, etc. what are the odds they will be replaced by a new kid who comes along in a later season? It feels like such a huge financial and time commitment for families, that it would be disheartening to have your kid no longer on the team because someone who is 2% better came along the next year. But maybe that is standard for travel?

Also, do they usually field 2 teams for each age group? 12 kids doesn’t sound like much for the entire county.

Unlikely to be booted out by a new kid, but more likely a kid will drop out because it’s too much or their family is military or they want to swim or whatever.
There’s also Arlington storm. ATB had tryouts this summer. Storm has tryouts at the end of October. So, there are 48 travel players per age group in the county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here with a question about ATB tryouts. Their FAQs indicate your child has to try out each year with the teams being a blank slate.

I’m wondering what people’s experience with this is. If a kid is overall athletic, improving and listening to coaches, etc. what are the odds they will be replaced by a new kid who comes along in a later season? It feels like such a huge financial and time commitment for families, that it would be disheartening to have your kid no longer on the team because someone who is 2% better came along the next year. But maybe that is standard for travel?

Also, do they usually field 2 teams for each age group? 12 kids doesn’t sound like much for the entire county.

They’re pretty loyal to the kids who are already on the team. A new kid would need to be a lot better than 2% better to take a known player’s spot.

Most age groups have two teams. I think 10U this year only has one, but that’s not typical. Once they reach 13u and up there is only one team.

+1

It’s also rare to get moved down a team as we’ve witnessed families threaten to leave the program in that case. It’s at the end of the day a for profit org. Our team did let a couple players go over the years when there were major behavioral issues and unresponsive parents.

Anonymous wrote:NP here with a question about ATB tryouts. Their FAQs indicate your child has to try out each year with the teams being a blank slate.

I’m wondering what people’s experience with this is. If a kid is overall athletic, improving and listening to coaches, etc. what are the odds they will be replaced by a new kid who comes along in a later season? It feels like such a huge financial and time commitment for families, that it would be disheartening to have your kid no longer on the team because someone who is 2% better came along the next year. But maybe that is standard for travel?

Also, do they usually field 2 teams for each age group? 12 kids doesn’t sound like much for the entire county.

They’re pretty loyal to the kids who are already on the team. A new kid would need to be a lot better than 2% better to take a known player’s spot.

Most age groups have two teams. I think 10U this year only has one, but that’s not typical. Once they reach 13u and up there is only one team.

NP here with a question about ATB tryouts. Their FAQs indicate your child has to try out each year with the teams being a blank slate.

I’m wondering what people’s experience with this is. If a kid is overall athletic, improving and listening to coaches, etc. what are the odds they will be replaced by a new kid who comes along in a later season? It feels like such a huge financial and time commitment for families, that it would be disheartening to have your kid no longer on the team because someone who is 2% better came along the next year. But maybe that is standard for travel?

Also, do they usually field 2 teams for each age group? 12 kids doesn’t sound like much for the entire county.

Anonymous wrote:

Just looking for a little clarification. As far as I can see on the ATB site and from the poster quoted here, the travel doesn’t seem like far travel- rather just in northern Virginia/double headers/tournaments. But another poster said it’s hard on the family because you’re gone most weekends. I didn’t think ATB was like travel soccer and required overnight stays.

Different teams have different approaches to the tournament circus -- some go looking for trophies on every long weekend/holiday break, while others will do maybe 1 or 2 a season. But even with the majority of regular games within maybe 30 minutes of home, most travel ball is played in Sunday double-headers. So get to the field for warmups and BP an hour before first pitch, then play 2-2.5 hrs. of baseball, then (maybe) have a lunch/snack break, then play another game. So that's 6-7 hrs. of baseball each Sunday (plus driving time), plus spring LL games on Saturdays (because you have to play both). Not much time for anything else.

I am the PP whose son plays for ATB now. NVTBL is separate from the tournaments. NVTBL games are local and only Virginia teams and only only on Sundays in fall. Besides that, there are also tournaments which you travel to and are made of teams from all over the place. This year we will play/have played in 3 tournaments where we need to stay in a hotel - one in VA (Charlottesville), one in PA, and one in DE. Last year we did about the same. There are also tournaments where they are local, but you are still gone most of the day. For example, a couple of weekends ago, we played in a tournament in MD about an hour away, but with the timing of the games, we were gone from early AM Saturday morning until about 5 that afternoon. Then the next day, we played from about 11-8. So even though we slept at home, we were gone most of that weekend. The same is true for probably 4-5 other weekends out of the year. Then, like the PP said above, there are doubleheaders on Sundays for NVTBL. Not sure how to compare it to travel soccer, but there definitely is travel.

Just looking for a little clarification. As far as I can see on the ATB site and from the poster quoted here, the travel doesn’t seem like far travel- rather just in northern Virginia/double headers/tournaments. But another poster said it’s hard on the family because you’re gone most weekends. I didn’t think ATB was like travel soccer and required overnight stays.

Different teams have different approaches to the tournament circus -- some go looking for trophies on every long weekend/holiday break, while others will do maybe 1 or 2 a season. But even with the majority of regular games within maybe 30 minutes of home, most travel ball is played in Sunday double-headers. So get to the field for warmups and BP an hour before first pitch, then play 2-2.5 hrs. of baseball, then (maybe) have a lunch/snack break, then play another game. So that's 6-7 hrs. of baseball each Sunday (plus driving time), plus spring LL games on Saturdays (because you have to play both). Not much time for anything else.

We’ve done travel ATB and ABR. Our team (second team) for ATB is doing a total of 4 out of town tournaments, where you might need hotels. They have all been in MD, VA or PA.

Hi everyone

Just looking for a little clarification. As far as I can see on the ATB site and from the poster quoted here, the travel doesn’t seem like far travel- rather just in northern Virginia/double headers/tournaments. But another poster said it’s hard on the family because you’re gone most weekends. I didn’t think ATB was like travel soccer and required overnight stays.

Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of "travel baseball" here?

I'm not asking to be snarky or judgmental. We have a son who is 3 1/2 and some of his peers are starting to play organized sports. I'm not going to do this anytime soon for our son (if you think it's good for your child then you should absolutely do so) but I think our family's time would be better spent elsewhere.

I'm just trying to size up what's going to happen in the next five years or so.

In our case, DS was playing rec ball and really enjoyed it, but it got to the point when he was 10 or so that many kids on his team each season had never played. Rec ball should always be instructional for any age kid who wants to try, but if you have a kid who really loves the game and has been playing for awhile, it can become frustrating. That's when we switched to travel. (And for many years, "travel" (in the NVBTL anyway) is not really traveling. It's a higher level of play and usually double headers on either Saturday or Sunday with an occasional regional tournament thrown in.

DS is at the high school level now and summer ball does involve travel to tournaments and showcases.

Thank you for the response!

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of "travel baseball" here?

I'm not asking to be snarky or judgmental. We have a son who is 3 1/2 and some of his peers are starting to play organized sports. I'm not going to do this anytime soon for our son (if you think it's good for your child then you should absolutely do so) but I think our family's time would be better spent elsewhere.

I'm just trying to size up what's going to happen in the next five years or so.

In our case, DS was playing rec ball and really enjoyed it, but it got to the point when he was 10 or so that many kids on his team each season had never played. Rec ball should always be instructional for any age kid who wants to try, but if you have a kid who really loves the game and has been playing for awhile, it can become frustrating. That's when we switched to travel. (And for many years, "travel" (in the NVBTL anyway) is not really travelling. It's a higher level of play and usually double headers on either Saturday or Sunday with an occasional regional tournament thrown in.

DS is at the high school level now and summer ball does involve travel to tournaments and showcases.

I have son who plays for ATB 11U. He likes it, but it is intense in the fall and spring/summer. Pretty much the only month we have off is November. Lots of practices and tournaments (I think we are doing 8-10 this year), and a big time commitment. Your son really has to love it. ATB is different from ABR travel because they have paid coaches. ABR's coaches are parents, even in travel. ATB is very organized, and my son has learned a lot. It can be hard when you have other siblings because you are gone a lot on weekends. The whole family has to be on board.

What is the purpose of "travel baseball" here?

I'm not asking to be snarky or judgmental. We have a son who is 3 1/2 and some of his peers are starting to play organized sports. I'm not going to do this anytime soon for our son (if you think it's good for your child then you should absolutely do so) but I think our family's time would be better spent elsewhere.

I'm just trying to size up what's going to happen in the next five years or so.

Thanks! That’s a good point.

At this point, you just want him to have fun playing baseball. Between ATB and ABR, go with the one that his friends are playing on. Enjoying hanging out in dugout with his boys will be key to loving and staying in the game for years to come.

Hello,

We've been a little league family and are just starting to think about other baseball options for our 9yo. What are your experiences with Arlington development or travel baseball teams?

Would you recommend the ATB Arsenals?