At what age

The Travel Circuit(Circus)

7-8 year olds should IMO be playing travel ball. Thats insane. Especially with the travel involved.

IT takes away from alot of things and the kids miss out. Remember that they do need time to be kids. Climb trees, catch worms, etc...

Let them learn to enjoy the game first before going down the travel ball route.

However I will say that I have seen some very excellent travel ball programs out there. The various batting centers are pretty decent.

Just beware of Daddy Ball...........

Find a good rec program and just have some fun learn fundamentals...

13 years olds is a good time to start. I think.

 

Thanks for all the comments!

It is amazing at how many 8-u teams I saw in Morganton doing machine pitch last year. Some of it was Daddy Ball, but some of those daddy's seem like good coaches and I was impressed with the quality of play by alot of the kids at that age. Still, I'm inclined to agree with you guys that 7 and 8 years old is to young. Some of the dads I know who's kids do play at that age say they've seen a tremendous amount of improvement in their kids from playing travel ball and that the kids will get behind if they don't. I don't agree with that and it's good to know many of you don't as well. The only other thing is it's not really travel ball seeing as how where we live you could play almost every other weekend and not go more than 30 miles away. (Morganton,Hickory, and Marion)

 

Travel ball for 7-8 year olds will continue to grow, if you don't believe me, look at the tournaments. Tournament organizers have already figured out that FANS WILL PAY TO COME to watch the younger kids play ball. Every family member including grandparents will be there and its a money-maker, plain and simple.

As for the kids themselves, if it were me, and I have been there (twice), I think 7-8 years old is when you're still introducing the game (as a father) to your child and if you really want him to like it, even if you see he has exceptional talent,,,,, the kid MUST STILL learn to love the game if he is going to do it on his own down the road. Gotta keep it fun, and I would really hate to take a chance of BURNING HIM OUT so early by driving him off to tournaments every weekend.

I believe 11-13 is plenty early enough to start travel ball. Just my 2 cents.

 

imho not before he can spell "traveling baseball"

 

Out East

dif dat wus da case out herre n da east----- day wub prbabley bee senors n high scool b4 day cud play LOL

We started our kids out at 11 because when we would play allstar teams from Raliegh and Greensboro we were always getting whipped. When asking the coaches from the other teams they all claimed the travel ball made them better. So we started our kids but our goals were a little different than most. Our goal was to get our kids ready to play midddle school and high school ball. We kept our team with only local kids. During the 5 years we played we only had two kids to drop off the team. One for basketball and the other to ride motorcycles. Did we take some beatings. You bet we did but our kids learned how to play the game the right way with the right instruction---WITH their friends----Did losing help? I am not sure but when those kids finished the 14U year they were ranked #1 in the power rankings with USSSA AAA division. Also that year they won their way to the PONY World Series. (I still would like to see the birth certificates from the Puerto Rico team) I guess what I am saying is let the younger kids play with their friends in the neighborhood and they will have more memories they can cherish. As they get older there will be plenty of opportunities to spend money (and it takes more than some could imagine) and travel all over the country playing. Oh yea we only had one that did not make the high school team!

 

My oldest son, now playing college basketball, was a two-sport guy who never played travel baseball due to his greater passion for hoops. My youngest son is seven and he loves baseball more than football and basketball, which he has sampled at the rec level along with baseball. Our local rec seasons have left much to be desired, but my son loves the game itself. He got an invite to a "travel" team for 7U, and I took him to check it out, with some trepidation that it might be too early to start playing travel ball. I discovered an organization that is committed to teaching fundamentals and running very efficient practices while understanding the limitations of seven yr. olds attention spans. This organization has 8U-12U and is adding a 7U that will practice twice/wk play an occasional tournament while playing some weekend doubleheaders against local teams, so the travel will be much more minimal than the older teams. My son LOVES this situation because he says he feels like he's at baseball camp every practice and he's getting coaching that is consistent with what I've taught and what he sees when he hangs out at my HS practices, which was not the case on his rec teams. My point is that, although I'm sure there are plenty of travel situations that would not be beneficial for some kids and parents of kids this young, for us, we need to goin this direction with an organization that is doing things the right way, with the right priorities.

 

Great post, Coach F3...and very glad that you found a positive situation for your son. Your story is a testimony to the fact that so much of this depends upon the immediate circumstances and the opportunitities they present. Getting young players into the right environment...for the right reasons...is really what this ought to be about.

 

8U BB vs SB

I find it interesting that there are so many against 8U BB but 8U softball is growing more and more. That being said, I agree you run a risk of burning a kid out with "travel ball pressure". I just happen to feel that goes for baseball AND softball. JMO My dd played with a 10U team this fall. Went to 3 Tx. I was amazed at the attitudes and actions of SOME parents and coaches. One would never believe they were talking to and about 8 and 10 yr olds. My dd has decided she does not want to play TB 'right now'. BTW the coaches I was talking about were not my dd's. They were at some games my dd and I were watching waiting for her next game.

 

I feel the same way towards softball....but as Coach F3 has proven, there are exceptions. I'm looking forward to getting involved with softball this summer. I really want to see the differences in the environment--from coaches to parents--compared to baseball. It should be interesting