High School tryouts this week, what all drills would you run?

Good morning. We start high school varsity softball tryouts today and will last two days. Right now I can pick out about 9 players who played fall ball for us who will end up on the varsity roster, but looking to keep around 12 on the roster.

As far as drills for tryouts, what would you recommend?

- Infield/outfield work
- Cage work/live hitting? (I know there will be girls who have never hit a fast pitch before, just slow pitch)

We have roughly 1 hour 50 min to about 2 hours to work with each day.

What else would you incorporate that would fit in the 2 hour window?

Thanks

Welcome to DFP.

Ok. I am gonna go ahead say what everyone is thinking, but too nice to say. I am not trying to being mean and I am not trolling.

You are a softball coach and having tryouts this week??? Is this your first season to coach? You should have been thinking about this for a long time.

You need to come up with daily practice plan and keep it fresh, keep the players engaged, keep it snappy and no sitting around. You might focus on fielding one day and hitting another. Befriend a local TB coach who has been doing it for sometime. Offer to buy him breakfast or coffee or beer and pick his brain.

As for tryouts: Hopefully you have other coaches to help out. More than anything it should look like a normal practice other than timing the players. Make everything as close to game speed as possible, unless you need to teach or explain something. You will need to allow time for the players to stretch, warm up and throw before you get going. By watching this exercise, you will be able to see what you have pretty quickly.
-Time each player--Home to 1B and Home to Home
-Various Infield/Outfield drills for all players to see where they might fit in the puzzle. Can the outfielders hit the cutoffs? Encourage communication while the ball is in play and you will see your leaders emerge.
-Let each player warm up by hitting off the tee into a net and maybe some side toss to get them warmed up before they hit.
-I would do front toss for hitting: Can they bunt or slap? Hit away. I don't know if I would do live pitching with your pitchers. You need to control the hitting tryout by pitching front toss. You want to see the players take swings and to see the flight of the ball or lack of flight.
-Catchers--work on throw downs to each base, fielding a bunt, foul pop ups, blocking technique, etc.
-Pitchers--pitch to a catcher-pretty straight forward. What are her pitches?

Other than that Google is friend. I hope all goes well and just know this site has a wealth of information if you take the time to read over the posts.

First off, I don’t believe 12 players will be enough unless you have a large pool of JV players to move up if necessary. I would have at least two catchers and two pitchers. Three of each would be better, if you can get them in at other positions. 14 would be my minimum dressing for varsity, especially if the schedule works out where kids can play both varsity and JV.

Have everybody take infield and outfield. Find the athletes. You don’t necessarily even have to work them at specific positions. Get them as many reps as possible to make the best decision on who can field, catch fly balls and run. I would burn an entire day hitting live pitching. It’s slow, boring, but you have to find hitters. If they can’t put the bat on the ball, pitchers excluded, they’re not going to help you this year.

If you are trying to develop some talent I would not limit yourself to 12 players. I think 16-18 may be a better number if you find that many girls who you think can play without risking serious bodily injury.