private instructor

[cdsulhoff]

This may be a slanted opinion because I'm affiliated with Little League, but the experience I've had with anything that Ripken is involved with, is really more about the money, than the kids. I know that's probably not a popular opinion in this state, but I'd like to think I'm not letting my bias affect my answer.

You know I have been torn about letting my son go to the Cal Ripken camp. He asked us if he could to the camp when he was 8 years old. My husband made a deal with him about waiting until he is 11 to go. Well that is next year. I am afraid of spending $1250 for camp and he stuck in a camp where he will come out with nothing but the experience of meeting Cal Ripken Jr. We know that is why he wants to go to. He wants to meet Cal Ripken Jr. I want him to come away with some damn good knowledge of Ball for that kind of money..
It is true with Cal Ripken’s camps and tournament’s it is all about the money. However, we are a part of the SYB family, which in turn are a part of Cal Ripken. Now the league ball is not bad at all. Yes, we have our up and downs, however for the most part the kids do have a good experience. You do hear the "my kids had a bad coach bit". However, coaching is a volunteer position and we do not always get enough “good” coaches to coach unfortunately. There are parents who want a Super coach. On the other hand, our youngest plays Football and we play for the Steelers. We do not play SYB football. I was told from others experience that they were too much about winning and not about fun. I do not want that for my kids.
ONE might think that my oldest that plays travel ball is not having fun, when he is having all the fun in the world. One might think I am pushing my son too hard in a sport. When the case is that, he has a passion for this sport. I have to force him to stop playing to get him to come inside. He would practice non-stop if I let him. I feel that every one has a hyper focus attention. His happen to be sports.

 

[kwillia]

You know I have been torn about letting my son go to the Cal Ripken camp. He asked us if he could to the camp when he was 8 years old. My husband made a deal with him about waiting until he is 11 to go. Well that is next year. I am afraid of spending $1250 for camp and he stuck in a camp where he will come out with nothing but the experience of meeting Cal Ripken Jr. We know that is why he wants to go to. He wants to meet Cal Ripken Jr. I want him to come away with some damn good knowledge of Ball for that kind of money..
It is true with Cal Ripken’s camps and tournament’s it is all about the money. However, we are a part of the SYB family, which in turn are a part of Cal Ripken. Now the league ball is not bad at all. Yes, we have our up and downs, however for the most part the kids do have a good experience. You do hear the "my kids had a bad coach bit". However, coaching is a volunteer position and we do not always get enough “good” coaches to coach unfortunately. There are parents who want a Super coach. On the other hand, our youngest plays Football and we play for the Steelers. We do not play SYB football. I was told from others experience that they were too much about winning and not about fun. I do not want that for my kids.
ONE might think that my oldest that plays travel ball is not having fun, when he is having all the fun in the world. One might think I am pushing my son too hard in a sport. When the case is that, he has a passion for this sport. I have to force him to stop playing to get him to come inside. He would practice non-stop if I let him. I feel that every one has a hyper focus attention. His happen to be sports.

Okay.

 

[Softballkid]

My 9 year old loves baseball.

I am looking at this:

http://www.ripkencamps.com/campcalendar.cfm?CampKey=48

If anybody has had any experience with this camp, please post.

A guy I work with has sent both his kids there, his oldest about 3-4 years in a row...and he praises the place, says its an EXCELLENT camp....

 

[BadGirl]

Okay.

No shiat.

 

[cdsulhoff]

A guy I work with has sent both his kids there, his oldest about 3-4 years in a row...and he praises the place, says its an EXCELLENT camp....

I guess I will find out next year about the camp since he will be going to the camp. Trust me he is not letting us forget this one. So the other day he also told us for his Birthday present he want a Plasma Bat. Is he EFFin crazy. That bat is $199 at least. Plus I am thinking that the barrel is too big for Ripken league anyways. :shrug:

I do not want to spend that much for a bat where I know will get all messed up in the dug out. KIDS!!!!

 

[Softballkid]

I guess I will find out next year about the camp since he will be going to the camp. Trust me he is not letting us forget this one. So the other day he also told us for his Birthday present he want a Plasma Bat. Is he EFFin crazy. That bat is $199 at least. Plus I am thinking that the barrel is too big for Ripken league anyways. :shrug:

I do not want to spend that much for a bat where I know will get all messed up in the dug out. KIDS!!!!

The softball version of the PLASMA is 299.99 :shrug: does 199 sound so bad now


The bats I own run anywhere from 240-375..............and they wont last as long as his baseball bat will

 

[fddog]

I guess I will find out next year about the camp since he will be going to the camp. Trust me he is not letting us forget this one. So the other day he also told us for his Birthday present he want a Plasma Bat. Is he EFFin crazy. That bat is $199 at least. Plus I am thinking that the barrel is too big for Ripken league anyways. :shrug:

I do not want to spend that much for a bat where I know will get all messed up in the dug out. KIDS!!!!

not sure what the rules are for 10u but the bat must be under 31" for rookie

 

[cdsulhoff]

Well first I normally spend no more than $80 on a bat for him. They do not know how to take care of them and then all the kids want to play with it. I had this problem last year with his helmet. He has a special paint job on his helmet where it looks like a skull and a baseball is coming out of the skull. Now he let his teammates where it also. It confused the hell out of me. At a game I am thinking it is my son but happens to be another kid. I had to eventually tell him that it was his helmet and I do not want to see others wearing it.

I guess if it is for his birthday. He will not be getting too much more than that. He also wants so special batting gloves??? Don' ask I am just going by what my son say he wants.. What is so special about some batting gloves?

Here is the bat he wants!!!!
http://www.aluminumbats.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2348

Here is the other bat I was thinking about!!!
http://www.mcsports.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1968470

 

[cdsulhoff]

He wants liquid metal gloves. Who knew they made liquid metal gloves!!!

What is with Liquid metal??????

 

[Softballkid]

He wants liquid metal gloves. Who knew they made liquid metal gloves!!!

What is with Liquid metal??????

the gloves it just the color.... in the bats, its a new metal thats appearantly stronger than titanium, and all that...the magazine I was just looking at has a whole spiel on it

 

[cdsulhoff]

the gloves it just the color.... in the bats, its a new metal thats appearantly stronger than titanium, and all that...the magazine I was just looking at has a whole spiel on it

What mag were you looking at? I tell you having kids in sports can be down right expensive. Especially when they travel and you want your kid to have nice equipment. The coach got his son a nice light weight bat it is a
DeMarini Vexxum which is a very nice bat. My son got to use it and he slug the crap out of the ball, so of course he wants a light weight bat.. I told him it the person swinging the bat. HAHA. He was like whatever mom..

Oh here is what the gloves look like
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...ageBucket=0&parentPage=family&searchId=693889

They are not expensive at all! Now I was talking to my son and he said that there are also gloves that heated in the cold weather. He was wanting a pair of those for when we start playing in march and it is still cold out.

This is what his helmet looks like. http://www.helmetguy.com/gallery/baseball/Full_Skull_and_Ball
This guy does really good work and he uses car paint on the helmet. And he is cheap I think we only spent $72 for my son's helmet..

 

[FastCarsSpeed]

LOL I think I have one more year before travel teams start for my daughter. She ended up making all stars this year and has been contemplating not going to 2 weeks of away camp this summer and playing all stars instead. She is not super competitive at all but loves playing softball. As long as she's having fun and isnt getting burned out its ok in my book.

I would try the video's with your son. Im sure the traveling team coaches have batting cage practice and work on enough pitching there. If not I would just as the coach for some pointers with you and your son to work on.

 

[FastCarsSpeed]

Im really surprised your league allows the kids to wear a helmet like that. Our league strictly prohibits painting or stickering of helmets minus the certification stickers.

What mag were you looking at? I tell you having kids in sports can be down right expensive. Especially when they travel and you want your kid to have nice equipment. The coach got his son a nice light weight bat it is a
DeMarini Vexxum which is a very nice bat. My son got to use it and he slug the crap out of the ball, so of course he wants a light weight bat.. I told him it the person swinging the bat. HAHA. He was like whatever mom..

Oh here is what the gloves look like
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...ageBucket=0&parentPage=family&searchId=693889

They are not expensive at all! Now I was talking to my son and he said that there are also gloves that heated in the cold weather. He was wanting a pair of those for when we start playing in march and it is still cold out.

This is what his helmet looks like. http://www.helmetguy.com/gallery/baseball/Full_Skull_and_Ball
This guy does really good work and he uses car paint on the helmet. And he is cheap I think we only spent $72 for my son's helmet..

 

[cdsulhoff]

Im really surprised your league allows the kids to wear a helmet like that. Our league strictly prohibits painting or stickering of helmets minus the certification stickers.

I Have heard of some league not letting the use of painted helmet. But so far we have had no problems at any tournaments of league games. All of the kids on the travel team have some sort of painted helmet. What league is your daughter in??

 

[FastCarsSpeed]

currently hughesville but we are moving over to SYB for the fall it looks like.

 

[cdsulhoff]

currently hughesville but we are moving over to SYB for the fall it looks like.

Is Hughesville a National or American Little league?

 

[Otter]

I tell you having kids in sports can be down right expensive.

Consider yourself lucky he isn't in hockey.

 

[cdsulhoff]

Consider yourself lucky he isn't in hockey.

I know been there. My husband wanted him to play hockey. My son started taking slap shot on my husband and he was not even two at the time. I have pic of this. We put him in ice skating at three and man he was doing circle around me.. It was when I looked into putting him on a team that I freaked out. It was expensive to just put the kid on the team. then the equipment was even more. Thank god he did not want to be a goalie. Good G-d goalie equipment is outrageous. I remember going to Caravans with my hubby to get hockey stuff. All of his friend worked there so I think I spent most of my time around hockey.. Man, did I obtain a lot of knowledge in hockey. Now my hubby does not play and we have a couple of grand worth of gear in the garage collecting dust and he wont get rid of it. I guess he is thinking he is going to play again in the future. All I know it is taking up space that I can use.
Do you know about the roller hockey that use to happed in the skating rink in Calvert? My husband's team was the champ's of the adult league. The team was name Stinger's..

 

[Otter]

Do you know about the roller hockey that use to happed in the skating rink in Calvert? My husband's team was the champ's of the adult league. The team was name Stinger's..

No, but my son has probably traded punches with him..

 

[cattitude]

No, but my son has probably traded punches with him..

The Stingers

too funny