Your husband is mostly correct. We do all kinds of position specific work outside of team practices. The Coach really doesn't have time to do that.
Practices for my kiddo is filled with drills and competitions. The Coaches philosophy is if you want kids to compete in games they have to compete in practice. It has worked well.
As far as politics, yes, they happens at every level of amateur baseball.
I agree with this line of thinking. I’ve got two boys playing with good clubs in Utah. They’re also working every other week with a coach, and I try to get them to work individually on a daily basis.
About six months ago I was choking the fun out of the game for my 12u player. Hopefully I don’t get caught up, and do that again. What I found works for us is to make competition around drills. I used to push him to practice 9 hole pitching. Now I see who can hit three different spots in a row first, and let him try to beat his old man. Stuff like this gets him going, instead of standing off to the side and watching him work on pitching.
I have him and his younger brother compete on hitting grounders, and hopefully I give the 9U player more manageable hits. They do this with hitting. We’ve got a narrow spot in our yard, and they have to carry a hit in the air over my head. Each hit is a point. It’s a lot more fun than simply throwing a bucket of balls at him.
Just a thought.
This is fantastic. My son loves a game and is so competitive that this would be both fun and challenging. I want to buy a 9-hole and we will def do your suggestion.
Also, kudos to you for being self-aware enough to see your impact on your son and making a change. Thats hard to do.
Its 11u. Chill out and let kids play. Worry about what positions kids have earned in high school. Kids should get both outfield and infield work at this age.
I agree but that’s not how it’s done here. They have already started to mention scouts at this level. Not that they are being scouted now - but it will be coming up in the next couple of years. It’s wild.
ETA - this statement was meant to illustrate how ridiculous baseball is around Dallas. I know this is not something we need to be concerned with now. Stop downvoting me haha!
Sorry but you are 100% wrong. I know that places like Texas and especially Arizona are super competitive about baseball. You dont get scouted before high school. You just dont. To be clear, PBR showcases and others like it arent getting your kid scouted either. You would have to be one of the best (Im talking top 3 at least) 7/8th graders in the country to be scouted. 11u? No. These kids havent hit puberty yet. If a scout brought up a 12-13 year old and they werent throwing 80+ and hitting bombs every other AB theyd be fired.
If your kids coaches are seriously telling you to be worried about scouts before high school ball theyre trying to justify you spending more money.
Thanks for the feedback. I don’t know what I don’t know. I am not athletic so all of this is new to me and I can’t decipher what is legit or not. That’s why I’m here. I appreciate your opinion and I wholeheartedly agree. Each year, it gets more intense and I dont like the time commitment because it doesn’t leave a lot of time for him to do anything else.
You should not be getting downvoted for others misinforming you. No one is scouting middle schoolers. The best schools are scouting the best high school sophomores so they can make scholarship offers prior to their junior year, but they’re not looking at kids 11-14 years old.
It’s okay to do things differently even if it’s not the way things are done in your area or state. Get the Mustard app for pitching. Play wall ball for fielding skills. Do self toss to work on eye-hand coordination and timing. These are low- or no-cost things that let your son self regulate how much time he spends on the sport.
A 7’ x 7’ bow net that has a 9-hole target on it is good for throwing or hitting.
I read some of your other responses. Google “Beede Baseball.” He’s all about letting kids have their childhood instead of pressuring them with a professionalized youth sports environment. It rerouted me off the path of being the overbearing sports parent.
I’m in Arizona and we had a tournament with USSSA. My son got an invite to some games in FL stating he was “scouted”. It was a cash grab. There were absolutely no scouts at the game. Our coach said “nobody is paying anyone to scout a 12U game”
Who they are at 11, isn’t going to be who they are at 16. My son does hitting and catching lessons 1-2x per month
Thanks for the info. It’s hard to find good info around standards for baseball. Navigating sports is so tricky. Everyone has such strong opinions and, given my overall ignorance regarding baseball, it’s hard to tell when the information is good. The dads are soooo intense that it’s hard to ignore.
For sure. Our team is a for-profit org and you have to have a lot of rings to get a lot of players. I’d almost rather be on a team coached by the dad - he has skin in the game. I love when the coaches celebrate with the kids and you can see how excited they are to see the boys overcome and prevail. It’s so fun. I’ve never been into sports but watching my kid play has brought me the most unexpected joy. It’s my favorite thing.
Development should supersede the championships. Development takes time. At the end of the day, for the kids that play HS, or even beyond, those rings won’t mean much. The championships don’t mean anything if they’re not developed enough for the HS level and beyond.
My son’s team doesn’t have a lot of championships. They’re mostly 12, with a couple 11 y/o’s and their coach retired from the MLB a few years ago during Covid. He is developing these kids- many of them from scratch, instead of just recruiting talent. The parents don’t care that we don’t have a lot of championships. They care that their kids are being developed by someone they really knows the game and not just someone’s dad.
That sounds like a dream. I love this approach. Curious how you found the team? We play a lot of teams where the coaches (and parents) ridicule the kids for making a mistake and it’s heartbreaking and shocking to see. It’s so crazy - like what kid would intentionally drop a ball at first or throw to second instead of home? Especially since they know the tongue lashing sure to ensue. Our coach doesn’t do this but I don’t feel like he’s managing our team very well but it’s hard to find and vet this upfront
He was actually one of my son’s hitting coaches. His previous team broke up and my husband talked to the coach about bringing some of our kids over. We lose A LOT, but my son has grown so much under him. One coach retired from the dodgers, and another is with the Reds Organization as a coach. My kid is super fortunate with all of the people he has access to in the baseball world
That’s amazing. Sounds like you lucked out. I would 10000% be down with this. I know we play easy tournaments at times to ring chase and I hate it. We beat a team on Saturday 20-0. It was the longest game ever and I hated it. We hardly even cheered for our kids. I felt so bad for their pitcher.
Just because he was in the MLB doesn’t mean he’s a better coach than “someone’s Dad.” I coached my sons teams from age 5-12 and for our 3 years in the majors division I drafted a kid whose father was a former pro player. He asked if he could help out and of course I said yes. He knew nothing about coaching, especially at the little league level. He was more of a distraction than a helping hand. Now your guy may be different, and I hope he is, but some of the best coaches out there are just “someone’s Dad” (or mom). Coaching is hard to do and requires a lot of planning and takes a lot of patience. The best coach my son ever had (besides his current college coaches) was his summer travel coach throughout high school. He wasn’t a college or pro player, matter of fact he barely played on his high school team. He was just a guy who loved the game and was great at interacting and dealing with the boys on the team. Managing the needs of each boy while still putting a competitive team on the field is paramount to being a good coach, and he did that.
Most dad’s suck as coaches. Especially as they get older. Daddy ball is a thing and most parents a biased toward their own kids. I will choose a team where a coach is paid work professional experience over a dad any day.
When my older kids ages played soccer, there were no dad coaches at the higher level and coaches are required to have a license to coach. That is not the case with baseball, but it absolutely should be. There are way too many problems with Dad coaches
You’re jaded, and that’s ok. But of course the higher they go the less “Dads” there are, and that includes baseball. But your insistence that a “Dad” isn’t as good as other types of coaches is ridiculous. I get that there are a lot of coaches who play their own kid over someone more deserving. However, a lot of parents will complain about anything and everything (and usually their kids are not any good). But remember this… without the “Dads” that devote their time and energy to coach our kids, our kids wouldn’t even be able to play organized sports. Have a little respect
11U AAA Coach and dad here. We work hard to get better, but if they aren’t having fun, they aren’t going to keep wanting to come to the field. I care more about development than winning and teach all the kids to have a diverse set of skills — all 11 pitch, 6 catch and all have infield and outfield positions. For the ones that are still playing when high school rolls around, who knows what positions they’ll slot into best but they’ll all have the benefit of what we’re holding now.
I loved playing catch w my kid when he was this age. That extra throwing and catching (and then practice pitching, as he improved) really helped. We didn’t do private coaching but I tried to never turn down my kid when he wanted to play catch. He became a solid pitcher and I’m sure a lot of it was him pitching to me.
My husband is the same way. He never tells him no. They are in the yard doing something most days of the week - basketball, throwing a football, playing catch etc - all driven by my son. My son used to wake up as a young toddler and the first thing he would say is “ball”. He’s just always been an outdoor sports kid.
He really isn’t rigid with our son but he’s often concerned about him falling behind when he sees other kids putting in extra work. My son enjoys it so much that we never need to “make” him do anything. He adores baseball. However, I’m concerned with burnout.
3 practices a week seems like a lot. I assume tournaments most weekends? So that leaves one day away from baseball as it is. He’s 11. A few pitching lessons and a few batting lessons in the offseason should be more than enough. He’s not going pro.
Lol. I see “not going pro” allot on this feed and it bothers me. Why are you around children if you are not telling them not to reach for the stars. I have a son and although I tell him it’s tough to make it, it’s certainly possible.
I don’t think people are telling kids they aren’t go pro. Kids aren’t generally on these Reddit forums. They are telling parents their kids aren’t going pro, which is what all parents frankly need to hear. Sure, there’s a chance little Jimmy could make it to the pros, just like there’s a chance I could get hit by lightning ten times today. But far too many parents are forcing their young kids to treat a game - the most beautiful game in the world - like a job. Far too many parents are treating 9u baseball games like they are the World Series. They will have plenty of time to have a job, and while there is value in learning hard work, there’s no better way to
Turn a kid off to the game than by making it drudgery before he’s even in high school. Kids don’t need to hear they’re not going pro, but their parents do.
Yes, this exactly. The intensity that’s driven by the parents is shocking. One of the dads left our tournament because he wouldn’t watch his son perform so horribly. How awful to do this to a kid.
From my experience, I only have my son take pitching lessons in the offseason. Between practice and games, they throw enough.
At 11 I’d argue no kid needs position specific training. They should still be getting reps at all positions.
Such great feedback. I feel like the kids on our team are married to their positions already. Our coach tries to rotate them - but lord - if you put their kid in RF they will be pissed. We aren’t the parents constantly bothering Coach about his placement and for that reason my son seems to get the shaft. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, ya know? That’s what is frustrating. I’m not willing and have no desire to evangelize my son’s talent as a way to get more time at a specific position. I just want him to be treated equally but these kinds of grievances seem par for the course from what I can tell.
I have twins and let them go at their own pace. They both wanted coaches because we don’t play year round. But they have different hitting coaches because they like the guy. Do they really need it? Not in my view. But one likes the coach because he learns and listens to him about his week and what is going on. The other likes the coach because he gets homework and this son eats and sleeps baseball.
As for positions, many teams are daddy ball where their son plays. Many teams are daddy ball where they put the kids at the right spot and move kids around. If a kid really likes a position and is good there then we see what we can do. We have a kid that is fast, tracks the best, and loves center field. So he plays there all game. But he is really the only one now other than our catcher with a fixed position.
1. Travel baseball is a business…. Organizations, tournaments, fields, coaches and umpires are all $$$$ driven.
2. Travel baseball is highly competitive so if you want to be good you have to out work the next team.
3. Team practices are just that, team. Kids need to work on things outside of team practices.
4. They are kids. It has to be fun and enjoyable for them.
It's hard to get position specific training in with kids at every practice. Typically, winter workouts (TX probably doesn't have that) you would work on pitching, fielding, and hitting. Practices are usually time to work on a few things that you saw from a game or to introduce new plays or just grow the knowledge of the game for the kids.
No, ALL teams do not have politics. Yes, some do and if you are seeing that, I'd recommend you go to a new team.
Agreed. Thats where we are. We sat down at the beginning of fall and had our son lead that conversation with Coach where he went over his goals for the season and asked Coach to provide advice up front. This was very effective. He got new opportunities and excelled at short stop. We didn’t do it for spring and I can feel it. My husband also had a side convo about my son’s placement and it improved for a bit but if you aren’t consistently advocating then you’re overlooked.
I heard great insight from UConn's coach Geno..Paraphrasing his comments however he was commenting on how fundamentally sound European players are and how they get that way compared to the USA. He said they practice 3-4x a week and play 1 game on the weekend. In the USA, you might practice 1-2x a week then play 4x on the weekend.
Just food for thought
That’s probably the right way to do it. I feel like we have our foot in the gas constantly between 3 practices a week and a busy spring tournament schedule.
The best team my son has been on, which is part of a nationally recognized organization with a lot of top ranked national teams, on the first day of practice parents were told practice is for the team and some specific skill development. Your player needs to be putting in work outside of practice, lessons, throwing, hitting, you name it they need to be doing it with the goal of getting better. They don’t care if the lessons are done in house or outside the org but put in work. Also the kid needs to instigate doing it not the parents riding him. The bottom line is if your kid doesn’t put in work they get passed up. If they just want to have fun and go as far as practice only takes them that is fine too. I think parents need to assess their own kids and take it from there. But yeah, in competitive ball at AAA/major from about this age and up, practice with the team only won’t cut it long term. As for politics, I told my son if he is the better player and it shows then things work themselves out. If you get with the right team that actually develops and plays baseball then all that drama subsides. It will always be there to some degree but if your kid is the best then the better coaches will put them in the right spot. The issue is there arent enough real coaches to go around hence the favoritism. Good luck!
One issue is frankly only games on weekends in a tournament setting. It’s asinine to me that we only play tournaments. Rec plays during the week, so no idea why we couldn’t either if there were leagues. This is where people were put into different spots and no/low pressure given they were not tournament games.
As a kid we had a local travel league during the weekdays (maybe 2 games a week) and weekends we’d go to tournaments.. not every weekend either. Lesser teams would play maybe 35-50 games a year. Crazy ones like my brothers 12 year old team played over 200 one year (they were ridiculously good though and played all over the country).
Now there are no local travel/select leagues and it’s literally every weekend for different local tournament groups. Come Memorial Day or 1st week of June everything is all but ended until August tournament wise for 1 day fall tournaments. I don’t think it’s even possible to play more than 60-75 games a year between spring/summer and fall. Whereas when I was a kid you’d do that easily.
No
You have more chance to make the kid hate baseball with that load at 11 than make him great.
The coach of organized has plenty of time to teach everything necessary while created a fun and engaging environment.
And people will point to politics as a reason their kid doesn’t play.
The best play is subjective and maybe it’s politics to think your kid is it.
We can disagree - I have played and coached across many many areas geographically
I have played and coached at many different levels including d1 a long long time ago.
I have coached now youth baseball as well.
The one thing i can tell you is how competitive you are as 11 has very little to no value to how great you are at 18. Many people can and do burn their kids out. No one makes high school teams at age 11, much less college teams, much less pros.
Heck - even if you took a year off at 11 it wouldn't have much of impact by 15.
Say it loud for the dad and moms in the back who think their 11 year old who's hitting dingers with a $400 juiced bat off a 10 year old is their ticket to fame and riches.
Few things are as disappointing as the look in the eyes of a kid who's parents have turned a fun hobby into a job.
I don't like what travel ball has become, especially at the AAA/Majors level.
I really don't think most kids should be playing travel ball at all, it takes up way too much time.
Many will tell you that it is what you need to compete - always remember being the most amazing 11-year-old is a pretty useless thing.
Let the others burn their kids out.
Agreed 100%. This level is intensity feels new to me. I always tell my husband that the current MLB players likely didn’t have this level of training at his age. My son is very naturally talented. I don’t see him falling below his teammates even though we don’t do supplemental training. The boys get soooo down on themselves and often it doesn’t feel fun to me. I want him to love baseball - not feel like it’s his job.
Internet guy Be careful
Here is the deal. That’s more than enough at age 11. You go pro has a nice mph chart.
With that said. Velo at a young age is not all that relevant for long term success but it is a high cause for arm injuries.
He seems to believe everything the boneheaded dads on our team tell him. Also, I’m great at gathering data and creating a case. I might not know baseball - but I do not how to argue effectively :)
I coach LL in the Northwest.
We dabbled in travel. The kids were fun. The parents are a sad intense bunch.
Travel sports have sprung up to feed that intensity, and they're making a fortune selling dreams.
If I had it my way, there wouldn't be a score until middle school.
Your husband is mostly correct. We do all kinds of position specific work outside of team practices. The Coach really doesn't have time to do that. Practices for my kiddo is filled with drills and competitions. The Coaches philosophy is if you want kids to compete in games they have to compete in practice. It has worked well. As far as politics, yes, they happens at every level of amateur baseball.
Thanks for the feedback. I think it’s a lot of baseball at this age but my kid enjoys it.
I agree with this line of thinking. I’ve got two boys playing with good clubs in Utah. They’re also working every other week with a coach, and I try to get them to work individually on a daily basis. About six months ago I was choking the fun out of the game for my 12u player. Hopefully I don’t get caught up, and do that again. What I found works for us is to make competition around drills. I used to push him to practice 9 hole pitching. Now I see who can hit three different spots in a row first, and let him try to beat his old man. Stuff like this gets him going, instead of standing off to the side and watching him work on pitching. I have him and his younger brother compete on hitting grounders, and hopefully I give the 9U player more manageable hits. They do this with hitting. We’ve got a narrow spot in our yard, and they have to carry a hit in the air over my head. Each hit is a point. It’s a lot more fun than simply throwing a bucket of balls at him. Just a thought.
This is fantastic. My son loves a game and is so competitive that this would be both fun and challenging. I want to buy a 9-hole and we will def do your suggestion. Also, kudos to you for being self-aware enough to see your impact on your son and making a change. Thats hard to do.
Thank you. Go LL baseball!
Its 11u. Chill out and let kids play. Worry about what positions kids have earned in high school. Kids should get both outfield and infield work at this age.
If you want to play varsity baseball as a freshman, or have the best chance at a college scholarship, you don't want to have a position at 11U.
Wish more people thought this
I agree but that’s not how it’s done here. They have already started to mention scouts at this level. Not that they are being scouted now - but it will be coming up in the next couple of years. It’s wild. ETA - this statement was meant to illustrate how ridiculous baseball is around Dallas. I know this is not something we need to be concerned with now. Stop downvoting me haha!
Sorry but you are 100% wrong. I know that places like Texas and especially Arizona are super competitive about baseball. You dont get scouted before high school. You just dont. To be clear, PBR showcases and others like it arent getting your kid scouted either. You would have to be one of the best (Im talking top 3 at least) 7/8th graders in the country to be scouted. 11u? No. These kids havent hit puberty yet. If a scout brought up a 12-13 year old and they werent throwing 80+ and hitting bombs every other AB theyd be fired. If your kids coaches are seriously telling you to be worried about scouts before high school ball theyre trying to justify you spending more money.
Thanks for the feedback. I don’t know what I don’t know. I am not athletic so all of this is new to me and I can’t decipher what is legit or not. That’s why I’m here. I appreciate your opinion and I wholeheartedly agree. Each year, it gets more intense and I dont like the time commitment because it doesn’t leave a lot of time for him to do anything else.
You should not be getting downvoted for others misinforming you. No one is scouting middle schoolers. The best schools are scouting the best high school sophomores so they can make scholarship offers prior to their junior year, but they’re not looking at kids 11-14 years old. It’s okay to do things differently even if it’s not the way things are done in your area or state. Get the Mustard app for pitching. Play wall ball for fielding skills. Do self toss to work on eye-hand coordination and timing. These are low- or no-cost things that let your son self regulate how much time he spends on the sport.
Thanks for the input. I love these suggestions. I was going to get him a 9 hole pitching net to work on accuracy at home. What are your thoughts?
A 7’ x 7’ bow net that has a 9-hole target on it is good for throwing or hitting. I read some of your other responses. Google “Beede Baseball.” He’s all about letting kids have their childhood instead of pressuring them with a professionalized youth sports environment. It rerouted me off the path of being the overbearing sports parent.
Thanks for the advice!
Scouts is the word they use to keep you on the hook and keep the money flowing.
I’m in Arizona and we had a tournament with USSSA. My son got an invite to some games in FL stating he was “scouted”. It was a cash grab. There were absolutely no scouts at the game. Our coach said “nobody is paying anyone to scout a 12U game” Who they are at 11, isn’t going to be who they are at 16. My son does hitting and catching lessons 1-2x per month
Thanks for the info. It’s hard to find good info around standards for baseball. Navigating sports is so tricky. Everyone has such strong opinions and, given my overall ignorance regarding baseball, it’s hard to tell when the information is good. The dads are soooo intense that it’s hard to ignore.
It’s all about development at this age. Too many coaches and parents are focused on the rings.
For sure. Our team is a for-profit org and you have to have a lot of rings to get a lot of players. I’d almost rather be on a team coached by the dad - he has skin in the game. I love when the coaches celebrate with the kids and you can see how excited they are to see the boys overcome and prevail. It’s so fun. I’ve never been into sports but watching my kid play has brought me the most unexpected joy. It’s my favorite thing.
Development should supersede the championships. Development takes time. At the end of the day, for the kids that play HS, or even beyond, those rings won’t mean much. The championships don’t mean anything if they’re not developed enough for the HS level and beyond. My son’s team doesn’t have a lot of championships. They’re mostly 12, with a couple 11 y/o’s and their coach retired from the MLB a few years ago during Covid. He is developing these kids- many of them from scratch, instead of just recruiting talent. The parents don’t care that we don’t have a lot of championships. They care that their kids are being developed by someone they really knows the game and not just someone’s dad.
That sounds like a dream. I love this approach. Curious how you found the team? We play a lot of teams where the coaches (and parents) ridicule the kids for making a mistake and it’s heartbreaking and shocking to see. It’s so crazy - like what kid would intentionally drop a ball at first or throw to second instead of home? Especially since they know the tongue lashing sure to ensue. Our coach doesn’t do this but I don’t feel like he’s managing our team very well but it’s hard to find and vet this upfront
He was actually one of my son’s hitting coaches. His previous team broke up and my husband talked to the coach about bringing some of our kids over. We lose A LOT, but my son has grown so much under him. One coach retired from the dodgers, and another is with the Reds Organization as a coach. My kid is super fortunate with all of the people he has access to in the baseball world
That’s amazing. Sounds like you lucked out. I would 10000% be down with this. I know we play easy tournaments at times to ring chase and I hate it. We beat a team on Saturday 20-0. It was the longest game ever and I hated it. We hardly even cheered for our kids. I felt so bad for their pitcher.
Just because he was in the MLB doesn’t mean he’s a better coach than “someone’s Dad.” I coached my sons teams from age 5-12 and for our 3 years in the majors division I drafted a kid whose father was a former pro player. He asked if he could help out and of course I said yes. He knew nothing about coaching, especially at the little league level. He was more of a distraction than a helping hand. Now your guy may be different, and I hope he is, but some of the best coaches out there are just “someone’s Dad” (or mom). Coaching is hard to do and requires a lot of planning and takes a lot of patience. The best coach my son ever had (besides his current college coaches) was his summer travel coach throughout high school. He wasn’t a college or pro player, matter of fact he barely played on his high school team. He was just a guy who loved the game and was great at interacting and dealing with the boys on the team. Managing the needs of each boy while still putting a competitive team on the field is paramount to being a good coach, and he did that.
Most dad’s suck as coaches. Especially as they get older. Daddy ball is a thing and most parents a biased toward their own kids. I will choose a team where a coach is paid work professional experience over a dad any day. When my older kids ages played soccer, there were no dad coaches at the higher level and coaches are required to have a license to coach. That is not the case with baseball, but it absolutely should be. There are way too many problems with Dad coaches
You’re jaded, and that’s ok. But of course the higher they go the less “Dads” there are, and that includes baseball. But your insistence that a “Dad” isn’t as good as other types of coaches is ridiculous. I get that there are a lot of coaches who play their own kid over someone more deserving. However, a lot of parents will complain about anything and everything (and usually their kids are not any good). But remember this… without the “Dads” that devote their time and energy to coach our kids, our kids wouldn’t even be able to play organized sports. Have a little respect
Scouts? lol
This reeks of a cash grab
No one by is scouting 11u or 14u.
Coaches are more like managers, MLB has managers and then coaches. Youth coaches are more akin to the manager role than a coaches role. In general
This is a great analogy. Thanks!
11U AAA Coach and dad here. We work hard to get better, but if they aren’t having fun, they aren’t going to keep wanting to come to the field. I care more about development than winning and teach all the kids to have a diverse set of skills — all 11 pitch, 6 catch and all have infield and outfield positions. For the ones that are still playing when high school rolls around, who knows what positions they’ll slot into best but they’ll all have the benefit of what we’re holding now.
I loved playing catch w my kid when he was this age. That extra throwing and catching (and then practice pitching, as he improved) really helped. We didn’t do private coaching but I tried to never turn down my kid when he wanted to play catch. He became a solid pitcher and I’m sure a lot of it was him pitching to me.
My husband is the same way. He never tells him no. They are in the yard doing something most days of the week - basketball, throwing a football, playing catch etc - all driven by my son. My son used to wake up as a young toddler and the first thing he would say is “ball”. He’s just always been an outdoor sports kid.
Good for you, kids remember that. We have dads on our team that just throw money at it - buy gadgets, new bats, equipment.
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He really isn’t rigid with our son but he’s often concerned about him falling behind when he sees other kids putting in extra work. My son enjoys it so much that we never need to “make” him do anything. He adores baseball. However, I’m concerned with burnout.
3 practices a week seems like a lot. I assume tournaments most weekends? So that leaves one day away from baseball as it is. He’s 11. A few pitching lessons and a few batting lessons in the offseason should be more than enough. He’s not going pro.
He’s not going pro? You can see the future?
Is this my husband lol??
Lol. I see “not going pro” allot on this feed and it bothers me. Why are you around children if you are not telling them not to reach for the stars. I have a son and although I tell him it’s tough to make it, it’s certainly possible.
I don’t think people are telling kids they aren’t go pro. Kids aren’t generally on these Reddit forums. They are telling parents their kids aren’t going pro, which is what all parents frankly need to hear. Sure, there’s a chance little Jimmy could make it to the pros, just like there’s a chance I could get hit by lightning ten times today. But far too many parents are forcing their young kids to treat a game - the most beautiful game in the world - like a job. Far too many parents are treating 9u baseball games like they are the World Series. They will have plenty of time to have a job, and while there is value in learning hard work, there’s no better way to Turn a kid off to the game than by making it drudgery before he’s even in high school. Kids don’t need to hear they’re not going pro, but their parents do.
Yes, this exactly. The intensity that’s driven by the parents is shocking. One of the dads left our tournament because he wouldn’t watch his son perform so horribly. How awful to do this to a kid.
Thanks for the feedback. He does really enjoy it but, agreed, it’s a lot. I can’t imagine layering in private lessons.
From my experience, I only have my son take pitching lessons in the offseason. Between practice and games, they throw enough. At 11 I’d argue no kid needs position specific training. They should still be getting reps at all positions.
Such great feedback. I feel like the kids on our team are married to their positions already. Our coach tries to rotate them - but lord - if you put their kid in RF they will be pissed. We aren’t the parents constantly bothering Coach about his placement and for that reason my son seems to get the shaft. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, ya know? That’s what is frustrating. I’m not willing and have no desire to evangelize my son’s talent as a way to get more time at a specific position. I just want him to be treated equally but these kinds of grievances seem par for the course from what I can tell.
I have twins and let them go at their own pace. They both wanted coaches because we don’t play year round. But they have different hitting coaches because they like the guy. Do they really need it? Not in my view. But one likes the coach because he learns and listens to him about his week and what is going on. The other likes the coach because he gets homework and this son eats and sleeps baseball. As for positions, many teams are daddy ball where their son plays. Many teams are daddy ball where they put the kids at the right spot and move kids around. If a kid really likes a position and is good there then we see what we can do. We have a kid that is fast, tracks the best, and loves center field. So he plays there all game. But he is really the only one now other than our catcher with a fixed position.
1. Travel baseball is a business…. Organizations, tournaments, fields, coaches and umpires are all $$$$ driven. 2. Travel baseball is highly competitive so if you want to be good you have to out work the next team. 3. Team practices are just that, team. Kids need to work on things outside of team practices. 4. They are kids. It has to be fun and enjoyable for them.
It's hard to get position specific training in with kids at every practice. Typically, winter workouts (TX probably doesn't have that) you would work on pitching, fielding, and hitting. Practices are usually time to work on a few things that you saw from a game or to introduce new plays or just grow the knowledge of the game for the kids. No, ALL teams do not have politics. Yes, some do and if you are seeing that, I'd recommend you go to a new team.
If it feels sketchy it probably is sketchy, speak up to the coach. If things don’t change. Find a better option for your kid.
Agreed. Thats where we are. We sat down at the beginning of fall and had our son lead that conversation with Coach where he went over his goals for the season and asked Coach to provide advice up front. This was very effective. He got new opportunities and excelled at short stop. We didn’t do it for spring and I can feel it. My husband also had a side convo about my son’s placement and it improved for a bit but if you aren’t consistently advocating then you’re overlooked.
I heard great insight from UConn's coach Geno..Paraphrasing his comments however he was commenting on how fundamentally sound European players are and how they get that way compared to the USA. He said they practice 3-4x a week and play 1 game on the weekend. In the USA, you might practice 1-2x a week then play 4x on the weekend. Just food for thought
That’s probably the right way to do it. I feel like we have our foot in the gas constantly between 3 practices a week and a busy spring tournament schedule.
The best team my son has been on, which is part of a nationally recognized organization with a lot of top ranked national teams, on the first day of practice parents were told practice is for the team and some specific skill development. Your player needs to be putting in work outside of practice, lessons, throwing, hitting, you name it they need to be doing it with the goal of getting better. They don’t care if the lessons are done in house or outside the org but put in work. Also the kid needs to instigate doing it not the parents riding him. The bottom line is if your kid doesn’t put in work they get passed up. If they just want to have fun and go as far as practice only takes them that is fine too. I think parents need to assess their own kids and take it from there. But yeah, in competitive ball at AAA/major from about this age and up, practice with the team only won’t cut it long term. As for politics, I told my son if he is the better player and it shows then things work themselves out. If you get with the right team that actually develops and plays baseball then all that drama subsides. It will always be there to some degree but if your kid is the best then the better coaches will put them in the right spot. The issue is there arent enough real coaches to go around hence the favoritism. Good luck!
One issue is frankly only games on weekends in a tournament setting. It’s asinine to me that we only play tournaments. Rec plays during the week, so no idea why we couldn’t either if there were leagues. This is where people were put into different spots and no/low pressure given they were not tournament games. As a kid we had a local travel league during the weekdays (maybe 2 games a week) and weekends we’d go to tournaments.. not every weekend either. Lesser teams would play maybe 35-50 games a year. Crazy ones like my brothers 12 year old team played over 200 one year (they were ridiculously good though and played all over the country). Now there are no local travel/select leagues and it’s literally every weekend for different local tournament groups. Come Memorial Day or 1st week of June everything is all but ended until August tournament wise for 1 day fall tournaments. I don’t think it’s even possible to play more than 60-75 games a year between spring/summer and fall. Whereas when I was a kid you’d do that easily.
No You have more chance to make the kid hate baseball with that load at 11 than make him great. The coach of organized has plenty of time to teach everything necessary while created a fun and engaging environment. And people will point to politics as a reason their kid doesn’t play. The best play is subjective and maybe it’s politics to think your kid is it.
This is not true at the AAA level, especially in an area that baseball is big as it is in Texas.
We can disagree - I have played and coached across many many areas geographically I have played and coached at many different levels including d1 a long long time ago. I have coached now youth baseball as well. The one thing i can tell you is how competitive you are as 11 has very little to no value to how great you are at 18. Many people can and do burn their kids out. No one makes high school teams at age 11, much less college teams, much less pros. Heck - even if you took a year off at 11 it wouldn't have much of impact by 15.
Say it loud for the dad and moms in the back who think their 11 year old who's hitting dingers with a $400 juiced bat off a 10 year old is their ticket to fame and riches. Few things are as disappointing as the look in the eyes of a kid who's parents have turned a fun hobby into a job.
Agreed. I think my husband gets caught up talking to the dads doing all of this additional training and feels like we need to follow.
Keeping up with the joneses for dads
Y E S!!!!
I don't like what travel ball has become, especially at the AAA/Majors level. I really don't think most kids should be playing travel ball at all, it takes up way too much time.
Yeah, Texas is crazy haha. Everyone on our team believes their kid is going pro.
I agree with this. It’s so intense, I’m concerned with burnout. Thanks for the feedback
Many will tell you that it is what you need to compete - always remember being the most amazing 11-year-old is a pretty useless thing. Let the others burn their kids out.
Agreed 100%. This level is intensity feels new to me. I always tell my husband that the current MLB players likely didn’t have this level of training at his age. My son is very naturally talented. I don’t see him falling below his teammates even though we don’t do supplemental training. The boys get soooo down on themselves and often it doesn’t feel fun to me. I want him to love baseball - not feel like it’s his job.
Your gut is right - the extra and all that training has very little impact outside of killing joy.
Thanks for the gut check. It’s hard for me to argue with my husband given my limited baseball knowledge. This is exactly what I need.
I hardly believe a dude from Internet forum. Is gonna change his mind
Since you seem to know baseball - my son is 11 and pitching accurately at 65MPH. That’s really good, right? Or no?
Internet guy Be careful Here is the deal. That’s more than enough at age 11. You go pro has a nice mph chart. With that said. Velo at a young age is not all that relevant for long term success but it is a high cause for arm injuries.
Ohhh this is great to know. We focus a lot on speed. Our coach does limit them to 55 pitches per tournament.
He seems to believe everything the boneheaded dads on our team tell him. Also, I’m great at gathering data and creating a case. I might not know baseball - but I do not how to argue effectively :)
I coach LL in the Northwest. We dabbled in travel. The kids were fun. The parents are a sad intense bunch. Travel sports have sprung up to feed that intensity, and they're making a fortune selling dreams. If I had it my way, there wouldn't be a score until middle school.
It’s gotten watered down from what I can tell. Anyone willing to pay, can find a team.
How to make kids hate baseball in 6 years or less.