Recommend Rec. Ball for Travel Ball Players ?

[wadeintothem]

I would recommend that your entire team play rec ball....and forget about travel ball until they are 12.

Jeez Sam, you are very bitter of late. You keep this up and you are going to get a lump of coal.

[hit4power]

DD tried it one spring when her former rec league called up and was begging for some more pitching. It lasted about 2 weeks and she gave it up. TB coach wasn't supportive (my bad for letting her do it w/o first discussing privately w/ TB coach), and rec league coach, well, couldn't coach and more importantly couldn't manage the girls. It was very disorganized and it frustrated DD. IMHO, If it's going to work, the TB coach has to be OK with it (and I doubt many would be) or the TB team needs to be on break. I think once you've moved on, its hard to go back. One thing that was done in our area a few years back was to organize some fun pick-up games for the TB players over Xmas break. One coach took the lead in organizing it, girls just showed up, they divvied up the pitchers and catchers, and then randomly assigned teams to everyone else. The girls did the coaching, catchers called pitches, everyone played somewhere different than the usual and batting order was alphabetical or reverse-alphabetical. It was a blast.

[coolstuff]

DD played both rec and travel during her first year of TB in 12U. It was actually sanctioned by the TB org and all the TB players played rec, and TB practices and tournaments were scheduled so there were no conflicts. In fact, it was kind of fun because the TB girls played for different rec leagues, so we would end up playing against each other and it was all in fun. However, it was easy to make comparisons between TB and rec, and rec didn't measure up. Some of the non-TB players seemed to be there just to hang out with their friends, and didn't put in the effort that the TB players did, and that was the thing that ticked DD off the most. The next year, the TB org decided that rec play would not be allowed. We actually lost a couple of TB players because of that, but so be it. DD did not miss rec and would not have played rec even if had been allowed. In the end, I would not recommend that TB players participate in rec play. I just don't see any upside to it.

[Sam]

I would recommend that your entire team play rec ball....and forget about travel ball until they are 12.

Jeez Sam, you are very bitter of late. You keep this up and you are going to get a lump of coal.

I really think nobody should play travel until they are 12...my opinion....bah, humbug.

[blackwidow]

My DD was also invited to play rec last year for our local league. They did not have enough 14U pitching and they were totally willing to work around her travel ball schedule. While the level of competition was definitely lower, she got to work on her pitches.
Most of her rec games were Saturday late afternoon and weekdays so we considered it a pitching practice.
Her travel team coach was fine with it. Her rec coach was happy to have her there when she could be there.
She had a lot of fun without as much pressure.

But, I think it depends on what agreement you've made with the rec league. I told them her travel schedule is first priority and if the coach was okay with it she would do it.

One final thought, I don't think I would recommend going back to rec for any other position players except pitchers and catchers. I just do not think position players have much to gain from the experience.

[Sftbll4ever]

Widow, I tend to disagree. If a 14u team is going dark, I would think it would be good for any player to go back to rec (if there is no other option). They need to also continue to work on hitting. I can tell you that it helped my dd and another kid work on seeing and hitting the slower pitching. When we went to lessons, dd was working with faster pitching so it was a good balance. Know of a few girls that did not do anything for the 3 month and it showed in their batting.

[blackwidow]

I guess I hadn't thought of that. From what I observed with DD rec team there were 14 girls on the team..they always bat round robin so at bats are few each game. Coaches are required to work all the players into the game for a certain number of innings, so it just did not seem like enough quality playing time to make a difference but You may be right...I'll concede that point..

[dustyshoes]

My DD's rec league must be the only one that bans any travel player participation. DD was planning to play both in the fall and transition to travel only in the spring, her TB coach was fine with it but the rec league wasn't. She decided she wasn't ready to leave all her friends behind in rec last fall and the TB coach said he thought the rec policy was odd but he understood and would welcome her back anytime she wanted.

I'm surprised to someone say their DD benefited from a hitting standpoint. Around here rec pitchers are not only slower but far less accurate and blues tend to compensate by calling a more generous strike zone for them. For similar reasons I don't think it benefits travel pitchers very much to also play rec unless their a #3 or lower pitcher and not getting much circle time in travel.

[BeyondTheScoreBoard]

My dd played both rec and tb last year. As a pitcher she found it frustrating. The umps tightened the strike zone for her, no corners. When she batted and let a ball go by that was off the plate, stike. The weaker pitching was compensated for by the umps.

Mentally she never adjusted to the rec side last summer and was very frustrated. She started to lose confidence at the plate and this trickled over to travel ball. This was the first year she did not play up as she was now in the oldest group in the local rec league.

If she plays rec this year, pitcher only. They can use her as the Flex. I will probably have to explain that to the other coaches.

[blackwidow]

My dd played both rec and tb last year. As a pitcher she found it frustrating. The umps tightened the strike zone for her, no corners. When she batted and let a ball go by that was off the plate, stike. The weaker pitching was compensated for by the umps.
.

This definitely happened to my kid too. But she knew it and helped her learn to deal with some frustration.
Some of what she had to learn to work on was keeping her game face in spite of the umpires.