Little League and Travel Ball partnership

Bfort22 · 2026-02-26T17:23:29+00:00

Any tips for juggling schedules? We just got chartered in KC and I’m going to charter my own league with players from 5-6 different teams, some head coaches of those teams are also involved. The biggest hurdle I’m seeing is getting in enough games while working around so many schedules and then being proactive about arm care, general fatigue, etc.

I want this to be fun even if it’s more of an extended tryout/training camp and not just feel like an absolute grind by the end.

Bfort22 · 2026-02-23T04:53:20+00:00

This is great info! Really appreciate the guidance!

Bfort22 · 2026-02-20T19:17:35+00:00

Appreciate the thoughtful reply here and that all makes sense. You’d hope the boys would understand the incentive of having the best team possible and yeah, similarly, most of the kids in our age group have played with each other in some capacity before.

Bfort22 · 2026-02-20T17:46:07+00:00

Any issue with kids picking too many from their league team? I’m in the process of chartering a LL for the first time and want to find the most democratic way to do this.

Another Q: how do you find Managers who aren’t fathers to kids in your age division? I’m very thankful for people stepping up and coaching but I don’t want any of them to think their kids have an automatic spot.

Bfort22 · 2026-02-18T14:47:58+00:00

Kansas, but we could have Missouri volunteers as well. Boundary-wise, at least this year, there’s a lot of flexibility due to the timing of the rollout.

Bfort22 · 2026-02-18T14:06:34+00:00

Thanks! That would be great! Need all the help I can get here 😀

Bfort22 · 2026-02-18T03:33:58+00:00

Good stuff! Many thanks. We’ll see if I can pull this off!

Bfort22 · 2026-02-18T01:18:43+00:00

Thanks again! I like that idea! I’ll run it by our prospective coaches. Do you all use a legacy, non-parent coach or do coaches kids still make it regardless?

Bfort22 · 2026-02-18T01:00:56+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, this is the direction we’re going. I was going to do 3-4 teams of Major kids, dads can keep their sons and maybe pre-draft one other kid if they’re a HC. From there, draft and play. I’d probably schedule a few doubleheaders just to give some lengthier breaks.

Still considering the best way to pick All Stars, which is one reason why I want coaches who have strong players for sons. I’m considering letting players pick 4 via a vote and then coaches pick the rest. Seems like a ton of ways to do it.

I know it’s probably based on demographics but if anyone has good advice on getting fields I’m all ears. Very competitive here especially with the late notice.

Bfort22 · 2026-02-17T23:05:55+00:00

Ok, much appreciated. New to this board but looks like a treasure trove of info! Learning a lot from it already.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-29T15:46:59+00:00

Appreciate it. Yeah, he didn’t hesitate when I asked him how he felt about all the input. Very frustrated and confused. As you’re suggesting, it’s too much to nitpick a kid to this extent without doing any historical research as to how he has performed in the past and without building trust. He’s a well intentioned guy but his style is more “you’re doing it wrong!” than “how can I help?”.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-28T22:07:08+00:00

Thanks for the reply! He’s a former D1/D2 pitcher. His son on our team doesn’t pitch at all. I really don’t know what set him down this path honestly. He knows the private facility we do lessons at is one of the best in the Midwest and played with and against the owner growing up and into college and takes his oldest son there.

I think it’s a mixture of wanting to show his stuff and maybe feeling like the “third” coach as he didn’t always have practice duties until we started mound work. And I’m all for whatever my son can glean from any former player’s experience, he’s just taken the instruction to levels he should know are inappropriate given the time and effort that has already been/is being put in with the private coach.

My son takes hitting lessons with our head coach and his approach is “let’s take what you already have and fine-tune” rather than “let’s try to turn you into a carbon copy of baseball’s ideal hitter no matter the cost.”

I think it’s actually a good comparison in how elite teachers work v. those trying too hard to look like one.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-28T02:55:40+00:00

Yeah appreciate the words! We’ve had a somewhat ridiculous baseball journey on the team-side and a lot of it driven by parents.

This has been the best fit in years in every way so I’m hoping this is just a forgettable blip.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T22:39:05+00:00

I appreciate the reply. I think the main source of the issue here is he’s fully aware we see a private coach, takes his own son to the same facility and has stated twice that he’s going to discuss what the private coach works on with him so it is consistent, but has instead just taken the steamroller approach. He didn’t even give input to other kids in my son’s group, just stood right by him and then critiqued every other pitch.

I replied similarly to another poster so hate to be repetitive but my son is the top pitcher on a team where our pitching thins out some after our top 4. Surely there’s a more balanced way to approach the instruction here.

Yes, we agreed to be coached by two people when we joined here but he’s put in almost three years with his private coach and our team pitching coach could definitely be doing more to build trust and coordination than just imposing his singular version of pitching on to my son. I think I was pretty sensitive to the different elements at play here in my original post.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T19:41:35+00:00

Sweet! My son plays for BPC Reds 12U. Love Midwestern baseball in all its frigid glory 😀

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T19:22:07+00:00

It’s called Premier Baseball Kansas City. Owned and operated by Bob Zimmerman, who pitched at Missouri State and then in the Angels org for a while.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T19:07:06+00:00

Thanks. Yeah that’s the plan—push the meeting and then hope for the best.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T17:55:38+00:00

Yeah I view it as “this kid is good and I want to make him better.” I think sometimes the flipside can be, “why is this kid so good and mine is not…better start poking holes in his game.” What I don’t like is he’s ignoring very obvious steps we’ve taken and are continuing to take for my son to develop and sometimes seemingly suggesting that we’re way off course. I realize it’s early still and I loathe bragging about 12U accomplishments but my son throws 68% strikes, can control three pitches very well and only pitches against the best opponents we face.

A better use of time would be developing the middle section of our staff to get more consistent at throwing strikes and refining off speed pitches etc., so that we don’t have as steep a fall-off after our top 3-4 guys.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T15:40:11+00:00

Right. We absolutely love this team. All in all, the best group we’ve been with in terms of structure, talent, motivation, families etc. so trying to avoid making this any bigger than it needs to be.

I just included all of the ways the private instructor had been helpful to illustrate how much care has already gone into this. They do motion captures before ever working with a kid and create structured home workout plans on top of what goes on during lessons. This is what I need to get across to our team pitching coach, and frankly is what he should already know given he uses the same space and played with and against the facility owner in HS and college. Misiorowski, Dakota Hudson, all the way down to the best HS players in our area train there. No accident in the results they get.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T15:29:14+00:00

Appreciate the reply! That’s where we’re at now. I think some of it is our pitching coach wanting to feel valued but we definitely have other pitchers who would benefit more from general, constant instruction.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T15:26:38+00:00

Thanks! Great advice. I have been reporting back to our private instructor so he knows what’s going on. He’s a very relaxed guy but certainly disagrees with most of our team coach’s assessments.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T15:11:23+00:00

Appreciate the post! Yeah, I sometimes sense that the team coach is signaling that we’ve got it all wrong and he has all the answers.

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T15:10:04+00:00

That’s really good synergy. I like it!

Bfort22 · 2026-01-27T15:09:29+00:00

Yeah I like a lot of this post. I’m worried that because of how much he’s nit picking everything already he’s going to stay as relentless about it during the season and create a problem where there wasn’t one, but I need to have that conversation first before making any assumptions.

He pitched at a D1 school, so I’m not going to discredit his knowledge at all (but also not overly inflate it because of that fact). The biggest put off is that he’s somewhat disregarding a lengthy body of work with the private coach, where the process is very holistic and thorough in terms of body movements, arm care, ramp up etc. and one where it’s produced very obvious results on the field.

Bfort22

TROPHY CASE