He has a live enough arm that he could be a pitcher with the right sort of coaching (I'm not the one to do it, he's beyond the level that I've player or coached). He's also not a bad athlete. He's a fairly good WR or Safety in football, a good rebounding Forward in BB, and not a bad soccer player.

I have and will continue to encourage him to play whatever he wants within reason. I've resisted the urge/temptation to get him into travel baseball, between costs, politics, coaching, and daddyball, I didn't think it was something that was going to be a good fit and would force him to specialize.

I think we finally found a program for him that has what I feel is good to excellent coaching with a light travel requirement. I feel the best part is the encouragement for the boys to play other sports and rec ball.

It is now getting to the point where he needs the coaching and the reps if he wants to compete against the travel kids. He could make make up some of the skills/training by being a good athlete and having good instincts. So if he wants to play in high school even he will need to work at it more.

I've seen a few kids who played a ton of travel ball starting at age 8. They're 14-15 now and completely burned out, including a kid that has needed surgery on his arm at 13! Kids need to be kids. As teenagers I feel they have a better idea of what sports they like and don't like and that is when it makes more sense.

I sort of chuckle this time of year watching the LLWS. Some of the US teams it seems fairly clear that you are watching a few teams of travel boys who have spent years playing together to get to this point. Good for them I suppose.

My thoughts are almost identical. I'm not getting my son involved with "high level" stuff until he's in 7th grade at earliest. Until then, Dad will suffice as much as anyone else could.