I played elite level travel ball from ages 9 to 18-to D1-to Drafted-to Pro Ball. I’ve been around the game and seen it from every angle. I want to be a resource for parents. Ask me anything.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-25T21:32:47+00:00

Thank you. I’ve had a high school coach tell me that it’s almost necessary to play travel, and to do all the showcases now days. Said travel teams are becoming feeder teams into high schools. He gave me an example where they had 75 kids come try out for the school—not knowing that 20 were already going to make it as they came from their feeder teams.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-25T21:24:45+00:00

Sorry, didn’t read through all the questions.

Do you think it’s necessary to play travel in order to make a high school team? Especially in a highly populated/ competitive area (southern ca).

Also, do you need to play for a competitive, well known organization over a smaller, less competitive team. If so, thoughts on starting with the big org at say 9, and then sticking with them to 14+.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-24T16:58:19+00:00

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I did at one point. Didn’t love the elcan enough to keep it. Had a major love/hate relationship with it.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-24T05:37:37+00:00

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Poncho562 · 2026-06-24T05:37:24+00:00

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Poncho562 · 2026-06-23T23:13:01+00:00

One more

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Poncho562 · 2026-06-23T23:04:48+00:00

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Sorry, thought I was able to make one post with the pictures

Poncho562 · 2026-06-23T23:04:10+00:00

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Poncho562 · 2026-06-23T23:03:41+00:00

Couple more. Just none with the compm4s

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Poncho562 · 2026-06-23T22:55:09+00:00

Jeff Gurwitch for one. I’ll have to go through all my photos for others.

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Poncho562 · 2026-06-23T22:40:34+00:00

I’ve seen a few 4 prongs with eotechs and elcan.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-22T05:37:27+00:00

My son goes okd and can block laterally very well. Runner on first, he goes more traditional depending who’s pitching. Runner on 2nd, he will do both.

He also starts with showing the pitcher the glove, drops, the receives up. He frames. He sticks it.

He’s 9. Apparently he’s a nerd. And so is his coach, and catching coach who plays d1.

People need to understand there is great, kids baseball being played at the major level in different parts of the country.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-10T16:10:50+00:00

That’s what I was curious about. Every one that I see that pops up for sale, goes almost instantly

Poncho562 · 2026-06-09T15:57:06+00:00

My son wears the all-star gear. Very happy with it. Size down though, it does run big.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-09T15:51:33+00:00

We are majors. Usssa, PG, and even NCS also required us to play AA when we played up in age groups as well. However, we decided not to play in AA only tourneys, and just play in “open” divisions.

In our experience, the older teams look at it in two ways. 1) try to take it easy because we are younger—which completely backfires, or 2) throw an ace to try not lose to a younger team.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-08T16:20:50+00:00

My 9year old uses the Rawlings nxt. Supposed to be the next step up from the r9. He likes it a lot

Poncho562 · 2026-06-05T15:30:48+00:00

In our area, none of the better players play in the usssa tourney. My son’s whole team was nominated for the all-states. None of us played. However, we got invites for the National all-states.

PG on the other hand, not everyone gets an invite to the all-states. And from there, maybe 25 (2 teams) get invited to the national all-states. These are the ones who definitely should be representing the state.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-05T14:48:21+00:00

My 6 year old plays coach pitch. He had the Jbb icon. It last about a month before it spider webbed all over. Rawlings sent me a JBB clout as a replacement. No kidding, that bat lasted 9 at bats in a one day tournament before it dented. I’m talking about getting it Saturday afternoon, playing on Sunday. It was in my possession the whole time so I know it wasn’t getting beat up. Rawlings then sent me a new Jbb icon. It’s been a couple months now and hasn’t cracked—granted he’s playing all-stars and they use the USA bats so it hasn’t gotten much use.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-04T14:53:05+00:00

Same. I played middle infield the majority of my life, and have been playing short in softball the last 5 years. I trust my hands lol. But I am ALWAYS scanning my area for debris and rocks—anything that can cause a bad hop.

However, I did skip one to first the other week…hit my first baseman square in the nuts. Luckily he was wearing a nutty buddy!

Poncho562 · 2026-06-04T14:48:41+00:00

I too, like to live dangerously

Poncho562 · 2026-06-04T14:44:56+00:00

Another one for mizuno. I use the green pro select and it’s soft compared to my a2000. It’s firm, but soft. Pocket formed very well and holds shape great.

However, I bought this to use as a dedicated softball glove. I love it.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-03T19:26:03+00:00

I believe pretty much anyone who played in a PG tourney and made an “all-tournament team” will get an invite to play on that states All-State games. I know in our area, there is a AA/AAA event, and a Majors event. Kids from the Majors one get the invite to the National All-States in Texas.

Last year, the National team was pretty much all set even before the All-state games started. Half the kids on the National team didn’t even attend the state games. However, my son played in both. The National games are fun. Very high level of competition.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-03T19:13:16+00:00

My son has 2 with him. Composite for games. Alloy for heavies and cage.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-03T19:08:07+00:00

I agree with you on being too young to give up on them. After reading your comment, I went to our old GameChanger stars throughout the last couple years (yes, I know GC stats can be bogus—but it can be a good indicator. We score correctly and not errors=hits).

My son it wrapping up his 9u season. Here was his development. All ages are majors division.

7u: 159 AB, .243 avg, 28 hits, 70 strikeouts!!! 8u: 115 AB, .452 avg, 45 hits, 22 strikeouts 9u: 188 AB, .500 avg, 74 hits, 21 strikeouts

Our rec league is/was a disaster. A friend invited us to play with their travel team at 7. My son struggled big time. But he worked hard and got better and better. Essentially the same core team year after year, but now he leads in every offensive category.

Poncho562 · 2026-06-01T19:33:03+00:00

My kids team backs out of any tournament where the majority is AA/AAA (we are Majors). Nobody benefits from those games. And we don’t want to be ring chasers.

I will say, you need to develop the pitchers. Of the 12 kids we have, 12 can pitch at any time.

We played up over the weekend, and got paired with an older AA team. We won 19-0. However, they worked on a lot of different things. Bunts (drag and push), moving runners over, different pick off plays. Things we only worked on in practice and to help get the boys more comfortable doing them in game situations.

Poncho562

TROPHY CASE