Your Travel Team Turned Out To Be A Disaster

Your travel team turned out to be a disaster. The coaches play favorites, it is political, there is little teamwork, there are cliques, and practices are counter-productive. Whose fault is that? Well, honestly, it is your own fault.

In today’s environment where kids skip from team to team, nobody does the proper homework because they know they can always leave. Then, they complain because it was a bad experience.

Before joining a travel team, ask to practice with them at least four times and watch them closely. Have your parents go along and ask tough questions of all of the other parents. Set up a time to talk with the coaches and ask the tough questions. Watch them closely at a tournament to discern behavior, and then ask to play as a guest for a tournament to see it from the inside. Talk to other teams in their area and get their “take” on the team. Yes, there will be competitive friction, but if a certain problem keeps popping up in conversation, it is worth investigating. You should know everything about the culture of the team before going to the first practice. Parents often want to complain to me about their travel team, expecting a sympathetic ear. I ask them if they did the things above and they begin to make excuses. Sort of sounds a lot like the excuses they have as to why their kid isn’t practicing her pitching more. Hmm. Makes me wonder if this is a student we need to keep on our list.