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QOD; Is Rec Ball dead?

What's on your mind?

by GURULE18 » Wed Feb 13, 2019 4:47 am

I feel the rec leagues have felt the need to add select teams because of players venturing off to the travel world. I've been back and forth from rec to travel to rec a few times now and notice it's getting worse. I hear the parents talking that travel talk "shes supposed to play with this team this weekend". I hear the players talking that talk saying "my mom wants me to do travel". As if it's just a cool thing. I hear parents say we want more competition but in all respect their daughter/player cant do the fundamental stuff right. Bunt, catch a fly. catch a routine grounder etc. More than ever with all the social media people see how little Susie is on this travel team and they want that attention too for their daughter so they can post "look we playing travel too". But what they dont realize is there is this big percentage of travel teams that copy heybucket tryout posts to attract some form of life, will take them in and their money, not develop the kid show up to friendlies get smoked, go to tournaments get smoked. With all due respect we've been down that road at least I have but some of these teams will never get better because of the reason they're in travel.

Remember all us coaches came from rec even all the great ones. If you get the chance to talk to a travel coach pick their brain they can share so much information.

As far as rec ball - they're pretty strong still. Try and keep your babies in rec till 10s are done at least. And if the need feels right check out a top travel team not a you know what kind of team and get some valuable information on what your player needs to work on. They'll be honest with you - and that kind of truth is so powerful vs. some desperate team saying you can pitch with us.

Anyways I had some spare time to share some thoughts with you guys. This year will be my 6th year in travel what a ride it has been so far as i am now back down with my 12s. Lots of great experiences but nothing beats helping them rec ballers develop into young confident ballers....

Coach Ray
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by Schmick » Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:44 am

Sue Trubovitz, Turbo wrote:? How or why does applying that 2.5 national playing average affect
rec ball?
Is that saying on average people playing less sports?
Did it compare to previous ten years?

Seems locations like California that has a sport like softball year round would definitely not be part of the average. But it is important to remember the other states and their locations have different logistics, weather, attributes to playing sports. I know in my old neighborhood where I grew up eventually they closed a couple schools even though it's in a very densely populated area. That was just because families were not moving out and there were no new children to fill the schools. Seems that would be similar to City leagues if there was not a lot of turnover of residence....ie: new families.


City league's and community centers
are most people starting point with their children's activities.
Maybe a good poll would be
How many sb players started in rec?
How many left rec with their rec team?



2.5 years is how long a child stays involved in an organized sport. That's 2.5 years from the time they first sign up until the time they quit.
The average was combined, both boys and girls and covered all organized sports, both year round and seasonal.

So if 25% of the girls who start playing travel ball in 10U quit playing softball by High School, that wouldn't be any more girls quitting in travel ball than the amount of girls quitting park and rec.

Park and rec to me just seemed like a waste of time once the girl got to be 10 or 11 years old. The everybody plays , 5 runs ends an inning, turning off the scoreboard rules were all retarded. From 4-10 years of age park and rec is fine but by the time these girls get to be 10 you can tell which ones are players and which ones are butterfly chasers.

It was the same thing with my son's in baseball, play PONY until they're about 10 and then move on to travel ball
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by Sue Trubovitz, Turbo » Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:17 am

*majority of people start in rec.
*majority of people play rec.
Seems the 25% who stop playing would be after they participated in rec.
Rec seems to have the greatest % of NEW people to sports.

Rec gives people the opportunity to try different sports, and activities.
Just sharing think it has an important role!
Last edited by Sue Trubovitz, Turbo on Sat Feb 23, 2019 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Sue Trubovitz, Turbo » Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:50 am

Gotta start somewhere!
Last edited by Sue Trubovitz, Turbo on Sat Feb 23, 2019 6:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Schmick » Fri Feb 15, 2019 11:39 pm

Obviously rec is where they will start you won't make a travel team if you've never played before. But if you have a clue, you'll move on from rec by the 11th birthday.
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by cwcivicgrl » Fri Feb 22, 2019 11:32 am

My city league seems to be only concerned with the younger divisions, since they feel those girls will grow with the league. Its unfortunate for older girls who want to approach softball a littler later than most, there's no real spot for the older beginner child where she will be made to feel she belongs and have a chance to grow a bit before moving on to travel ball. My child happened to like rec ball, however the rec league has no real interest after 12U and even in 12U players seem to be disinterested and ready to move on to another sport or to travel ball. Select/Allstars is a great place for the intermediate player that's just not ready for travel ball but loves the competitive side however I find a lot of the 12U girls to be burnt out since they played since they were 6 or 8. Others want the competitive side of softball so they move into travel ball so they can play with players who share their same passion which at that age it really starts going out the window if you stay in rec. I also feel in rec the coaching can be very week, I tried a 14u rec team for my daughter and the coaches are so unexperienced that they were teaching my kid the wrong fundamentals and she had just made a good travel team so that's when we left rec, it just wasn't going to give her any tools to use and she already had a packed schedule of lessons, cage time. practices, and games with her travel team.
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