What to look for in a travel team

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All good comments. Tribe Leader hit a very good one that many college coaches complain about. Great bat but she can only play first, that is all she did in travel ball and I need an outfielder. Keep this in mind, many that play in college play a different position , unless you are a pitcher / catcher. I know a very good short stop that played that for years with the lasers, she had speed so she learned to play the outfield in college. 14U the biggest issue you see is no one can play the outfield. Too many kids get use to daddy ball and they play one position and never move. This just hurts the kid.

 

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Skill levels vary greatly, albeit everywhere. Many teams with glowing records dodge strong tournaments and strong teams. Coaching, communication, knowledge of the game and concern for every girls growth as a player are qualities to look for in a new team. Good records don't always translate into any of those traits.

Your objective as a parent is to find the best fit for YOUR daughter. Don't be swayed by smooth talkers who promise the world. Keep in mind that every team has a best player and a worst player. The objective of the team is to work hard and make every player better.

 

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edgeoo,
Good point about the smooth talkers!!! Make sure that the coach isn't giving every girl the same promise about positions and playing time. I've seen that happen, several girls getting the same promise about pitching time.

 

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The first thing to do is pick a few teams in your area and ask about them. Go to their websites and check them out then verify their information. Every team will have someone say something negative, but if it is a few people and some of the information the team provides is not true, you definitely want to move on. Talk to the coaches and people running the team and ask very pointed and precise questions. If they make you feel uncomfortable asking such questions, there is probably a reason why. A previous team that fell apart would never answer questions regarding a budget or where the money was. The team my daughers are on now provides detailed financial reports on demand and communicates very well with us parents.

Without getting into details we did not do the above and if we had, my daughters' hard earned grass cutting and babysitting money for team fees would not have mysteriously disappeared as we would not have joined that team. ?

 

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SBfamily when my oldest DD was being recruited we did not have any college coaches who really put a great deal of consideration into where she played in the field. They were more concerned about their overall skill level in the game of fastpitch. What I mean is could she hit, could she field, could she catch etc...

Our current team has a reletively set line-up weekend to weekend and they have had good success this summer. I can tell you that during their practices they do the infield drills with all of the players and they do the outfield drills wth all of the players. This way all of the players learn the required skills. Also there is a large emphasis on the fundamentals. Proper throwing, catching, tagging, running bases etc... and especially hitting.

I see way too many teams during the summer play nice and allow everyones daughter to play all positions. In the end they go home early, and nobody is served well. No parent likes to see their DD be placed a SS just because it is a cool position and some college coach may like to know that she played there once. The skills associated with fielding the ball, and throwing the ball will be apparant to anyone who knows what they are looking for. Well coached players look good doing what they do.

teams that generally are not concerned about how well they do week in and week out, generally don't do well week in and week out. Winning is a factor and winning builds confidence in what is being taught. well coached players who have above average skills normally do well if they are put in the porpoer position to have success. Many good potential players are wasted because they are never pushed to meet their true potential. they have to be challeneged to do more then they can do, and they have to be given the proper tools to compete. We will always look for situation where competition is high, and willingness to win is instilled into the players. complacency is for the teams that never see sunday.

 

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What cannot be stressed enough is that college coaches want battle-tested players. They want hitters who've faced elite pitchers, not just the average caliber pitchers you see at run of the mill summer tournaments. They want pitchers who've battled against the BEST hitters who can hit just about anything a pitcher can throw. They want fielders that use good technique against VERY hard hit balls and make good throwing decisions.

The formula for building high level skills is not rooted in playing for a mediocre team in mediocre tournaments. Many parents underestimate how much a good athlete with just average skills will improve when really, truly challenged. They pass on trying out for the top travel teams because they think their DD isn't good enough. Well, how do you know until you try? That's where the path to improvement begins.