We have been part of a team (now 12 year olds) over the last few years that has been fairly successful in tourney baseball (winning the majority of games and several tourneys). It's mostly a neighborhood group of kids and parents that all get along well. As we move into more competitive divisions, some of the kids are ready to play at that higher level, while some may not be quite ready. A couple of parents have talked about recruiting players outside our immediate area. The team has very good professional instruction, so I feel that development needs are being met.

My question to the group is how important is it at this age to move the handful of players that are ready to advance to do so and abandon those not ready. My kid and I both like our team and would hate to lose the team chemistry that has formed, but I don't want to hold my kid back either since he's one of the better players. IS this the age to make a break, or can it wait?

Statements like "Nothing stays the same " and "You can never go back" come to mind.
Things will change and you have to do what is best for your son's grpwth if BB is important. One year my son had to change teams after having the greatest experience ever. It was a tough economic decision but it paid off. We also noticed lots of changes to the old team so trying to hold on to the feeling was not really possible even if he stayed. Every year at college friends leave and some are very close friends. It is hard to say goodbye but it is part of life. Might as well learn this early in life.

Seamhead,
Positive team chemistry, professional instruction, development needs being met, playing with kids in the neighborhood so your not spending your time in the car instead of on the field, and just plain enjoying the experience. Sounds like the grass is pretty green on your side of the fence.

At 12 years old its all about having fun playing the game, let him enjoy it and develop these friendships that will last a lifetime. These are the kids he will be playing with in HS and what you are mentioning will take these guys a long way when that time comes.

You can always spread his wings a bit with extra clinics and camps. Even though you may think he is missing opportunities by not playing with the big boys, our experience is that it all really doesn't matter until about 16 or so and so much will change between then and now. Anyway you can enjoy the ride until then is time well spent.

We are living that same "dream" right now...

Our team up until this fall season, was a top AAA-level team that has won their fair-share of tournaments, and we were pretty happy as a total-group... We had 6-7 players on our team that carried the load offensively, pitching and defensively, and the 5-6 others though good players, are behind the top guys... We decided that we want to step up our program and challenge the top-guys, and move to Majors this season... That included getting some more talent, which we were able to do - substantially... It has created a much better, deeper team, but has put a few guys that have been around a while in alternate roles, where before they were starters... One player/family has left mid-season because of somewhat reduced play, eventhough they were "onboard" with the inital team decision to upgrade... This was unfortunate.

Overall the experience, so far, has been more than positive and successful... All of our positions have been upgraded, and it shows... Major-level teams which we could hang with, now can be beat, and the guys are seeing much better pitching and winning is now A LOT tougher and a bit more satisfying...

The longer you play together the harder it will be to break up the team, but there will be a time to evolve such as the transition into high school baseball and a higher competitive level.

I agree at 12u you have some time and it does sound like you have a good thing going on. When you want to compete seriously at the regional/national level you may want to look for additional players or another program that can compete at that level.

We found at the 14u level it was a good time to get ready for high school level which was also a good time to compete in some of the national tournaments and at 15U and 16U we competed in the USA Baseball National Tournaments (formally JO’s) and also the WWBA tournaments which teams from around the country were rather strong and to successful compete you need to have a strong team.

Sounds like he might be satisfied but it is paramount that the BB player seeks the best competition he can find and afford even at 12YO. That gives him 6 years to prepare kill wise as well as mentally.

You do need to seek the best competition, but at 12U you can find the best local/regional tournaments and look to challenge the players you have on the team to get better and play better on the team, you do not need to compete on a national level at 12u on a regular basis.

You can play in the regional area and if you do well play maybe one national tournament to see how you fair at the end of the season, something like Cooperstown at age 12U as a reward of doing well.

You do need to get better, but Play for the love of the game!

quote:

My question to the group is how important is it at this age to move the handful of players that are ready to advance to do so and abandon those not ready.

We are all faced with challenges of this nature. Thank goodness there were those that were willing to leave the cave and "abandon" his cavemates to seek greener pastures. We all have left many "comforting" things behind in our quest for a "better" life. I say go for it.
Fungo

12 is the 1st hard year for decisions I think. It doesn't really matter what you decide because either way the team will change. Rest assured you are not the only one on the team battling that decision. If BB is important to your son then have him play where he can get the best coaching yet feel comfortable enough to learn.

I agree with Bobblehead here. In order to get better, you need to face the best competition. From this point on, some kids will continue to improve and get better and others will begin to lag behind. At 12u, more than likely, a fair number of his current teammates will not even make the HS team.

A team should evolve and grow to where you are not playing to the least common denominator. Every player should be challenged.

I know my son would not be the player he is today without being challenged. We did this by continuing to upgrade our team. It was difficult in some respects because we really liked some of the kids and families, but truth be told, they needed to move on and were not ready for the challenge that the top guys on the team moved onto.

I understand the concept of "moving on" to play better competition but the kids are not being allowed to be kids. Any move to Select/Travel ball prior to age 13 is too early in my opinion. Select ball is ruining your local leagues for Baseball, however, you do not see the same thing happening in Football. I live in a Football hotbed with numerous talented kids, this past year we had a QB turn the University of Texas down for baseball to attend SMU and play WR in June Jones Offense. I still cannot fathom the idea of turning UT Baseball down....
Let the kids be kids and support your local leagues!

The problem with local leagues is so many people have taken their players out for more competitve ball, many LL are very weak. I know someplaces they are still strong but they werent where we live. My son finished his 12 year old all stars with LL and then we put together a tourney team with better area players from a combo of diff. leagues.from then on as kids dropped out he played on different teams. Met a lot of kids he still keeps in contact with and unfortunaely I would say 95% of kids he played rec ball with were done after their 12 year old year. As they move on they make friends, you can make it a lot of fun with travel ball. You dont have to majorly travel , do some local tourneys. But with that said as a previous poster stated by 14 its time to move on.

Lance, to your point, the better kids will have fun at the higher level. They will not have fun playing at a rec level. My son has loved baseball. He wants to play the highest level of competition. Nothing worse than a good pitcher making the out pitches only to see a kid on the team miss a routine ground ball or an easy pop up. The kids should play at the level that they will have fun at.

Good example is we had a kid on our team as a 13 year old. Borderline player on our team (probably #11 or #12 on the depth chart). He was miserable and caused many problems with morale on the team. Hated baseball by the end of the season. The next year he decided to play rec ball and had a blast - LOVED it. I asked him how he was doing and he said it was great - "now I know why Sean loves baseball so much".

Point is, the better kids love playing against the better competition, the more borderline kids should play at the level where they will strive. Just because you play at a high level doesn't mean it isn't fun.

At 15, my son had several options for a team for next summer. When I asked him where he wanted to play, he said "I want to play on the best team". I think he was confident that he would get his share of play time on a very good team. He also likes having a very good defense behind him when he pitches.