Should DD play Travel & League?

[Izzy's Dad]

I was just wondering if anybody has had their daughter play league and travel ball at the same time. I know logistically it would be a busy schedule. My daughter would NOT miss travel ball practices or games, but she could play in league probably 2 nights a week. She is a 12U pitcher, so the extra pitching time against live batters would be a plus. But, we are talking a minimum of 10 to 15 mph difference in most other pitchers speed. How is this going to affect her batting? I thought about moving her up to 14U in league, but the point of playing league would be to play with her friends from her school. She is on a travel team made up of girls from 6 or 7 different schools.
Any input?

[flexman]

Mmy DD has played both at times last year played on 3 teams. 1 traveling 14u, a pretty good league team and a ladies any age league that featured alot of her high school team she played about 110 games this summer she realy improved alot doing that. and kept her away from the boys as well which is a good thing...

[Sftbll4ever]

I think it is too much for a pitcher. You may want to think about the damage to her arm.

[DonnieS]

The advantage to doing both at that age for a pitcher is perfecting pitches. We didnt do this a lot but we used it to perfect the change-up. She really didnt over throw that much when doing the league stuff, but she was really mixing up pitches, a fast ball outside, then a change-up, then an off-speed, but really worked at placing pitches. You can make a mistake at league and not get killed - also a good place to work against warm bodies.

[jofus]

Plus, as my DD told me last night when we were talking about this very thing (she's moving up to Juniors this year, 13-14 year old) "Dad, I like to play with my friends from school".

As mentioned above, travel takes priority over the local league, obviously.

[Sam]

I was just wondering if anybody has had their daughter play league and travel ball at the same time. I know logistically it would be a busy schedule. My daughter would NOT miss travel ball practices or games, but she could play in league probably 2 nights a week. She is a 12U pitcher, so the extra pitching time against live batters would be a plus. But, we are talking a minimum of 10 to 15 mph difference in most other pitchers speed. How is this going to affect her batting? I thought about moving her up to 14U in league, but the point of playing league would be to play with her friends from her school. She is on a travel team made up of girls from 6 or 7 different schools.
Any input?

How many times would she be pitching every week? How many games would she be playing this season? Does she want to play both?

[Coach11]

I was just wondering if anybody has had their daughter play league and travel ball at the same time. I know logistically it would be a busy schedule. My daughter would NOT miss travel ball practices or games, but she could play in league probably 2 nights a week. She is a 12U pitcher, so the extra pitching time against live batters would be a plus. But, we are talking a minimum of 10 to 15 mph difference in most other pitchers speed. How is this going to affect her batting? I thought about moving her up to 14U in league, but the point of playing league would be to play with her friends from her school. She is on a travel team made up of girls from 6 or 7 different schools.
Any input?

Shouldn't be a problem at this level (12U). I'm sure there are friends of hers playing league ball that she won't get to play with on her travel team. Let her do it so that the "fun" aspect is still there.

[GIMNEPIWO]

My DD's played HS, Rec and Travel at the same time ... as long as they want to do it, keep up with their school work and , as stated above, if they are a Pitcher just be smart about it ...

[3'sDad]

We went thru this same thought process....DD will play for her school, league play and town travel and LL All-Stars....this will total 40 -50 games from April thru the end of July.....DD could have also played with a travel team and added 10-15 games....DD pitches and will get enough circle time with this schedule for the 2009 season.....she still smiles when she plays and practices, so it's not too much softball....the smile factor dictates a lot for us.

[Izzy's Dad]

I was just wondering if anybody has had their daughter play league and travel ball at the same time. I know logistically it would be a busy schedule. My daughter would NOT miss travel ball practices or games, but she could play in league probably 2 nights a week. She is a 12U pitcher, so the extra pitching time against live batters would be a plus. But, we are talking a minimum of 10 to 15 mph difference in most other pitchers speed. How is this going to affect her batting? I thought about moving her up to 14U in league, but the point of playing league would be to play with her friends from her school. She is on a travel team made up of girls from 6 or 7 different schools.
Any input?

How many times would she be pitching every week? How many games would she be playing this season? Does she want to play both?

Yes, she wants to play both. She would probably pitch a minimum of 3 games on weekends, based on the statistics from the fall. League is girls little league, so I know there is an "inning limit" on how many she could pitch. During the off season (now) she pitches around 450+ pitches a week, not including warming up and drills.