Kind of like picking out fruit

When selecting a travel team for your child what should you look for?

A question I get asked a lot of times just reworded. Volleyball is my thing so I always get parents asking me to tell them about my club or my favorite way it's worded... "so what do ya'll do?" I am in the south so we get the "ya'll" thrown in there. I am never sure how to answer this question. The sales rep inside me wants to give an answer fitted to who I am talking to but the coach in me wants to tell them about all the smart hard work we put in to volleyball. I end up giving the parent a general overview of what my club does and gives to the athletes.  The reason for that kind of answer is parents don't know or don't know how to phrase what they are looking for in travel sports teams.

Recently I learned about the joys of cooking with bananas.  I knew about banana bread or banana pudding (again, I am in the south) and like everyone else I knew about just eating them! For the three ways I just listed to use bananas for cooking or eating, all require a ripe to very ripe banana; therefore, when going banana shopping you would look for the ripest ones the store offered. What about soup? Banana fries?  There is a whole world of dishes that require green bananas and would require you selecting the greenest bananas the store had to offer. If you didn't find the kind of banana's you wanted at one store you would simply switch stores till you found what you wanted or made a compromise.

Bananas are a easy metaphor for us to see. When picking out a travel team you have to know what end product you want to make. You don't pick up green bananas and make banana pudding with them.  If you want your child to be a great shooter in basketball then you have 1. ID that is what you want. 2. Find a team that has coaches that focus on shooting. 3. Will allow your child the chance to get to shoot. 4. Alumni or teams that scored a lot of points. 5. Will take your child.

Figure out what you are looking for in a club. Ask your child what he or she wants to do with the sport. If they are just wanting to be a team and have friends... don't waste $$$ on that. Look for cheaper clubs.  If your child wants to be the next Mad Bum (MLB pitcher) then you better find a team that has good pitching coaches. Don't just ask directors or coaches what they do in general terms. Ask particular questions and have reasons for asking. Picking a travel team is kind of like picking a fruit. You don't pick the rotten ones and you know what you want to do with it when you buy it.