This article is written to help parents understand the various levels of youth sports programs such as, starting out in local community sports and moving up to more competitive club sports programs and it's importance to eventually playing at a college. Because College is what all this ultimately amounts to. We are calling this the natural process of youth sports. This article is not intended to discourage anyone from playing sports at any age level in anyway, but rather to simply assist parents of the natural process of the various levels of sports. Because, to a new comer, it can be somewhat intimidating. We hope to break this down to a more understandable process and help you recognize the importance of getting your daughter involved in sports.
So you thought it would be a good thing to get your daughter involved in a local community sport program. Rest assured you have made a fantastic parenting choice!
So what is it exactly you've gotten your daughter as well as your entire family involved into anyway? Say what? You may be thinking, I just signed my daughter up to this sport to keep her active and learn how to interact and make friends with other kids! Well you did! And then some.
You will soon find that Youth sports is divided into various skill levels and competitiveness. When you discover that your daughter actually has talent at her sport or sports (and you will!), you and your family will be warped into a world of highly competitive sports! While this may seem somewhat hidden in our Hollywood style social mainstream... Again, rest assured... the sports community is HUGE!
For simplicity, we'll pick the fastpitch(softball) community as our example. Basically the sections break down such as this:
"C" League = non-competitive level Parks and Recreation
"B" League = competitive level Parks and Recreation
"A" League = competitive level Club or a.k.a. Travel Ball
"C" League is typically a very beginners level. Kids with slow skill level development should start here. Organized as such that not too much practice time nor too much instruction or coaching is involved. Just allowing the kids to have fun and learn the basic rules of the game.
"B" League is more organized (and recommended for most beginners). Most girls can start at "B" League Level and adapt without problem. If your daughter has difficulty learning, then "C" League level is then recommended. Practice times are much more frequent and instruction or coaching is focused to a more competitive level. Rules of the game are enforced by a governing body such as ASA, USSSA, Little League or Pony to name a few. ASA is the biggest at the moment, but don't get too caught up in this now... It's an entirely different subject. Just know that these are the set of rules your league is going to follow during regular season and All-Stars.
It typically works that all skill levels can sign up and your daughter will be selected on a team to play regular season ball. By the end of the season, a select group of top players are selected for an All-Star team to compete with other "B" All-Star teams from within a said district for a district championship title. Teams from various districts with that same championship title will get to compete with each other at a "State" level for that championship title. Finally, the state champions will earn a berth to play teams from other states for a national championship title. Again, all at a "B" level of competition. Plus, "B" teams at this All-Star level will find local tournaments, often by a city that likes to host their own tournament and invite other cities to come play.
This often include two to three day weekends and travel expenses incur due to, fuel, food and hotels. A bit expensive, but usually a great bonding experience for the girls on the team. When the regular season starts again, the process starts all over with regular season play to the All-Star selection process.
"A" League is the most organized, the most expensive and highest competitive level in youth sports. Girls must have a high skill level when trying out for a Travel Ball team, because they are competing for a position on that team. A club team is formed when a coach decides that he/she has a group of girls that have such great talent, they form to compete with other teams who feel they have the best talent on their team. It's like professional youth sports, except you don't get paid to play... you pay to play. Team expenses such as uniforms, tournament fees, umpire fees, equipment expenses are usually divided between the entire team on top of what you'll pay to travel and stay at the city you play in. It adds up.
14 and under or 14U, use to be the norm for girls to start looking into travel teams. Since colleges are looking at girls starting at 16U, travel teams are starting to pop up regularly at 10U. This is where it gets a little more complicated. Simply put... EVERYONE these days wants to start a travel team. There are so many at this point that travel teams are breaking up into their own categories. Categories such as:
"GOLD" = Elite Teams
"A" = Top Rated Teams
"B" = New Team or First year team in a particular age division.
The competition at this stage is fierce. Girls bounce from team to team until they find other girls with similar skill levels. Here they practice together and build on each other to improve and form friendships and bonds. Once a team forms a chemistry and competes at a high standard... the feeling is magic. The journey begins. After reading this, you may be asking why does anyone subject themselves to all this? Well, the benefits far outweigh the little things. Plus your building the foundation of what it takes for your daughter to enter life. If it all works right, she'll have memories of a lifetime to take with her on that journey.
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