This should never be a decision entered into lightly (for the sake of your player's happiness and love of the sport). For starters, if you feel that your kid is ready and eager to try out for a travel team, take the time to ask questions of other parents in your community whose own kids have played for that travel team in previous years. Most of the time these parents will not only be glad to answer your questions, but they'll often provide details about matters you may not think to ask about. Listen carefully to these parents' comments, and take notes -- they can give you invaluable info about the time commitment, financial expense, the head coach, assistant coaches, other parents, the competition, etc.
And remember, the more parents you contact and the more opinions you can find, the better informed you'll be about whether this is the right step for your child. Sometimes, especially if the youngster is athletically talented but has not yet gone through a growth spurt yet, playing on a travel team where they are going to be one of the smaller athletes will not be good for their sense of self-confidence or self-esteem. If so, there's nothing wrong with letting another year go by (and letting them grow some more).
Why this advice? Because most travel team coaches prefer to play the youngsters who are physically larger than their peers. Makes no difference what the sport is, or how much athletic skill the larger child may have in relation to the smaller athlete. There's an old saying in sports, "The big kids have to show that they can't -- and the little kids have to show that they can."
(excerpted from The Sports Parenting Edge, by Rick Wolff)
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