playing up

I can only give you my sons experience as a reference.

It goes like this.....

At 8yrs old Between the Spring and Fall seasons of LL he was asked to tryout for a 10U AAU team. I let him go to the tryouts just to let him see what it was all about. It was going to be more involved than the LL tryouts he was used to. We went for the fun of it.
He was asked back two more times and then cut. He thought the whole experince was fun because some of his friends were there too.
He really did not care. He was 8.

At 10 He was asked again to tryout for an AAU team. this time after three weeks of working with the team he made the team. However there were alot of politics between the AC's and the HC and about 3/4 of the way through the season the HC kicked him off the team.
At age 11 after the HC had left the team the other coaches begged him back. That team just boke up at the end of this Fall as a 12U team after 3 season together. He is now on a new team (12U) and enjoying it.
BTW we have started off this Spring season 5-1.
I cant tell you when to begin travel ball. It is different for everyone. that is how ours worked out.