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There is a lot of disagreement on here about the advantages and evils of travel teams. I think just using the word travel team is not specific enough. From what I have seen there are 5 types of travel teams
1) A town travel team. The supposed A players. This team plays in a Spring and Fall league vs neighboring towns. They play local tournaments in the summer verse other town teams and maybe one out of state tourney within driving distance. The team practices twice a week and overall is well coached by well meaning parents.
2) Same as #1 except the team is composed of supposed B and C players. It acts as a farm team for the towns A team as egos get in the way and A players leave over time.
3) The poorly put together travel team from different local towns. This team is made up of brats who thought the should be playing SS on the town teams A travel team but mostly its kids of delusional parents who didn't make the various towns B teams. They are poorly coached by a local hitting instructor or other so called expert. Any decent town team usually mercies this team and the team disbands in a year or two
4) Same as 4 except the team is better coached and better put together. All 4 teams mentioned play local leagues and close by tourneys in the summer
5) My reason for the post. A tourney team comprised of kids 3 years ahead of their physical age. They play tournaments and try to rack up numbers so they look great on paper
So back to my original question. Are these even real baseball teams? My son plays on his town travel team. It is a true team in the sense of the word. Every player fits his position. We have pitchers who throw strikes, pitchers who throw heat, pitchers who throw junk. We even have a reliever as he deals better mentally with closing games. The team (11u) is learning the proper way to run the bases, on the field they back up the plays, batting we manufacture runs like a team is suppose to. We win some, we lose some but the coach is teaching the kids to be young men and lessons are found in everything.
Then we have these tournament teams where the smallest kid on their team is the 5 hitter on our team. Their SS moves like Frankenstein an the 1st basemen has hands of stone. The win simply because the kids are huge and they can ALL drive the ball. It doesn't even impress me because they are not hitters. My son who is big just not a freak maybe drives the ball 10 feet less, he can wait on a pitch to drive it to right. When he is their size he should be putting it over the fence which these kids weren't doing.
So these teams are just building a false sense of supremacy. These kids wil not grow up into good baseball players. They play no defense. Even their pitching is junk from tall uncorniated kids. It's just annoying to watch. I can sit and watch two mediocre well coached 11u teams and enjoy what the kids know about the game. Watching a team with a 5'6" 11 year old lead off who runs like a new born colt is not baseball
1) A town travel team. The supposed A players. This team plays in a Spring and Fall league vs neighboring towns. They play local tournaments in the summer verse other town teams and maybe one out of state tourney within driving distance. The team practices twice a week and overall is well coached by well meaning parents.
2) Same as #1 except the team is composed of supposed B and C players. It acts as a farm team for the towns A team as egos get in the way and A players leave over time.
3) The poorly put together travel team from different local towns. This team is made up of brats who thought the should be playing SS on the town teams A travel team but mostly its kids of delusional parents who didn't make the various towns B teams. They are poorly coached by a local hitting instructor or other so called expert. Any decent town team usually mercies this team and the team disbands in a year or two
4) Same as 4 except the team is better coached and better put together. All 4 teams mentioned play local leagues and close by tourneys in the summer
5) My reason for the post. A tourney team comprised of kids 3 years ahead of their physical age. They play tournaments and try to rack up numbers so they look great on paper
So back to my original question. Are these even real baseball teams? My son plays on his town travel team. It is a true team in the sense of the word. Every player fits his position. We have pitchers who throw strikes, pitchers who throw heat, pitchers who throw junk. We even have a reliever as he deals better mentally with closing games. The team (11u) is learning the proper way to run the bases, on the field they back up the plays, batting we manufacture runs like a team is suppose to. We win some, we lose some but the coach is teaching the kids to be young men and lessons are found in everything.
Then we have these tournament teams where the smallest kid on their team is the 5 hitter on our team. Their SS moves like Frankenstein an the 1st basemen has hands of stone. The win simply because the kids are huge and they can ALL drive the ball. It doesn't even impress me because they are not hitters. My son who is big just not a freak maybe drives the ball 10 feet less, he can wait on a pitch to drive it to right. When he is their size he should be putting it over the fence which these kids weren't doing.
So these teams are just building a false sense of supremacy. These kids wil not grow up into good baseball players. They play no defense. Even their pitching is junk from tall uncorniated kids. It's just annoying to watch. I can sit and watch two mediocre well coached 11u teams and enjoy what the kids know about the game. Watching a team with a 5'6" 11 year old lead off who runs like a new born colt is not baseball
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