Yes, I'm sure I'll get roasted for discussing kids playing travel ball and how I'm pushing my kids to burn out and living vicariously or whatever, so be it.

Anyway, starting this thread for folks who's kids are getting ramped up for the spring in their youth or high school baseball & softball players. And to talk about them and the coming season.

My oldest is 11U by age with a July 2010 birthday but he's in 6th grade where he's pretty much the youngest kid in his grade. But he's also pushing 5'6" and weighed 147# at the doctor over Christmas. Since most kids in 6th grade are 12U by age and he'll be competing against these kids in 9th grade we took the advice of a whole bunch of people and are skipping 11U to play with a 12U team. He tried out for 4 12U AAA teams and made them all but chose to play for a Houston-based organization headed up by former A&M football signee, Chip Ambres. Chip never made it to the A&M campus because he was a 1st round pick by the Miami Marlins and had a brief MLB career. Anyway, just practicing for about 6 more weeks before they start tournaments but I've been highly impressed with the instructional nature and how granular they get in coaching the boys on fundamentals.

My youngest is 7 and is playing select for the first time. Just practice until early March when he and a bunch of other kids on the team finish playing basketball. The biggest reason for moving from league to select is kids who want to be there. 11 kids on the roster and 11 kids show up at practice (barring illness) while at league if you had 11-12 kids on the roster most times we'd be lucky to have 7-8 show up and then maybe 5 were kids who wanted to play baseball. So far the coaches seem to be doing a really good job of instruction, making it fun, and keeping the kids engaged.

This is my 10 y/o sons first year to NOT play since he was 4. Left it up to him and he said no, thought my after registration ended all his buddies at school would get him interested and feeling left out and we could late register him but nope. I'm going to miss going to little league games but his choice. Now he wants to try martial arts.

My son is itching to get started.

10u select ball on a AAA team in Central Texas. For him every tournament is like the World Series. We considered playing him up at one point but decided against it. He plays OF, 2b, a little SS, and was second in innings pitched in 9u.

Most of the boys on his team have been together since t-ball. That is one of the advantages of small town baseball. They have known each other since Kindergarten or before. I coached thru 9 u fall ball but their skill level has passed me by. One great thing about our coaches is every kid plays outfield no matter what. It doesn't matter how good you are at C/SS/P or whatever. If you can't hit the cutoff man from right field you stay there until you hit it. They won I think four tournaments in 9u with four different starting pitchers and five different kids playing middle infield in the final. These boys are gooood.

Another thing I like is all but two play league as well. I think league at this age is more important, especially in smaller towns. I coach his 10u league team. All of the kids are either on my team or another coaches league team so we don't have to worry about a coach abusing arms or pitch counts.

Last, I 100% live vicariously through both of my kids. And couldn't care less if anyone has a problem with that!! Enjoy the hell out of it and ignore the haters who don't understand.

We are a spring softball/baseball family while the kids are young, daughter is playing her 4th year at KWGSA and this will be my son's first year at KWFC. Pretty excited since I have way more fun helping out than during soccer.

Last year was the first year being able to play catch with my daughter consistently and it is just a dream come true. Parenting win.

Finishing up basketball and flag football seasons right now, but practice will start in less than a month. My oldest is 10u eligible, but plays on an 11uAAA team and has been with them since the team was created in the spring of 2020. He's in the 4th grade and everyone else on his team is in the 5th grade, and the competition has forced him to create strong and consistent practice habits. He's small, but competes his butt off and had a great fall (after an up and down spring 2021). Primarily plays 2b and CF. His team has had a lot of continuity which is pretty out of the norm in select baseball as many of you know.

My middle son is 7 and is playing 8u SKSA. We've been over there since last spring and have been able to keep a core group of kids together since then. At some point, we'll have to move him over to select, but the team is competitive for now and he's not as serious about it yet as my older son (although he's more physically gifted and much bigger) so league ball is still right for him.

I also have a (just turned) 4 year old who is begging me to put him on a team because he loves being at the ball park so much. Not a chance I'm subjecting myself to that nonsense although many leagues do have age divisions that young. I told him he'll wait until kindergarten just like his brothers did. I do enjoy tossing him balls in the yard and watching him pretend to be running the bases though. Sometimes my older two will field his batted balls and as he runs the pretend bases, he'll stop and taunt them if they aren't trying hard enough to get him out. Good times.

Fun! Love hearing what it's like in Texas.

Here in KC I have a 10U who plays for Major team. Plays League with 11AAA and tourneys 10U Major or open. I'm curious if AAA/Major is the same here as it is in Texas. We did win Omaha Slump Buster last year and won a tourney in Arkansas.

We only travel 3 times…this year going to NW AR, Tulsa, and then Omaha again.

We like league because it's a chance to play various positions and work on things we might not work on in tourneys. We practice indoors every Sunday from 5-7 until it gets warm enough to go outside. Then we will practice twice a week until league starts….once league starts, the league game will replace a practice.

My 8U is playing Machine Pitch, but hoping to do one kid pitch tourney in June, then on to kid pitch in the fall.

My boys LOVE baseball and I enjoy working with them as much as I can.

We're coming to Omaha for that Slump Buster tournament this summer. And definitely taking in some College World Series games while we're up there.

Good to hear I am not alone!

I manage a 14U Travel softball team out here in SoCal and my boy plays on a 12Major team here in SoCal as well. Basically, what I am saying is we never have a weekend off

Excited to find out this weekend I get to visit home when our baseball team goes to Houston for the big PG event in March! I just wish it was when the Astros had already started playing!

Starting our last year for select baseball at 14AAA and helping coach. Honestly I'm glad this will probably be the last select he plays. He's burnt out from it and it just flat out takes a lot time. I'll let him play in high school. It's a private school so it shouldn't be that difficult to make the team. I'll leave it up to him if he wants to play anything else. It has been fun though.

meh.....played travel ball and did livestock shows growing up...kind of the same thing far as time and money commitment.

If the kids happy go on, if hes burned out, let him rest. Some kids could play all day every day and not get tired of it, some kids are just happy to be there. He's your kid. As a teacher, I'd be more worried about the behavior of the parents.

alvtimes said:

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Damn..... dont miss having every weekend goobled up with tournaments....... but man was that stage a blast..... you fellas enjoy your season!!!!!!

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No **** - it was a blast, but I do like having my life back. Enjoy it.

Great post.

Takes a lot of dedication to coach at a high level at all ages in all sports. I do appreciate those that do it.

My son is playing for midway little league, his last season to do so. It's been fun.

College baseball is a full time job. I've definitely seen it hurt kids by taking too much time away from their education.

Ramping up with my son's 14u baseball and daughter's 10u softball. Weekends will be crazy, but I feel a void when we have a weekend from Jan-July without either.

As long as they want to keep playing, I'll enjoy getting to watch them.

Well crap. My oldest broke his left wrist sliding into 3rd yesterday in their semifinal game. He was 4-4 with a double and 1.000 OBP before that too. His team lost in the championship while he was in the ER. Out 4-6 weeks.

He's a tough kid though and already asking what kind of workouts he can do while he's out. He's a righty so he can throw, run, and lots of work with the 1-hand bat.

I am glad to hear it is the best case news in regards to the injury!

Also, you probably aren't missing much this weekend. Our director already went to a Sunday only format due to the weather this Saturday.

That's good news.

baseballaficionado said:

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Also, you probably aren't missing much this weekend. Our director already went to a Sunday only format due to the weather this Saturday.

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Yeah, we're off this weekend anyway. His team plays next weekend (3/5-3/6) and then (3/19-3/20). He's actually supposed to have his follow up on St. Patrick's Day which is Thursday the 17th. He could theoretically be cleared to go at that point but that's probably pushing it. He'll need some rehab time to regain flexibility and strength not to mention timing at the plate.

Doctor said he can use stress balls or tennis balls to squeeze them and keep the strength up in his hands but he needs to keep the wrist straight. We discussed doing the old school rice bucket exercises when the brace comes off and he said those would be great.

My son is 7 and is just about to start his 8u season on Saturday (first practice) We play rec ball and he enjoys it and if that continues we will see where is goes from there when he is 11 or so. I am in no rush and neither is he. He enjoys playing and that is all that I really care about. Could he do more if I push more, probably, could he also get pissed and quit also possible so we go with the flow because, he's 7. Past season we have had 12 on the team and at most usually only had maybe 1 miss per practice. New league this year and we have 13 kids, 5 are new to our team so we shall see how that goes.

I coach his teams, never intended to do that going in to this but his first year the team didn't have a coach and I figured better to do it myself as I played my whole life and coached high school ball then get irritated with a dad that volunteers and didn't know anything.

My son is the second smallest on the team, the smallest kid is barely 7 playing up so he's on the same team as his brother who is the oldest on the team. I only allowed this because I watched the younger one play some at our practices the year before...he's better than his older brother all around skill wise. Age wise we have 8 that are already 8, 3 others will turn 8 before the season ends. The other dads like to joke that the two smallest on the team have the two strongest arms, I just shrug.

TarponChaser said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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The other dads like to joke that the two smallest on the team have the two strongest arms, I just shrug.

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It's not always the case but it generally seems that smaller kids are frequently more coordinated and have a better innate sense of how to move and use their bodies to generate strong throws or hard swings.

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I completely agree with that in terms of the brothers, the smaller one has a passion his big brother just plays, the smaller one is also way more coordinated.

Mine I attribute it more to the fact he's had a baseball in his hand since he could hold one. and has been critiqued about proper technique. Heck it was obvious he wasn't going to have size on his side so while he would probably actually be a lefty he was pushed to always throw with his right hand...lefties don't play infield

Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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My son is 7 and is just about to start his 8u season on Saturday (first practice) We play rec ball and he enjoys it and if that continues we will see where is goes from there when he is 11 or so. I am in no rush and neither is he. He enjoys playing and that is all that I really care about. Could he do more if I push more, probably, could he also get pissed and quit also possible so we go with the flow because, he's 7. Past season we have had 12 on the team and at most usually only had maybe 1 miss per practice. New league this year and we have 13 kids, 5 are new to our team so we shall see how that goes.

I coach his teams, never intended to do that going in to this but his first year the team didn't have a coach and I figured better to do it myself as I played my whole life and coached high school ball then get irritated with a dad that volunteers and didn't know anything.

My son is the second smallest on the team, the smallest kid is barely 7 playing up so he's on the same team as his brother who is the oldest on the team. I only allowed this because I watched the younger one play some at our practices the year before...he's better than his older brother all around skill wise. Age wise we have 8 that are already 8, 3 others will turn 8 before the season ends. The other dads like to joke that the two smallest on the team have the two strongest arms, I just shrug.

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I know not everyone agrees, but if your kid is good enough and wants to, you need to get him on a select team by at least 9u, which is the start of kid pitch.

You are already behind because select coach pitch starts at 6u and gets pretty competitive by 8u. Rec just isn't going to replace the competition and reps. If your rec team pitchers walk everyone, or your kid strikes everyone out, your 1st baseman never gets any throws because nobody is stopping the ball, etc. -- you are just spinning your wheels -- which is fine if the family just wants to view it as an activity.

baseballaficionado said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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My son is 7 and is just about to start his 8u season on Saturday (first practice) We play rec ball and he enjoys it and if that continues we will see where is goes from there when he is 11 or so. I am in no rush and neither is he. He enjoys playing and that is all that I really care about. Could he do more if I push more, probably, could he also get pissed and quit also possible so we go with the flow because, he's 7. Past season we have had 12 on the team and at most usually only had maybe 1 miss per practice. New league this year and we have 13 kids, 5 are new to our team so we shall see how that goes.

I coach his teams, never intended to do that going in to this but his first year the team didn't have a coach and I figured better to do it myself as I played my whole life and coached high school ball then get irritated with a dad that volunteers and didn't know anything.

My son is the second smallest on the team, the smallest kid is barely 7 playing up so he's on the same team as his brother who is the oldest on the team. I only allowed this because I watched the younger one play some at our practices the year before...he's better than his older brother all around skill wise. Age wise we have 8 that are already 8, 3 others will turn 8 before the season ends. The other dads like to joke that the two smallest on the team have the two strongest arms, I just shrug.

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I know not everyone agrees, but if your kid is good enough and wants to, you need to get him on a select team by at least 9u, which is the start of kid pitch.

You are already behind because select coach pitch starts at 6u and gets pretty competitive by 8u. Rec just isn't going to replace the competition and reps. If your rec team pitchers walk everyone, or your kid strikes everyone out, your 1st baseman never gets any throws because nobody is stopping the ball, etc. -- you are just spinning your wheels -- which is fine if the family just wants to view it as an activity.

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Obligatory username check out...

But in my opinion baseball for a kid under 11...is an activity. What exactly would you consider it? Honest question, id like to know what you consider baseball at 7-11yrs old? Everyone has their own opinion so there is absolutely zero judgment here


On that path though through coaching high school ball off and on over 8 years, being around high school players etc. for nearly 20, most kids are not going to make it and are going to burn out so I choose to make it fun, if my son comes to me next season and says "dad, this isn't very much fun because the rest of the team isn't very good, can I play with better people, then we will cross that bridge...but in those 20 years of all those kids I've been around 2 which have made it to the majors. I know dozens who have played D1 and various college levels and it is astounding how few play all through college or even a second season.

Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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baseballaficionado said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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My son is 7 and is just about to start his 8u season on Saturday (first practice) We play rec ball and he enjoys it and if that continues we will see where is goes from there when he is 11 or so. I am in no rush and neither is he. He enjoys playing and that is all that I really care about. Could he do more if I push more, probably, could he also get pissed and quit also possible so we go with the flow because, he's 7. Past season we have had 12 on the team and at most usually only had maybe 1 miss per practice. New league this year and we have 13 kids, 5 are new to our team so we shall see how that goes.

I coach his teams, never intended to do that going in to this but his first year the team didn't have a coach and I figured better to do it myself as I played my whole life and coached high school ball then get irritated with a dad that volunteers and didn't know anything.

My son is the second smallest on the team, the smallest kid is barely 7 playing up so he's on the same team as his brother who is the oldest on the team. I only allowed this because I watched the younger one play some at our practices the year before...he's better than his older brother all around skill wise. Age wise we have 8 that are already 8, 3 others will turn 8 before the season ends. The other dads like to joke that the two smallest on the team have the two strongest arms, I just shrug.

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I know not everyone agrees, but if your kid is good enough and wants to, you need to get him on a select team by at least 9u, which is the start of kid pitch.

You are already behind because select coach pitch starts at 6u and gets pretty competitive by 8u. Rec just isn't going to replace the competition and reps. If your rec team pitchers walk everyone, or your kid strikes everyone out, your 1st baseman never gets any throws because nobody is stopping the ball, etc. -- you are just spinning your wheels -- which is fine if the family just wants to view it as an activity.

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Obligatory username check out...

But in my opinion baseball for a kid under 11...is an activity. What exactly would you consider it? Honest question, id like to know what you consider baseball at 7-11yrs old? Everyone has their own opinion so there is absolutely zero judgment here


On that path though through coaching high school ball off and on over 8 years, being around high school players etc. for nearly 20, most kids are not going to make it and are going to burn out so I choose to make it fun, if my son comes to me next season and says "dad, this isn't very much fun because the rest of the team isn't very good, can I play with better people, then we will cross that bridge...but in those 20 years of all those kids I've been around 2 which have made it to the majors. I know dozens who have played D1 and various college levels and it is astounding how few play all through college or even a second season.

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It's not about the majors, it's about being the best you can be and playing at a higher level -- if the kid wants it.

Maybe they want to make a high school team and be done after that. If you are playing rec at 11, your kid is going to be at a disadvantage even for a high school team.

There are 11u kids who hit 275+ tanks already. Most of it is natural ability, but the coaching and so many games, reps and competitions drive those kids to be better as well.

96ags said:

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baseballaficionado said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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baseballaficionado said:

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Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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My son is 7 and is just about to start his 8u season on Saturday (first practice) We play rec ball and he enjoys it and if that continues we will see where is goes from there when he is 11 or so. I am in no rush and neither is he. He enjoys playing and that is all that I really care about. Could he do more if I push more, probably, could he also get pissed and quit also possible so we go with the flow because, he's 7. Past season we have had 12 on the team and at most usually only had maybe 1 miss per practice. New league this year and we have 13 kids, 5 are new to our team so we shall see how that goes.

I coach his teams, never intended to do that going in to this but his first year the team didn't have a coach and I figured better to do it myself as I played my whole life and coached high school ball then get irritated with a dad that volunteers and didn't know anything.

My son is the second smallest on the team, the smallest kid is barely 7 playing up so he's on the same team as his brother who is the oldest on the team. I only allowed this because I watched the younger one play some at our practices the year before...he's better than his older brother all around skill wise. Age wise we have 8 that are already 8, 3 others will turn 8 before the season ends. The other dads like to joke that the two smallest on the team have the two strongest arms, I just shrug.

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I know not everyone agrees, but if your kid is good enough and wants to, you need to get him on a select team by at least 9u, which is the start of kid pitch.

You are already behind because select coach pitch starts at 6u and gets pretty competitive by 8u. Rec just isn't going to replace the competition and reps. If your rec team pitchers walk everyone, or your kid strikes everyone out, your 1st baseman never gets any throws because nobody is stopping the ball, etc. -- you are just spinning your wheels -- which is fine if the family just wants to view it as an activity.

---

Obligatory username check out...

But in my opinion baseball for a kid under 11...is an activity. What exactly would you consider it? Honest question, id like to know what you consider baseball at 7-11yrs old? Everyone has their own opinion so there is absolutely zero judgment here


On that path though through coaching high school ball off and on over 8 years, being around high school players etc. for nearly 20, most kids are not going to make it and are going to burn out so I choose to make it fun, if my son comes to me next season and says "dad, this isn't very much fun because the rest of the team isn't very good, can I play with better people, then we will cross that bridge...but in those 20 years of all those kids I've been around 2 which have made it to the majors. I know dozens who have played D1 and various college levels and it is astounding how few play all through college or even a second season.

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It's not about the majors, it's about being the best you can be and playing at a higher level -- if the kid wants it.

Maybe they want to make a high school team and be done after that. If you are playing rec at 11, your kid is going to be at a disadvantage even for a high school team.

There are 11u kids who hit 275+ tanks already. Most of it is natural ability, but the coaching and so many games, reps and competitions drive those kids to be better as well.

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That's just simply wrong. There is no measurable advantage that can't be overcome between 11 and high school.

I've seen it way too many times.

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Yup, good coaching doesn't make the kids better. Also, practice and reps against quality competition, does nothing. You're right.