Wanted to try a thought experiment to see what everybody would do. This is mostly hypothetical, as I am not building an entire team of first-time players, but we do always have a decent number of first-timers at our tryouts, and I'm trying to come up with some better ways to identify the ones who should make the team.
For the purposes of the discussion, here's the situation: You are put in charge of a brand new high school JV team. You have no expectation of winning right away. Every girl (let's say 20, so you will have to make some cuts) who comes to you has never played organized baseball/softball before. Some have engaged in skills of the sport (played catch, gone to batting cages, played wiffle ball at the family BBQ, etc). Some of them watch the local baseball team so they have a basic understanding of the game, but some of them just want to join a high school activity. The girls who show up span the entire spectrum of athletic ability, though you probably don't have more than 1 or 2 great athletes in the bunch.
Given these parameters, how would you design a two-day tryout? What would you focus on? Would you spend a lot of time on softball skills, testing general athletic ability, some basic drills to see who can follow directions?
Remember, as the JV coach, your expectation is to find a group of girls you can develop into the next wave of varsity players in a year or two. And we can remove pitching/catching from the discussion. You can always borrow the backup varsity catcher and the #2 varsity pitcher for games until you develop your own.
For the purposes of the discussion, here's the situation: You are put in charge of a brand new high school JV team. You have no expectation of winning right away. Every girl (let's say 20, so you will have to make some cuts) who comes to you has never played organized baseball/softball before. Some have engaged in skills of the sport (played catch, gone to batting cages, played wiffle ball at the family BBQ, etc). Some of them watch the local baseball team so they have a basic understanding of the game, but some of them just want to join a high school activity. The girls who show up span the entire spectrum of athletic ability, though you probably don't have more than 1 or 2 great athletes in the bunch.
Given these parameters, how would you design a two-day tryout? What would you focus on? Would you spend a lot of time on softball skills, testing general athletic ability, some basic drills to see who can follow directions?
Remember, as the JV coach, your expectation is to find a group of girls you can develop into the next wave of varsity players in a year or two. And we can remove pitching/catching from the discussion. You can always borrow the backup varsity catcher and the #2 varsity pitcher for games until you develop your own.