How long is too long for a tryout?

Based on what I have seen 90 minutes for one age group seems standard in my area. One team seems to be pushing it much longer. Any opinions on what would be too long?

3 hours. Typical practice time. Coaches want to see if the players can actually make it through the workout.

Many do four hours here. Sometimes that will include extra time for pitchers and catchers and they'll let the others go early.

Most B teams around here do 90mins -2hrs and just skills evaluation. The A teams tack on another 2 hrs for scrimmage and P&C evaluations.

3-4 hours is standard for the 14U and up A level teams around here.

Our org does 3 hours

For the most part tryout are easy for a coach. If you need 5 players the first 3 or 4 will be an easy choice. it's the tweeners that are hard. I believe the time depends on how long it takes to be productive. If you have 20 players trying out versus 5 it makes a big difference.

I personally like to watch for some of the off the action attitudes of kids. It drives me nuts when the 5th person in line throws to the wrong base after the last 4 just went. I love to see the kids who backup the person in front of them and not so much the kids who have their backs turned when it's not their turn. If we are hitting and ask the others to shag I keep an eye on which kids hustle out to the field after they hit and actually go for balls versus the ones who just stand around. Talent is a big deal, but when you are in the middle I want kids who want to play hard all the time.

Off topic a little bit.

Most Teams seem to offer private tryouts. How do those work and last?

A tryout that is long to the point of being even over 4 hours that is well planned, organized and gives the player a lot of chances to show skills is actually a good thing.
A tryout that is long, but inefficient and un-organized and the girls stand around a lot is bad is a bad thing.

I remember back in the day, my DD was planning to go to consecutive try-outs like one after the other if she could get out of the 1st tryout first. But the first try out took along time and was ran poorly. She didn't get to go to the 2nd tryout. I always wondered if it was just coincidence or if the coach intentionally dragged it out so this set of girls wouldn't get a chance to go to the competitors tryout.

Softball scholar said:

A tryout that is long to the point of being even over 4 hours that is well planned, organized and gives the player a lot of chances to show skills is actually a good thing.
A tryout that is long, but inefficient and un-organized and the girls stand around a lot is bad is a bad thing.

I remember back in the day, my DD was planning to go to consecutive try-outs like one after the other if she could get out of the 1st tryout first. But the first try out took along time and was ran poorly. She didn't get to go to the 2nd tryout. I always wondered if it was just coincidence or if the coach intentionally dragged it out so this set of girls wouldn't get a chance to go to the competitors tryout.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I hate the tryouts when there are 50 girls there and only one girls bats at a time while the other 49 stand around "shagging" balls. It's so much efficient when they set up a barrier side by side and have two coaches soft tossing and two girls hitting. Otherwise, half the time the girls are there is spent standing around.