12 reasons we don't put our players ages 12 and under in travel ball tournaments: ⚾ 5 games in a weekend might sound fun, but their bodies aren't ready for it, especially their arms ⚾ Arm overuse from limited to no rest, with pitchers throwing back to back days ⚾ Teaching leads and pickoffs to kids 10 and under wastes practice time that should go to fundamentals ⚾ Schedules dropped mid week, so families can't plan anything ⚾ Pool play Saturday, win or go home Sunday, a format that doesn't exist in high school, college, or anywhere after ⚾ Time limits turn coaches into clock managers, stalling with mound visits instead of just playing the game ⚾ Innings limits instead of pitch counts, as if a 30 pitch inning and a 10 pitch inning are the same thing ⚾ 8 hours at the complex for 2 games, and the whole day is gone ⚾ Constant fast food consumption because there's no time to eat real food ⚾ Mismatches just to fill divisions, so there's no parity and half the games are over by the second inning ⚾ Traveling 2 hours to play teams we could play 15 minutes from home ⚾ Hotels, gate fees, parking, all stacked on top of what you already paid We ran tournament teams for 6 years before we figured this out. We recently brought competitive travel back on our terms. We built our own league. Real travel teams, Saturday doubleheaders, same opponents all season, everyone home by dinners. It's amazing.