Travel Baseball – Coordination

You have your team in order and are all set to travel to compete in your baseball tournaments. Everyone is focused and ready to win! Still, traveling with teens, especially 20 or more, can be a daunting task. Maybe you’re a young coach who doesn’t have kids of his own, or perhaps you do, but they aren’t sons or not teenagers. Regardless, the following Dos and Don’ts will give you a better understanding of how to make your team’s baseball tournaments the best traveling experience it can be!

Let us start with the things that you should do with your team during baseball tournaments trips. You should definitely provide enough parental supervision. There is nothing worse than not having enough people watching teenagers while out for travel baseball.

Travel Baseball Do’s & Don’ts

You may have the most disciplined team in the world, but boys will be boys, and some of them are going to try to get away with some mischief if the opportunity becomes available. By having enough parent volunteers or other chaperons present, you can prevent a lot of grief and worry.

That said, you should also make chaperons aware of what is and isn’t appropriate for members of your team. Likely, there will be some down time between games and opportunities to explore the area surrounding your baseball tournaments. Research local attractions and provide that list to chaperons. Better yet, it may be even wiser to simply travel as a group and not split up at all. That way, you and the chaperons can work together to keep an eye on everyone when you go to travel baseball tournaments.

Travel Baseball Social Dynamics

You also need to be aware of the social dynamics of the group. Likely, you have talked about teamwork with your players and try to promote a positive atmosphere. Still, your players are spending a lot more time together as they travel to baseball tournaments, and issues can arise. Pay close attention to conversations your players are having with each other and squash any negative or offensive talk about one another or in general. For example, boys this age are curious about girls and sex, and you may hear inappropriate sexual comments. And with their parents not there while on the road with travel baseball tournaments, who knows what’ll be said.

You need to stop this right away and keep the conversations clean. The same rule applies to inappropriate language, such as cursing. While you may curse on your own time, this is not a practice to be encouraged in teen boys. Obviously, make your chaperons aware of this expectation as well and choose them wisely before leaving for any travel baseball tournaments.

There are also some don’ts when it comes to traveling with teen boys. Many boys are experimenting with smoking and alcohol. Do not allow this to occur. Have a zero-tolerance policy for either of these activities.

Do not make your players fend for themselves during meal times and recreation. As stated, you can have your group split up with chaperons at times, but they should always have someone looking out for them. The more time you can spend together as an entire team the better.

It promotes a stronger team connection and keeps them out of trouble. Be sure to plan all meal times together and make sure you are providing for the players. Also, if you do not provide enough activities, players will have too much free time, and some may get into trouble.

Overall, the main key to success when traveling with teens to baseball tournaments is to provide proper supervision and plan group activities. When you do this, your players will be entertained and too busy to get in trouble. Hopefully these dos and don’ts will help you make your team’s travel baseball tournaments trips successful!

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