Thesoftballmom17
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How many days/ hours does your daughter’s HS team do tryouts? Ours does 6 days (M-Sa), 3 hours a day. (Fielding 3 teams)
Wow! We have a huge school and will have over 50 try out. It’s very competitive (I guess that’s why it’s 6 days long!)Tryouts...what are those? The team I coach had 12 sign up this year.
We have about 9 or so players that have played some form of "travel" ball. A couple real deal players and some eager ones as well. We should be competitive and fun.Ha we could fill 2 full teams w travel players!
I am planning on a travel ball style tryout, so hope to get alot in, in a short amount of time. Lots of base running timings, overhand throw speeds, catcher pop time, hitting(filming), pitcher/catchers, etc. Even if you kind of know quickly on many players, I want them to get into a mindset of being ready to compete for their playing time and be professional and respectful in how we carry ourselves. I think that starts with me and how I organize things with the coaches.
Not to hijack the thread, which I'm about to do anyway, why measure catcher pop times? In a game, even the best catchers playing D1 P5 college ball average pop times of 1.9-2.0 seconds. What everyone measures in a controlled, non-game situation is meaningless.
I see no problem in a 4 day period to tryout 50+ players if your organized and busy and have eyes at all stations or drills. It really doesn't take long to see who is good, who has potential, and who doesn't belong. Its not rocket science. Any coach that has been coaching for years can see most of these things in the first 30 minutes of warm ups and practice pretty easily. Tom has been doing this for along time and experience like his in critical in these short tryouts. heck we had tryouts with 50 plus and we only had a 3 hour time period 1 day to make decisions. Doing it 3 hours a day mon - thursday will be easy! You will know after the 1st or 2nd day who belongs where. This is still "tryouts" which means you make it or you dont make it.... it isnt everyone gets a trophy school ball. If you know most the girls are from travel ball squads and your not... you might have a long road ahead of you.We are limited by gym time. We have 29 players signed up currently. I am doing 2-3hrs a day mon-thursday, announcing any outright cuts Thursday if any, and then a 2 hour team scrimmage Friday at an indoor facility nearby. During the scrimmage I'll call players to the side for one on one explanation of whethere they made Varsity or JV or float. I really want them to understand that we are "1" team and that any JV player could be brought up to sit or participate on Varsity and visa versa.
I am planning on a travel ball style tryout, so hope to get alot in, in a short amount of time. Lots of base running timings, overhand throw speeds, catcher pop time, hitting(filming), pitcher/catchers, etc. Even if you kind of know quickly on many players, I want them to get into a mindset of being ready to compete for their playing time and be professional and respectful in how we carry ourselves. I think that starts with me and how I organize things with the coaches.
So, how long tryouts are depend on how thorough they are, especially if you have 50 players or only 12, and only a few coaches, etc.
HIGH SCHOOL TRY OUTS... 3-5 minutes.
1) All travelball players on one side of the gym...
2) all others on the other side of the gym....
there is your varsity and JV teams... who needs tryouts? lol jk...
(plz dont ever take my comments serious; it might hurt your feelings and I am just playing around....) [/QUOT
Not to hijack the thread, which I'm about to do anyway, why measure catcher pop times? In a game, even the best catchers playing D1 P5 college ball average pop times of 1.9-2.0 seconds. What everyone measures in a controlled, non-game situation is meaningless.
As a coach, I believe it is helpful to establish a baseline for the players you are testing. While guidelines are established for many of the mentioned drills there will always be some discrepancy and a variance factor needs to be considered. I can't speak for coachtomv but I think we can all agree that the numbers will only be relative to each tryout situation. In the case of a school ball tryout your core players are already known and in attendance. This is unlike a travel ball scenario where multiple tryouts on different dates with fresh faces walking in and out of the picture.
My point is; as long as the tryout is fair and each player is tested in the same manner, you get a sense of their ability in comparison to their peers. That's all that really matters. The numbers only help in the decision process used by staff for that team.
Getting back to the original topic, 3 hours a day might be too much for a school with only 12-14 girls but 3 hours a day for 50 isn't enough time. If you run the tryouts with some organization and skill, the time will fly by quickly for everyone. An entire week of tryouts wouldn't be out of the question. Repeating the same skills challenge might actually help a staff decide on what players to keep. Just like any tryout a girl might be having an off day. A chance to be tested a few days later might help you decide for some of those girls that are on the fence.
I do have 1 more point I'd like to share. Again I'm touching on something mentioned by coachtomv. The need for the girls to understand the true purpose of the "one team" concept. I always encourage coaches to use the system much like the MLB. Send players down to get field time and work on things while calling players up to help with the overall good of the varsity performance. If the girls buy into the concept of the system, younger players may get a chance to participate at the varsity level. They could get enough credits towards a varsity letter that they may not normally have a chance to earn.
Why leave a race horse base runner on the JV squad if an upcoming varsity game presents a chance for her to pinch run? Many schools due to budget cuts don't have JV squads so your JV team may not have a game on the schedule. Load those players on the bus! Perhaps it's a league game and you are playing a team with a predominate riseball pitcher. You have a JV girl that shows a real talent for hitting against pitchers like that but she can't catch a cold. That's why she's on the JV squad. Why not have her on the bench just in case.
There's a host of scenarios to consider but if you handle the entire team concept and get the girls to buy into it, everyone wins-----------and your record and popularity will too.
I see no problem in a 4 day period to tryout 50+ players if your organized and busy and have eyes at all stations or drills. It really doesn't take long to see who is good, who has potential, and who doesn't belong. Its not rocket science. Any coach that has been coaching for years can see most of these things in the first 30 minutes of warm ups and practice pretty easily. Tom has been doing this for along time and experience like his in critical in these short tryouts. heck we had tryouts with 50 plus and we only had a 3 hour time period 1 day to make decisions. Doing it 3 hours a day mon - thursday will be easy! You will know after the 1st or 2nd day who belongs where. This is still "tryouts" which means you make it or you dont make it.... it isnt everyone gets a trophy school ball. If you know most the girls are from travel ball squads and your not... you might have a long road ahead of you.
are there any summer camps put on by the head coaches to try and get more players involved? or maybe the coaches can go to local rec programs during the summer and to try and "sell" their program a little better at the younger ages. Maybe get more involved at the middle school level. There are a lot of things that you can do to try and help get players interested and involved. I agree there are definitely different type of players and levels of commitment. Even fearful players.... players that are not travelball players might be afraid to even go out for the team for fear of being rejected. anyhow... good luck!You guys are debating tryouts, we just try to get girls to come out for the team at our HS. Metrics are great especially if they show improvements over the year and they see the results. Hard to develop players in the limited time you get and limited amount of participation. We see that TB player come to the off season stuff because they have a desire or drive the other girls just play for fun. Two different concepts of playing, both ok, just different.
You guys are debating tryouts, we just try to get girls to come out for the team at our HS. Metrics are great especially if they show improvements over the year and they see the results. Hard to develop players in the limited time you get and limited amount of participation. We see that TB player come to the off season stuff because they have a desire or drive the other girls just play for fun. Two different concepts of playing, both ok, just different.
If your coaches don't have time to help recruit, then I would talk to your current players and ask for their help. They can even help train some of the younger players and teach them how to play at a higher level. Leaders are very valuable and it would help the younger less experienced ones feel at ease when their teammates offer help. Also, go to the school for help. You can post stuff on school boards, word of mouth..... get involved in fund raisers. The community as a whole can chip in, start a facebook page, do a community fund raiser, go to the other local events like youth football, baseball soccer and try to recruit from there. Get the softball team involved and ask / make current players go out to these other local events and post flyers, work concession stands with softball tshirts on. Put on summer camps for 8 years old - 18 yrs old... Get the word out! If you sit and wait........ your basically doing nothing proactive to solve the problem.You guys are debating tryouts, we just try to get girls to come out for the team at our HS. Metrics are great especially if they show improvements over the year and they see the results. Hard to develop players in the limited time you get and limited amount of participation. We see that TB player come to the off season stuff because they have a desire or drive the other girls just play for fun. Two different concepts of playing, both ok, just different.