Travel/Club Ball-Part1 of 2: Travel Ball is overrated: First of all, we live in the United States. Unlike the Latin American Countries, a young player cannot sign a professional baseball contract at 16 years old. No professional scout or college coach will attempt to recruit a young player under the high school ages 14-18 years old (Very rare for baseball college coaches). Sure, we can list the pros of travel ball but as parents, players, and youth coaches, you should also be aware of the cons. If not, your son will risk injury and later hate the game due to burn out fatigue, because, all he’s done is play baseball year round (before he gets to high school). Furthermore, parents risk the chance of spending all their money on travel teams for tournaments, hotels, gas, etc. If you as parents have a particular high school in mind where your son will attend and the baseball program is strong and more likely it’s a year round program, you may want to consider scaling back on travel/club ball prior to high school. Playing extra games are great. But, learning more on the fundamentals of the game are more important. Here are some questions to ask yourselves to avoid possible burn out and/or bad coaches. • Listen to your son-Does your son “really” want to play or is it that daddy and mommy feel it’s best for him? Are you doing it because you are trying to keep up with the Joneses (other families and their kids)? • Read body language-if you commit to travel ball and for whatever reason your son doesn’t enjoy being out there, read his body language. It may be time to take a rest (which is OK). Let a kid be a kid. If not, you will risk the chance he may never want to play in high school because he’s tired and burned out. • Ask around about the travel team coach-are the comments positive or negative? How long is the travel ball season? What tournaments do they play in? How far is the furthest tournament they will play? • If you find some questions about the coach and/or coaches, keep asking questions, especially if there are things that raise suspicions. • Are the coaches teaching proper fundamentals? Go and watch one of their practices. If you are not satisfied, you’re better off just doing private lessons (once or twice a week), and work on conditioning. Do the coaches constantly yell at players? (Note-I witnessed a 10 year old practice for a travel team in Simi Valley, CA one year. It was our friend’s son’s team. The head coach was in the player’s ear all practice. Personally, I felt this was way overboard for this age group. My friend’s son quit playing baseball before he was 14 years old. I wonder why?). • Do you like and/or dislike other parents on the travel/club team? Parents can be the worst at youth events and leagues. I am being honest here. You’re the person who will be in the stands with the other parents. You will hear the moaning, complaining, and criticism. • Are there any players who have coaches on the team? If so, how many? Does your son play the same position as the coach’s kid? The reason is, your son probably won’t get the playing time behind the coach’s kid even if he is better (understand this going in). Travel ball does not mean a guaranteed college scholarship or draft into MLB. It doesn’t mean your son will have a leg up in high school baseball either. In high school, your son’s hard work, dedication to the game, improving mental aptitude of game, perfecting fundamentals will determine playing time (as well as keeping grades).
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 16:32:44 +0000
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