RE: The Life Of A Travel Baseball Dad
How old is your kid? Mine is going into 8th and his team takes the whole summer off to rest. He did play ll also, but that is done now. Their team didn't get through the districts. Studies show that they need a break of at least 3 months, which mine will only rest from July-Sept. I am going to guess you live in Florida or somewhere close? Some of these elite teams push way too hard and I know one kid that was on an elite team playing every week. They pitched and caught by the time he hit 15 he had his first surgery. He just graduated high school and the count is now up to 5. He was an excellent ballplayer! The other story right now is we have a stud in our town at the 12u level he could pitch 75 mph. They sat him the whole 9th grade year, never played him at all on the High School level. Now the kid pitches 90 and is a dominate force going into the 11th grade. He almost quit the High School team, because his parents were furious! The coaches said, "We know what we are doing, just lets us condition him this year and NO TRAVEL!". They listened to him and now the kid is reaping the benefits! Well, have fun it is an awesome experience and I myself want to go practice so bad with my kid. for we are in the second week of nothing, but I will wait a couple more weeks!
My son is 14, starting his freshman year of HS in the fall. We are in the north east and his break away from the game will be from late October thru the beginning of February. He will pick up his bat for winter hitting workouts I mid-December, but no throwing. He has played travel since he was 8 - we are a small Ripken Baseball organization and the level of competition just wasn't enough for our all-stars to compete in Districts. So we turned to limited travel and went from there. Outside of rec games (2 innings max at all levels) my son never pitched until this season. He did pitch for his middle school team this season and did well (had one complete game, 10 strikeout game, giving up two runs, 1 earned in 90 pitches) They didn't start him again after that game, though they did use him for an inning or two in relief. For travel this summer, I have him at 60-65 pitches max and he will not be pitching for his fall team.
I do agree that some of the travel programs push hard. There are many in my area that require the player to NOT play school ball. It sounds like the coaches in your area have a good grasp on the health and safety of the players. That is not always the case when they have a pitcher who can strike hitters out and sometimes getting the win is more important than the player's future. Enjoy your time on the field with your son, he will remember the time you spent with him playing ball forever.