Should Your 8 Year Old Play Travel Baseball?

[@MdhLV]

I've kept my son in rec ball but he has a personal coach we use regularly on the side. He's gotten more playing time and real game experience. Even though the competition is less he's developing more

[@noahsoundz1048]

My son has this crazy passion for the game it's great to see he is only 8. I never played baseball beyond little league so it's been a lot of KZbin and researching . Love resources like this

[@sangaman]

Great clip. It's not just about travel vs rec but about balance and allowing (not pushing) your kid to develop as an all around athlete, competitor, and person.

[@REALNOTPOPULARTV]

Indeed

[@virginiamira1856]

Mario here… Great video I wish that I had 12 dads just like you. I no longer coach travel ball anymore due to the wrong going on from within travel ball. As an ex college player, ex coach, and ex USSSA site director. Best advice I could give any parent is try not to focus on the now. Focus on the future and ask yourself what’s more important. Winning a meaningless game, playing high school, college,or pro? The answer is neither. Focus on getting your son with a coach who knows baseball preferably a older experienced ex player, but one that has his rules and goals given to you up front and that he use’s the great game of baseball to teach life lessons. His main goal should be to create good young men and good husbands. A good coach can take any situation good or bad and turn it into a positive. I could go on and on but remember communication is key. If the coach isn’t having a thorough meeting 1st day of practice to get everyone on the same page I’d find another coach. If I could fix it I would. I’d love to coach again lol. Good Luck to all!

[@jackmurray8931]

My son is 7 and plays “travel” baseball. The furthest we travel is 30 minutes. I’d never go back to rec

[@gandolfgrey5385]

Great video, what I see in the small town I have moved too from a big city, is that the travel ball at all ages here is nothing more than money ball with sub par coaches that don't really know the game or how to develop kids. A couple years ago I got approached by some parents of my team that I coached and had no kids of mine on to move to travel ball. They even tried to pay me to do it and I didn't want too because it would put the rest of my kids with parents that didn't want that long of a season without a coach. So I stayed and kept those kids and developed them they made the highschool team and were phenomenal when I had them. However when they went to highschool they rode the pine because there were other kids that played travel ball and they played eventhough they were not as well rounded and it showed with their record of not winning a single game. Then there were 3 kids that just so happened to be kids of the coaches for that travel team and they all played JV and varsity even though they were not at the top of that group of kids in size or talent or ability. Varsity only won 6 games out of 25 or so. Basically what I'm saying is that unfortunately this town is all about who you know and not what you can do. So my predicament is that I have a team of young kids that are incredibly talented and are 10 and 11 now. But if we stay rec my feeling is they will be overlooked because they are not on a travel team. However if I try to make a traveling team I will lose my team. Great video.

[@DACALLUP]

My son is 8 and he's been on a rec team for the past year over the summer he really wanted to train since he took a break from rec now it's the fall and he wants to train more was thinking should i put him in travel ball or look for a rec league that is more competitive based

[@Monkeyshine911]

He's 8! Chill out. When he's 10 and you see 8 year old play, you'll think "wow. Those 8 year olds are just little tiny kids. I can't believe I took that so seriously." You'll see

[@chi21no]

Thank you for this video..my son just got accepted to a travel team..well we all decided that he won't be going..

[@sikorskybama1]

My son has been playing rec baseball for 4 years now. He loves the game and when there's no more rec baseball to play, he wants to play more. Best thing we did was sign up for travel ball. It improved his skill level when going back to rec baseball and his confidence, in-between times he plays rec basketball and flag football. I think its great that travel ball is there for the months that rec BB isn't there. He is a 10 year old with more passion for the game I ever had, a 50 year old Dad. I grew up on skateboards and surfboards. As long as I can afford his passion I will provide for it. Will he be able to make it to the big leagues ? I don't know but travel ball fills the void of no baseball at all.

[@baseballumpires6901]

This is what travel baseball was originally intended to be. Kids that wanted to keep playing at the end of the Spring season a chance to keep playing and also play as a community team against other community teams. Travel Baseball has evolved into a chest thumping my kid is the best of the best and only the best deserve to play travel baseball. In the old days (I say that as a 50 year old myself) we played Baseball in the Spring, swimming in the Summer (or travel / all-star baseball), football in the Fall, and basketball in the winter. Now you have in rec league alone Spring and Fall baseball. Year around baseball (and other sports). No more time to expand athleticism and just have fun as kids.

[@shsfootball7478]

@@baseballumpires6901 100% agreed. Kids should try more sports and activities when they are younger. It’s hard to not get caught up in the “rat race” of keeping up with the Jones’s in early specialization. You’re only young once. You can’t try and play these sports when you get older.

[@619sandiego8]

Good video

[@atl3630]

The age from 8 to 9 is when a lot of kids transition from coach pitch to kid pitch. Rec teams and coaches don’t exactly get the time or resources to help players handle that transition

[@baseballumpires6901]

Depends on the league. Our evolution was Tee at 5. Coach Pitch at 6/7. Machine pitch / kid pitch at 7/8 (Kids pitched first 2 innings then machine the rest of the game). Kid pitch at 8-10. In Little League kids are seeing kid pitch starting at 7 to a limited degree. 8 year olds that get to play up see all kid pitch. In rec league (in most cases same coaches as travel ball) our LL owned fields so we had plenty of time / resources. Just depends on the league and what resources they have. Travel is heavy in our area so most coaches in LL are also travel coaches or travel parents.

[@Monkeyshine911]

How much time does it take? 🤣 They're 8. I've been coaching baseball for 2 decades and travel ball is the worst thing that's happened to you sports. That's why the high school teams suck. It's all rich kids playing while the talented kids don't get a shot.

[@atl3630]

Thanks for this

[@RyanPHill77]

Excellent ending!

[@SportTraining-kp2hl]

Great work, you gained a new follower.

[@rolandonunez6887]

At that age, your player should fall in love w the game. Spend money on traveling to your nearest professional ball team or minor league time and turn it into a family trip. Rec leagues are losing good players to travel, and competition is degrading. Also, potential good coaches are being lost to travel as well. Once kids feel the pressure of travel, it's no longer fun, and they will check out. Invest rather in occasional private lessons or personal trainer, let them play on own w their friends (sand lot style). The current state of college baseball puts your player at a severe disadvantage, specifically the transfer portal. The chances of your player playing in college or MLB are statistically low, not worth the investment of travel teams expenses and equipment.

[@reddhole3422]

Great video on minimizing the damage from Travel baseball. To me, playing Travel baseball during the rec season is absurd. It is killing the rec leagues and boxing out many kids who can be great one day. In my town, the travel kids must play rec ball, but the kids are going to destroy their arms. Travel ball should be made of all-stars from rec leagues and play during summer and possibly Fall. Finally, 8U Travel ball is ridiculous as those kids don't have the arm strength to pitch properly.

[@corygoode8928]

Most 8U kids playing travel ball aren't pitching. They are playing coach pitch. Only certain teams play 8U Kid Pitch. I agree that Travel Ball has destroyed Rec Leagues. But there is soooo much money in Travel baseball now that there is almost no going back.

[@chuckm1961]

Are baseball moms supposed to find somewhere else to go?

[@buffalobaseballkid]

no

[@jeffmichel4312]

All these vids pods and articles about travel ball is ruining baseball… I think it’s a conspiracy to talk people out of playing more baseball. The only thing stopping us from playing more baseball is turkey hunting deer hunting and fishing. I guess football and wrestling too. We need 48 hours per day and 8 days per week.

[@paulkersey7458]

Travel ball should be outlawed prior to age 13.

[@Monkeyshine911]

No