That is the point. That is what makes kids better. Kids don't really learn anything while traveling. The impact of improvement in games is always minimal. The practices are really the only thing worthwhile.

That is why most kids would be better served by saving all the money parents spend on dues, traveling, hotels, entry fees, and food on the road and instead investing in personal training or camps. It just doesn't make sense to think you are making your kid better when they spend 6 hours on the road to Ohio, play 5 games, and then drive back.

Once they are in high school, there is value created by playing against the best, but prior to that it doesn't really matter.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Haven't studied it, but from the brief experience I've had I can't disagree with any of this.

The status symbol is huge. Here in Crystal Lake, there is not only a status symbol but the parents stick that shit in your face, so much so that they have earned a very negative reputation with parents from other areas. One of the problems is that the travel team requires players to re-try out every year. My daughter was a "threat" to everything for these parents. Threat to their little clique. Threat to their kids scholarship. Threat to their playing time. I'm sorry, but if a nine year old is that much of a threat, I don't want to put her in a bad situation.

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I was disappointed in an opposing coach yesterday. He was a guy who seemed really cool and had things in perspective in the spring season ( 8u) and now we're in Fall Ball (10u) and he's insane.

Pulled his daughter mid at bat because she wasnt standing how he showed her. (she was too open but fuck, let her finish the at bat)

Then embarrassed her when she was catching by making her throw the ball back to the pitcher a second time because the first one went over the pitcher's head (which is very common at our level)

Also he was doing a lot of head dropping and overly emotional body language when his team did anything wrong.

Hopefully I caught hiim on a bad day and the normal dude from Spring is how he usually is.

All depends on the kid. My kid hates to practice, but she loves to play in games. Therefore, we don't have in her camps. We just signed her up for an indoor winter league so she would get more in-game experience. The coach does a great job of in-game coaching. By doing that, in two years, she has gone from not knowing anything about soccer to being one of the top two or three kids on her team.

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That makes sense.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about the local leagues like that. Those are good too.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

We've been doing travel baseball for four years ages 10-13. It is far superior to in house baseball. The main problem with in house baseball is that 1/2 to 2/3 of the roster is stocked with very poor baseball players. It impacts the quality of the game. For instance:

1) The other team's pitcher cannot throw strikes. You spend two hours at a game to watch your kid get hit by a pitch and walked two times.
2) There are huge holes in the fielding. Your son is on the mound, and he has to strike a kid out to make any kind of an out because the players in the field cannot make a play. And then you still have to sweat the drop third strike.
3) Many of the kids and parents are not involved. It is a babysitting service. They don't practice with their kid, and so the kid never gets better.
4) There is no off season program.
5) The number of games is quite limited.

Travel baseball is only for families that are very into baseball. It is a 9-10 month commitment, and more time is spent practicing than playing. Camps are fine, but they only get limited time to teach skills vs a strong travel program. I am a big fan of individual lessons IF you are willing to work on what is taught. Games are critical for implementing what has been taught and learning from mistakes. The level of competition challenges your child. It is definitely not for everyone.

We played 52 games this year from April through July. We just started fall ball this weekend on a 14U team and are finally playing 60/90 baseball!

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Fundamentals are important. A kid could have the best fundamentals in the world if he/she cannot apply them or don't know how a sport or team works the fundamentals doesn't matter. Some of fundamentals are also talent which is not teachable or learnable.

The camps tend to be over crowded, rarely do they work with or correct anybody and expensive. It's rare they learn a new skill or drill. You are speaking as if the drills and fundamentals are in a vacuum, they are not. There is little to no improvement gained in attending a camp unless it's a good one and there are few, imo. The things I wrote about in my previous post are things wrong with most camps across most sports.

Some of the best memories or moments for my son come from the weekends away at tournaments. If you prefer to be in a bubble alone in a place working on fundamentals go ahead because I'll guess that's where the rest of the world would prefer you to be also.

High school teams no longer play against the best. The best are in a club.

What a polarizing issue!

Oh goodness the drama in travel (and in house) leagues is really funny. We talk about it at work every week. I absolutely love travel baseball. My son and I have had some of the best bonding experiences from our out of town trips, this year to Cincy and Springfield. Nothing like five games in two days and team dinners at Buffalo Wild Wings.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Our softball league could be organized a lot better but we have a blast at the games and all the girls hang out, its a lot of fun.


We travel to nearby towns to play, but its a rec league.

Rick says save your money and have him work on fundamentals.

at the bold. Care to expound on that?



You seem emotional about this but I'm pretty sure you'd have great memories with your children with or without traveling sports.

It's just like the people that say that "football teaches life lessons you can't get anywhere else". Well, I'd like to know what life lessons that the millions of people who didn't play football missed out on.

I've made it clear I'm not talking about high school age.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yes, you would save money going to fundamentals.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I wouldn't say save the money. I'd say spend it more wisely.

You can buy a lot of dedicated instruction for the money spent traveling the Midwest searching for a 12 year old who can strike your kid out.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I ran into a parent this weekend at a football thing. His kid plays QB at a high school. I want to be discreet so I will not name it but it is the best high school a person could ever hope to attend. Anyway, I saw this kid throw 5 picks against Loyola last year. He said his kid was getting recruited by schools to play football. Maybe there is a lot of scholarship money out there. Of course, he could be lying through his teeth.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

we have some friends who's kid plays on one of the traveling teams around. he's like 11. since him playing, its like all they do. their life is consumed by it. besides that when you do hang out with them, they are just blech people anymore. not so before hand. he played travel ball on a different team 2 years prior. this year they've transformed into these "better than you" people. they do like crossfit (which seems to me is basically doing ridiculous things to your body until you have to walk around on crutches for a week…repeat) so that also probably has something to do with it as well.

And some parents spend no time with their kids. The children play video games all day with Internet friends.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

If you play football at a Catholic school, you will get offers from some places. I had friends at Mt. Carmel who literally never saw the field other than kickoffs get offers from small schools.

if I take my kid to the childrens museum and go "alright go do your thing, I'll be sitting here waiting for you to finish"…you aren't technically spending time with your kids. We have our kids involved in plenty of stuff that we sit on the sidelines and observe, I'm showing my support in their endeavors and that’s great, but I'm not going to begin to pretend I'm "spending time" with them.

don't get me wrong, I'm a total douche. I want my kids to be involved in something unique so that i can be like "oooooh your kid plays travel soccer? HOW GAUCHE……my daughter is in year 2 of her falconry apprenticeship, we are going raptor shopping this weekend"

It's pretty obvious that "travel ball" parents ghettoized house leagues. When I was a kid, you played house leagues where the better players were distributed evenly via a draft, then after the season ended there were invitation-only (or tryout, whatever) tournament or travel teams. However, that apparently wasn't good enough for the travel parents looking to live through their kids--sorry, I mean "expose" their kids to the "better" competition in Wisconsin and Missouri. Ironically, baseball isn't even a real scholarship sport http://www.scholarshipstats.com/baseball.html and all these suburban travel baseball players couldn't last a week with a 9 year old Dominican slave team. Plus, all of the best athletes play lacrosse these days, which is killing baseball as a spring sport. It all seems so pointless. In any case, thanks for killing house leagues and further ruining baseball for generations to come. 'preciate it!

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

YOU MAD BRO

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Yes. I can't stand LaCrosse.

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Probably one of those who only orders mediums.

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-- source

The problem with lacrosse, besides laxbros, is that we don't really have a schema for that rhythm of scoring. It's not a big event, like soccer or hockey, but it's not just the successful completion of a play, like basketball. 28 to 23, what is that? Hockey with no goalies?

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Poor Kamps...

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She said most. I believe Kamps likes the smell of a tailgating Spaulding.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

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Ha, I had to look that up but Brantford Winstonworth has made me a better, more informed citizen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqg01Nk3SYI

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

yeah, i've gone to pro lacrosse games and it's just...weird. like it's a sport you dreamt about and woke up and were relieved it was a dream.