Question for travel ball coaches. Is it better to cut a kid or put them on the bench and wait for the parents to figure it out?

Age? Are you trying to develop players or just win tournaments?

Why did you bench him - attitude reasons or talent/ability reasons? Your answer to this question will tell me alot about the goals of your select team...

10. Benched for performance on the field. Good attitude and hard worker.

How big is your roster?

Cut. Everyone we knew that went select at that age went because they couldn't get off the bench in LL. They want playing time and will find a select team that will play them.

The thing I disliked about our first select team was those kids got off the bench as soon as their dads threatened to stop paying.

The only competitive select ball our's played was on an 18U team he joined the month he turned 15. The rest was really a waste of time outside of practice and workouts.

If he's that bad, than why is he on the team in the first place? I agree with Chico. Play him early in games and especially during blowouts.

Benching and keeping one's mouth shut is the chickenS way to handle it. At that age, I think they all should be playing, but if you have any you just don't think you can afford to play much due to the dropoff in skill because winning has been prioritized over development , then you need to have a conversation.

Thanks for the responses.

For the record I'm a parent not a coach. Sounds like I need to have a conversation with the coach.

I played many sports growing up and the actual sport was the least of the things I learned from each.

I walked away from football after JV/10th grade because I was undersized (5'6"). The Varsity HC called me into his office and begged me to stick with it. "You may never be good enough to play at the Varsity level for me, and it won't be because you are short, but you are the hardest working player I have and you make everyone on the field better."

No player wants to sit on the bench, and every player wants to know their role on the team. A good coach will have a role for every player and the player will know their role. At that point it is up to the player and the parent to either accept the role or move on.

One of my boys played soccer. His role was 5mins per 30 min half. He wanted to keep playing because that was his commitment level. He liked soccer and wanted to play and improve his skill level, but he knew he didn't want to play in games anything more than to give other players a break. The coaches liked it because they had a pretty good fill-in/role player who didn't demand minutes or threaten to quit.

Wabs nailed it

It's fastpitch. The girls are different than the boys. It's kind of like the NBA. Locally there are a handful of super teams that can legitimately hope to win a tournament any given weekend. Then there are a bunch of also rans.

BTHOthatguy said:

---

10. Benched for performance on the field. Good attitude and hard worker.

---

As stated, how is this a real question? He's 10. You're playing an important role in developing this kid's self esteem and self confidence that he'll carry with him forever. That's a lot more important than whatever record some team of kids posts. Actually, that's wrong. The record they post isn't important at all. His well-being and self esteem is.

As a dad of a select ball kid, the coach should be honest and talk to the kids rather than just benching. Regardless, the emphasis shoild really be on development.

My son's first year in select was rough, but the coaches kept playing him because the emphasis was on getting him better. He took a big step forward in the second season and I'm grateful to the coaches for sticking with him.

Inevitably, on a 12 man roster, there are one or two kids a little behind. The coach should own that he picked the kids up on his team and should take responsibility for providing the opportunity for development as long as the attitude is there.

HECUBUS said:

---

Cut. Everyone we knew that went select at that age went because they couldn't get off the bench in LL. They want playing time and will find a select team that will play them.

The thing I disliked about our first select team was those kids got off the bench as soon as their dads threatened to stop paying.

The only competitive select ball our's played was on an 18U team he joined the month he turned 15. The rest was really a waste of time outside of practice and workouts.

---

Sadly I don't think much of that exists anymore. It is all select ball. I grew up playing with the kids that I went to school with and by age select ball was during off times.

cpsencik04 said:

---

HECUBUS said:

---

Cut. Everyone we knew that went select at that age went because they couldn't get off the bench in LL. They want playing time and will find a select team that will play them.

The thing I disliked about our first select team was those kids got off the bench as soon as their dads threatened to stop paying.

The only competitive select ball our's played was on an 18U team he joined the month he turned 15. The rest was really a waste of time outside of practice and workouts.

---

Sadly I don't think much of that exists anymore. It is all select ball. I grew up playing with the kids that I went to school with and by age select ball was during off times.

---

LL still exists in our area. They just don't play games on the weekends so the select ball kids can play in their tournaments.

Our LL was great. It's sad everyone doesn't have a good LL. My daughter is in club volleyball at age 11. Club volleyball stinks and is $$$. On the plus side, the daughter did end up with a great coach and with a great bunch of girls. The club is run by imbeciles. I've never seen a more miserable, incompetent and somehow arrogant outfit. I miss baseball.

I didnt play little league in the name brand sort. It was the local Sports Association, but it was great baseball. Everyone played but it wasnt YMCA no one keep score and everyone is a perfect angel league. Before like 6th grade I knew like 4 dudes who played in slect leagues, only 1 was a regular season league the rest were truley select teams during the summer

Flexbone said:

---

BTHOthatguy said:

---

10. Benched for performance on the field. Good attitude and hard worker.

---

As stated, how is this a real question? He's 10. You're playing an important role in developing this kid's self esteem and self confidence that he'll carry with him forever. That's a lot more important than whatever record some team of kids posts. Actually, that's wrong. The record they post isn't important at all. His well-being and self esteem is.

---

In case you missed it, OP followed up by saying he's a parent of a kid on the team and not the coach.

10 should still be about learning.

I have no issue with wanting to have a competitive select team. When the team was formed there should be a very candid conversation with the parents to let them know expectations and what would happen if their child was not performing. As long as expectations were set from the get-go that it is not a team where everyone plays no matter what then there is no issue with riding the pine some. The parents need to look out for their own son and get him off that team if in game development and PT is the most important thing, which I would think a lot of posters would agree is.

At that age, kids need to be playing. Even on a competitive select team, they need to play everybody during the pool games on Saturday. If you want to go with your "best 9" on Sunday for the most part, ok maybe. But even then they can let two kids share left field, or right field, or second base.... each of them can play half the game or something similar.

Not a fan of win-at-all-costs for 9-10-11-12 year old baseball. If you bury them on the bench the odds of them giving up the sport altogether increase.

Farmer1906 said:

---

I have no issue with wanting to have a competitive select team. When the team was formed there should be a very candid conversation with the parents to let them know expectations and what would happen if their child was not performing. As long as expectations were set from the get-go that it is not a team where everyone plays no matter what then there is no issue with riding the pine some. The parents need to look out for their own son and get him off that team if in game development and PT is the most important thing, which I would think a lot of posters would agree is.

---

Agree. This is the context that is missing from OP. The coaches (or organizers) of the team need to be candid and upfront about the goals of the team, and what will happen to players that aren't helping them reach the goals. Knowing this will allow the parents make an informed decision on whether to have their kid on the team or not.

For example, if the #1 and overriding goal is to win games - then you can make the assumption that your kid will be benched or cut for their performance (results) on the field.

If the goal is player development (which IMO it always should be at young ages) - then no kid should sit the bench or get cut because of performance.

All too often parents agree to pay ALOT of money for their kid to be on a team, and they do it without knowing the goal(s) of the team. Big mistake...

All select clubs claim to be competitive. If ours had been honest, I would not have had a problem with them. My opinion didn't matter, we left it entirely up to our son and never even spoke to the coaches. That's the only way we knew how to deal with our crazy selves. Overall, our select clubs were pretty good.

We were in LL at that age. I was a pitching coach and could only pitch all the kids that wanted to pitch in Fall ball. In the Spring, everyone played to win. Kids had to be played at least two innings a game. Some teams forced their kids to play select also.

Only the all star teams were win at all cost and earn your playing time. However, the coach would always bring his son and a few teammates that didn't have to earn playing time. That's as good as baseball ever got though.

HECUBUS said:

---

All select clubs claim to be competitive. If ours had been honest, I would not have had a problem with them. My opinion didn't matter, we left it entirely up to our son and never even spoke to the coaches. That's the only way we knew how to deal with our crazy selves. Overall, our select clubs were pretty good.

We were in LL at that age. I was a pitching coach and could only pitch all the kids that wanted to pitch in Fall ball. In the Spring, everyone played to win. Kids had to be played at least two innings a game. Some teams forced their kids to play select also.

Only the all star teams were win at all cost and earn your playing time. However, the coach would always bring his son and a few teammates that didn't have to earn playing time. That's as good as baseball ever got though.

---

I've coached rec ball (LL), LL all-stars, and select ball until my son turned 12. All three had different goals.

For rec LL, it's certainly about development, rotating players, etc. Winning games was NOT a goal. Having fun, learning how to play and compete were the goals.

For LL all-stars, winning was the goal and it was clearly stated to all that applied to be considered for the team.

For my select team, I made it clear that we were not going to put winning above developing each member of the team. I would tell the parents that if they base the success of our season on wins/losses, then my team was NOT the team for them and they should look elsewhere.

Like I said before, it begins with being upfront and honest with your team's goals. Yes, there are select teams that have winning tournaments as their #1 goal, and that's fine. It just wasn't my goal because I think development is way more important at younger ages.

So a little more background.

Last fall my daughter was brought on to pitch for an established '08 team making the jump from coach pitch to kid pitch. She is an '08 pitcher. They also added an '07 pitcher. All fall she and the '07 pitcher rotated in bracket play. We had a good fall and placed 3rd or better in most of our tournaments.

Last tourney of the fall we picked up a great '07 pitcher to help and we won a big tourney but it was just for the one tourney.

This spring they have added another '08 P / SS and are trying to pick girls up every weekend.

Our program is sponsored and we fundraise so there are no dues.

The feeling I get from the coach is that my daughter was brought in to give "his girls" the best shot to win and if he can find another pitcher who is better than my kid he will simply bench my kid so that he doesn't have to cut her and / or he doesn't want to play against her.

There are also good select teams that put the best players on the field. Being competitive isn't about winning tournaments, it's about earning playing time. We didn't enter the world of select until we had to, after LL. We had a better option, so only the worst players and most crazy parented kids took that route at age 10. By age 12, half the LL'ers were select also. LL was that competitive. We had two LL levels, the rec and the competitive level. Ours did the competitive level without select, he just happened to be a pitcher in high demand due to an early growth spurt. We were seriously surprised every time he played another season.

It was weird going from high level baseball to select and stranger still going to the even less competitive high school team. Unearned field time and non competitive teams are lame and they do nothing for the players or baseball.

Crazy having to go select at 10. Certainly at least two years early.

We've lost about 10-15% of our league ages 8-12 to select baseball. Our league is still healthy with overall numbers, but we're no longer competitive in all stars.

We live in a very small town. League ball has 1 team with 15 kids that are learning to catch and throw. (We play other small towns). It honestly wouldn't do my kid any good to go strike out the side every inning and walk in her 2 at bats.

Update: coach addressed all the parents tonight. Said we are going to roll the rest of the spring with 4 pitchers. If that's the case she is likely to still be in the rotation but she won't hit much.

The question now is do I move her in the middle of the season or play out our commitment and pick up else where on off weekends?

Be honest with him & what his role will be. It should take care of itself from there. Either he'll still want to be a part of things or he'll quit. If he's working hard and committed that seems like a good influence to have around.