Tournament Format questions

[The Farm]

Everyone,

Thanks for your input. We do appreciate it very much and look forward to hearing from more of you if you wish to contribute.

I do have another request if you could help me. We would like to set up some meetings with a few of the SB organizations here in Indiana. Admittedly, we have more affiliations already developed with some of the BB groups and are currently meeting with a hand full of them. I would like to do the same with some SB groups in the next few weeks if possible. We want to not only tell these groups in person what we have planned, but would like to hear from them about what they need and want as an organization, as well as what they feel would be good for Indiana SB in general.

So, my request is, would you send me the contact info for the main point-of-contact for your organization? You can either PM me, post it here or email it to me at The_Farm_2010@Yahoo.com

Again, thanks for your input.

Randy,
The Farm

[Turn two]

Here goes:

1) If you want to be THE destination you better do USSSA, NSA, and ASA and a SHOWCASE (get affiliation with the coaches association for instant cred). Pick only one and you eliminate your appeal in a couple of years. Older teams need to play ASA, but you'll have a tough time selling them to the younger age groups.
2) Double elimination, minimum 4 games. You want competitive teams and they want double elim.
3) You might consider 1:15 for pool, 1:30 for bracket, whatever fits for the size of draw you want. Just remember, nobody wants timed games, but often the biggest complaint about tournaments is that they are never on schedule. Parents expect weather delays, but if the sun is out and games on 2 of the fields are running 30 and 60 minutes behind, folks get antsy and will think twice about coming back. Gotta keep things on schedule!
3) International tie breaker, never drop dead.
4) Days depends on the size of the draw again. Everybody wants to sleep in their own beds, but Sat/Sun probably means smaller draws, same teams every week. Lots of teams and variety make teams want to come back, so you almost have to play Fri.
5) Indoor, good luck. Some teams will just not do them and some do them all. Try Invitationals. Prove the viability/stats of your indoor facility and give a sanctioning body tournament berth to get teams out.

DD is in her final yr of 18U and we have been around FP a long time. My suggestion is to not miss out on isuues equally important as formats, etc. Gotta have 6 diamonds to be an elite facility. You want to be THE destination, make sure your restrooms are clean and ventilitated all day long, make sure your concession stand is staffed from open to close, have a good PA system, have some kind of equipment vendor at each tournament. Make sure you provide shade in as many places as possible (If players and families cannot get out of the sun, they are going to leave and spend elsewhere). You must have an employee work with the TD at all times (remember that these are your customers and TD's don't always care about you customers).

Agree with most everything Smoke said. My DD is in first year of 18U. I have coached travel for 8 years (i know many have done it longer, killerbee and bucketboy quickly come to mind) and have been a TD while associated with our local park hosting many travel tournaments. The only point I would add or differ with Smoke is on ITB. DO NOT USE IT IN POOL GAMES. Allow pool play to end in a tie. We had a pool game go 4 extra innings one time and threw the brackets and entire tournament into delay and havoc. (See #3 - Lesson Learned). Everything else is spot on.

[EzOut.EzOut]

I'm not from Indiana but...No new for pool. Let it end in a tie. Brackets, double elimination. No new with ITB. Seeded pool games would be nice but not always feasible. (We could always send out Bracketologist for you)

[The Farm]

I started this thd a few weeks ago and one of the questions I had was about Indoor Tournaments. I said at the time I wasn't a fan of them from a parent's standpoint.

I just want to go on record of saying that I will never, ever, at any time schedule a team with a similar schedule that my DD's team has this weekend in Lafayette.

Tonight, or tomorrow morning, however you want to look at it they play at 2am and 3am. Tomorrow night or Sunday morning, they play at 4am and 5am...

Welcome to Indiana Indoor FP Softball... LOL

By the way, anyone else on here going to be in Lafayette this weekend? If so, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. I'll be the guy in the Arkansas hat with the Indiana Stealth 16U team.

Have a great weekend,
Randy
The Farm

[T1UP4ME]

I would like to say I hate paying to watch my kid play. That is the only reason to coach isnt it, the coach pass. I say put it in the cost of the turnament.

[jag1]

I would like to add (as I have mentioned on previous threads..), If you are hosting an exposure type of event...come up with some sort of a tournament format to determine a winner. I think you would see better competition as it would give teams a little more to play for, and it would add a little prestige to the tournament itself.

[gunshy]

Jag, that is a great point. Playing just exposure events that are pool only or round robin does nothing for the competitive nature of your team, IMHO. Having played 2 seasons of heavy exposure events, it was great for getting individual players looked at by, and into college, but I felt like it hurt the team when it was time to play bracketed tournaments and Nationals. Constantly moving players so this coach can see that player play innings at a particular(secondary) position or pitching a kid because a coach wants to see her throw 2 more innings is fine, but the players sense that they are not in their A set and that the outcome of the games don't really matter; try as we coaches may to convince them otherwise, the kids know the the focus is more on the individual than the team winning. Mike Candrea has spoken on this extensively and I saw it first hand last year: definitely make exposure events so there are exposure opportunities, but then have a play-to-win segment.