Along For The Ride

Zach had a great baseball season this year. He can catch a ball sometimes now and his batting has improved now that he's stronger. Almost every day he asks me to play baseball with him. We have a T and Josh and I both have gloves. So even when I don't have the energy, I make time for him to practice!!!

It's a tricky time for him with baseball. The spring travel tryouts are in November. They don't go by grade. They go by age. Meaning he'll be trying out for the 8 and under team as a 3rd grader with two years of baseball. Most kids are in the 2nd grade in that group and did K-ball. Meaning, they also had two years of baseball. There is no guarantee he'll make it. But, it will be easier this year then next year. Especially, if he plays fall baseball like he wants.

Once you make travel it's easier to continue to make travel. That's key. All the high school players have been on the travel team. By 7th grade, if you aren't on travel, it's not worth continuing.

This is how the league works:

K ball (kindergarten)
Rookie (1st and 2nd grade)
Minors (3rd and 4th grade)
Majors (5th and 6th grade)
Pony (7th and 8th grade)

Travel, from what I hear, is:

8U
10U
12U
14U

I could be wrong on the last one though. You have to play on a recreation team to play travel baseball. But, you can play on a recreation team without playing travel through 8th grade. However, if you aren't on the travel team by then, you are unlikely to make the high school team.

The leagues get smaller as the kids get older and less play. In 3rd, 5th, and 7th grade you have to do tryouts. You will be on a team. But, they want to make the teams evenly matched. So they want to see everyone's abilities.

 Zach's interest has only grown. He says he wants to be a professional baseball player now. While I doubt that will happen, when he asks for some practice time, I grab my glove!!!

I'm along for the ride. My child has a growing interest. A healthy interest. It's up to me to keep it growing. It will only grow if he has someone to practice with. So in addition to driving him to team practices and games. No matter where the games are. I need to be there at home for him. Playing catch and cheering him on with the T. Soon we will be getting him a net to practice pitching too.

I am not forcing this  on him. In fact, we even went to the recreation center to ask what other options there are in the fall. He likes tennis. I assumed he'd want to do tennis. But, he hard and fast settled on fall baseball.

Fall ball is just a small travel team. But, it's less popular then the spring teams so it's easier to make. If he makes it, that means he is more likely make the travel team for the spring when he tries out in November. Because he will have had recent practice and coaching.

No matter what your kids are interested in you are along for the ride. As their interest grows, you have to work harder to accommodate that. Once they commit and invest more in something sometime in middle school. You have to commit too. When they are all in, you are all in!!!

Because when the parents are all in too, the child is less likely to loose interest. Loosing interest means they are more likely to turn to drugs and/or alcohol to fill the void. The reason they say kids are less likely to do those things if they eat dinner as a family is because of the bond it creates. Bonds are created through showing an interest in what your kids are passionate about too.

So while Zach is all in, I'm all in................along for the ride. Only, he's the driver!

Almost 2 his first bat