u/HappyCoconutty

We live in the greater Houston area, my daughter is 8, does really well in rec co-ed basketball, baseball and flag football. She wants to keep playing all 3 and is a sports nut. We started her in basketball training once a week this year once we saw that her new girls rec league was very behind what she was used to. The league rules are no stealing, no fast breaks, no free throws, 8ft rim, etc.) and she ends up scoring 98% of the points. When I observe similar age girls at the AAU/travel teams in our area, she is below their level but not too far off. 

The skill gap between the 2 options seems so wide by the time the girls get to middle school. I asked a baseball parent (who has 2 older girls in AAU basketball) and she said that if my daughter doesn't join an AAU program by 5th grade, it will be too late to catch up in middle school. Is this what you all are seeing as well?

This would mean that my daughter would need to increase her basketball hours/ frequency and won't have time for her other sports that she loves. She isn't willing to give those up and I don't want to pay so much money at the elementary age and end up also end up with ACL surgeries by middle school either (this mom said their coaches said its better to tear the ACLs earlier than later, wtf?).

Academics are also a big priority for us and I know she wants to join some math competition teams too but picking one sport to commit to seems like it eliminates time for other extra curriculars. 

Are you all also seeing that the skill gap is hard to catch up on by the time middle school rolls around? 

My daughter is 8 and has been playing rec baseball for 3 years (last 2 are coach pitch) and we will be moving to softball soon. We have had a great experience in baseball despite usually being the only girl on the team. I was shocked to hear from another mom recently that she can’t wait to move her daughter to softball so that there are less issues with coaches.

I had no idea what she was talking about, the coaches in our division get along well and support each other before and after the game. They will help out the other team if a player needs guidance, fill in if the pitching coach is absent, etc. The parent replied that when coaches call each other out for stepping past the line when pitching or changing the batting order up mid game that it feels like too much drama or focus on technicalities and this stuff won’t matter in girls softball for this age group.

I find that hard to believe but we have never done girls softball. Is this true? We are primarily moving to softball next fall because our regional baseball team doesn’t have a 9U team and the 10U kid pitch boys are a little too much to put my 8 year old with.

editing to add: my kid is in a few other team sports and I haven’t seen parents in our age division with any behavior issues yet. Perhaps because our leagues have been so small (max 4 other teams to play against). I think the girls softball league is 3 times the size