There are travel teams and club teams for baseball, softball, soccer, ice hockey, and almost any other sport you can name.It is an issue that all parents with athletic children will have to address at some point.

You as a parent of a young athlete have probably asked yourself this question. It does not matter if you have a boy or girl, or what sport. Many times it involves multiple sports.

If you are new to the travel team game it can be exciting and it can be confusing.

Travel sports take up a considerable amount of your child’s time. Therefore, it will take up a significant amount of your time. It will also require money and patients.

The first step is to understand why there are travel teams. It all started in the 70’s, when the Supreme Court ruled that women had not been given equal treatment and access to high school and college athletic programs (Title 9 ruling). This decision created an opportunity for young women to earn college scholarships that were not available in the past.

Fast Pitch Softball started the craze by creating club teams. These teams traveled to tournaments that enable the players to show their skills and abilities. This began to have an effect on other sports for women and ultimately to all sports for both girls and boys.

However, most of the travel teams in 2005 are made up of younger players who are years from even thinking about high school let alone college, so scholarship offers are really not an issue. They are interested in developing their talent and keeping up with the competition. If you are not playing you are falling behind is a feeling that has permeated youth sports.

The highest level has travel teams compete for the best players. For the older teams this makes sense. College coaches will want to see the best players with the limited time they have available. While a college coach is scouting one player many times they will find another player to recruit. This is the reason the best 18U teams may have players from different parts of your state and sometimes from different states. Remember a coach who can say I have had XX number of players get scholarships is in demand.

The successful player is their bread and butter. This is a two edged sword, the better players will be showcased where the marginal players may not be.

Recently there has been a new phenomenon where players are not playing for their high schools because the travel team coaches will not let them, although this is not happening in all sport. This is prevalent in swimming and ice hockey. There are some states that prohibit playing on a club team in season. This is having an impact on high school soccer programs in those states. It does not matter if soccer is in season in the fall or the spring there are major tournaments through out the country that draw the best players from the sport. Therefore, the competition between the club teams and the school teams is forcing the player to choose.

Club teams are forcing many athletes to decide on one sport early on. Many club teams are playing year round which puts a tremendous amount of pressure on these children. It makes it even more difficult for the children who are playing multiple sports and have gone the club route in each.

Imagine your child going to school all day, with a practice each evening, one for soccer, one for softball. The weekends consist of games in each sport, baseball on Saturday and soccer on Sunday with the add travel time that they require.

The highest level of club or travel athletics can be very difficult, pressurized, time consuming and expensive. However, if your child does not play or is not interested in the highest level of club sports there are many, many, team available to him or her.

There are hundreds of club (travel) teams that are made up of players from the same town, league, or county. There are more and more travel teams spring up every day. Unlike the original travel teams that were primarily to showcase the players for college scholarships the new teams are for those players who feel that recreation teams are just not enough.

Nine year olds are not playing for scholarships, nether are ten year olds or eleven year olds, you get my point. Most of the players on travel teams are there to have fun, to compete at a higher level and hopefully learn more about the game they play.

Where ever you live there are travel teams at all levels, from the 18U college bound to the 8 year old local league all-stars. There are other teams that are somewhere in between these two levels.

If you are truly interested in having your child play on a travel team. There are many in your local area to choose from.