Commitment to a team....

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What is the appropriate age that a player should want to commit exclusively to one travel sport over any other?

 

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Well, with sokker starting so early this day and age, I would say get your DD started and committed to travel softball by age 4 or 5.......

 

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haha agreed! In my opinion, I would have them be committed by 12U or 10U

 

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Elite day care fast pitch. Sounds like an opportunity for a new business.

 

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Diapers and DDs...We will change their crappers and turn them into slappers!

 

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Depends on your and your DD's commitment. Our DD is a 2nd year 12u and is balancing three sports, two of which season's overlap. She is not ready to drop anything and we will not force it. If she stays committed I think we can balance this until HS. The thing to remember is what stays and what goes has to be her choice.

Good luck

 

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Elite day care fast pitch. Sounds like an opportunity for a new business.

Now you're thinking. lol.

 

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Diapers and DDs...We will change their crappers and turn them into slappers!

Now this is funny stuff! lol.

 

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NicsDad is on the right track.

There is no set answer, as "The Decision" comes to each player at different times for different reasons. And be prepared that the sport she chooses may not be fastpitch... (If it appears to be headed toward s*cc*r, let me know, and I'll schedule an Intervention!)

 

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The day of the multi-sport athlete is about over. If you don't commit to one or the other it is very difficult to compete in any of them. VB is filled with JO players and if you aren't in JO, you will likely not be able to win a position. BB has...is it UAA or AAU BB, if you don't play that good luck trying to make the team. Same with travel ball, a good travel player is hard to beat out when they are dedicating their time year round to only softball. As the high schools start demanding that you play the travel version of their sport, the athletes are starting to have to choose by the time they enter high school instead of before they enter college like it used to be 20 years ago. We have players who still play multiple sports and they make it work but it is becoming harder and harder for them.

 

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My problem with this is over use injuries and burn out. My daughter took time off every year to play sokker....yes, sokker!!! and it was a positive for her. I would like to think that you could balance more than one sport, but maybe that is wishful thinking. I think we lose something by focusing on just one sport year round.

 

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@ steeler's fan:

Many would agree with you that multi-sport athletes are preferable. sbfamily posted a link to a study paper in the last few years that suggested college coaches prefer multi-sport HS athletes when recruiting (though I read that study and had some serious concerns about its methodology). Our head coach feels quite strongly that multi-sport athletes should not be penalized in travel ball and that they often are preferable to the one-sport player. My agreement with him is limited to the burn-out and overuse injury issues. Concentrating just on softball can lead to softball burn-out and muscle imbalance/overuse injuries. But concentrating just on softball can also lead to a better set of softball skills and can eliminate the kind of travel ball conflicts that Klump has described. I think, though I don't feel uber strongly, that I come down on the side of choosing one sport by the freshman or sophomore year and then making sure that a physical conditioning program is in place that protects against muscle imbalance and a training program is in place that allows for some off-season vacations from softball.

But generalities have to give way to the consideration of any particular athlete's situation. For talented athletes at small schools, for example, there is pressure to play multiple sports, and quite frankly HS softball programs benefit from the participation of multi-sport athletes who don't play travel ball. And if the young lady doesn't have aspirations to play sports in college, then much of the rationale for playing only one sport goes away.

If the young lady has a passion for softball that exceeds her passion for other sports, I think I would advise her to become, in her freshman or sophomore year, a one-sport athlete who takes steps to condition her body to avoid muscle imbalance and those injuries that are common to softball and who takes further steps to give herself some limited mental and physical vacations from the sport.

 

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Agree 100% with Klump on this. While I would never discourage my own child or a player I coach from playing multiple sports, the fact is that "specialization" and year-round opportunities have taken over the youth sports world, making it very difficult (but not impossible) for the multi-sports athletes to compete. My daughter made this choice when she went into high school, which I think is probably about the right time for most. While it can be difficult to balance everything prior to that, I just question whether many players/parents really know what they're going to love the most and/or be best at a much younger age. I've definitely seen some families do this and then burn out or not be successful and regret having thrown all of their eggs into one basket too early.

 

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Thanks guys! These are great points ( and some funny ones), but now it makes me wonder if multi-sport travel ballers should receive different treatment on a squad say due to lack of commitment for example, an athlete has two tourneys at once and travels back and forth missing some of both. Is this fair to either team they are on?

 

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Good luck with that! Once you're on a travel team, each coach wants their sport to be #1 priority - no exceptions...

 

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tw ... ideally I'd like to think that teams/coaches could work around and understand these kinds of situations, but even if they don't have a problem with it, you better believe some of the parents of the other players will, which is going to cause issues. If it's a once a season thing that's known upfront, you can probably work around it, but if it's an ongoing thing, I just don't think it will ever work in this day and age ...

 

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Thanks guys! These are great points ( and some funny ones), but now it makes me wonder if multi-sport travel ballers should receive different treatment on a squad say due to lack of commitment for example, an athlete has two tourneys at once and travels back and forth missing some of both. Is this fair to either team they are on?

tw

I can tell you why it works for us right now. The overlap between sokker and softball in the spring is predominently in April & May. Our sokker season is done first weekend in June. We also emphasise the inseason sport so generally when there is a conflict in the spring softball wins, in the fall its sokker. MY DD loves both of these plus basketball. She knows she will have to pick at some point but right now it helps more than it hurts. The speed she has developed in sokker helps in the other two. Similarly, the one one one focus of an at bat brings a mental toughness to the other two.

The conflict you mentioned has only happened to us once and we were lucky, tourney's were 13 miles apart. She missed one inning of a softball game while participating in 11 total games that weekend. It's a sight to see someone change from softball pants to shorts and vice versa in a moving car with a seatbelt on.

 

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It all depends on the coaches. We have a Varsity sb player who misses weekend games because sokker is her #1 sport. My dd missed vb a couple of times in hs for softball because it was her #1 sport. I'm not saying it's right, fair or easy for the rest of the players to accept. Smaller schools may be willing to take what they can get from good athletes.

 

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Ohloves ... we had a similar situation when I was an asst coach in high school ... we had an outstanding 3 sport athlete where sokker was her #1 (she ended up playing D1 in college), but the problem was her mom called her in sick to our first weekend conference doubleheader, and we found out a few days later she was playing sokker that day and not sick. The head coach suspended her several games and she came back, but then another conflict arose and she and the head coach agreed it just wasn't going to work out, so she quit. I had some mixed feelings about it as she was a good kid and we were much better when she was playing for sure. Can I ask if the girl who misses weekend games is a starter when she is there? I also wonder if it makes a difference in an outstanding program like yours where the team I am sure has a very clear goal ... just thinking the other players and parents might be more accepting if they can see that she is helping the team achieve their goal when she is there. I just have seen too many situations over the years where primarily parents would give the coaches a ton of grief if their daughter was sitting behind someone who was treated "special". I wish it wasn't that way, but it is ...

 

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Simple, play what you enjoy playing for as long as you enjoy it. Dont limit your dd's experiences for a dream you may have by making her choose a single sport at any age. If she has the drive and the talent to progress beyond HS, she will.