You Don't Need Travel Ball
I’ve been around the game for many years now and have no issue saying YOUR SON DOES NOT NEED TO PLAY TRAVEL BALL. I’m not saying don’t play travel ball. I am saying you do not need it. And here is why.
- Travel organizations are not interested in teaching. They are interested in collecting your money, giving your kid a uniform, and playing as many games as possible to justify the high fee. I work with MANY players and it baffles me when I hear kids saying “nothing” when I ask them “what does your coach say you’re doing wrong?” And this is after me seeing that the kid has VERY clear issues. So if you think you’re signing up for development, you are sadly mistaken.
- You do not need to play travel ball to play at the Collegiate level. This is probably the biggest mistake I see parents make. They sign up for a travel program hearing the team will play in front of colleges (which they likely do) and believe college coaches will be ringing their phone in short time. WRONG WRONG WRONG! First, the college coaches at games may be of no interest to you. Second, college coaches do attend tournaments but are they attending your son’s games? They may very well be at the tournament but maybe they are at another game. College coaches become very bored at these tournaments. And oftentimes they aren’t paying attention. It’s very rare for a college coach to find a player to follow in a game unless they are watching the game because someone they are recruiting is playing and they just so happen to notice someone else. But if the coach is not following a player in the game, it is unlikely they will be following anyone after the game.
- Playing Travel ball leaves very little time for true development. Players need to be spending most of their summer improving their game. They need to be taking many swings, long tossing, taking 75-100 groundballs a day, strength training 2-3 days/week, etc. Because travel teams pack their schedules with games (and boring practices) they miss out on development.
- Travel ball takes away from opportunities to go to Showcases or College Camps. And these are the events players need to attend to get noticed and increase the chance they are recruited. Instead, your son will likely be playing in meaningless double headers that provide very little value.
What you should be doing is signing up for a team/program that gets your kid 15-20 games and allows them the flexibility to work on their development. And more importantly, allows them the time to be a kid (riding a bike, going to the pool, going fishing, etc). You’re going to spend a lot of money on travel ball. What value are you getting out of it?