- Aug 13, 2012
- 61
- 6
When holding tryouts, what drills do you run through? Give me an idea on what you as a coach are looking for. The age group I am looking at is 10u but this could apply to any. Thanks!
Idea's for tryouts
- Thread starter townhound
- Start date
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Four thoughts:
First, for perspective, I'm coaching 14U now, second time through. I coached 12U through 18U before this team. So my thoughts might be skewed more to older players.
First thought -- About 90% of the time, you can figure who can play and who can't from their warm-up throws. The only question after that is who has potential to be a player that you can develop.
Second thought - Skills I'm looking for in developmental players -- speed and power. So I always do timed home to first and home to home running times. Second, I always do front toss hitting on the field -- I want to see what they can do with a ball in a way you can't really tell in a cage, for the most part.
Third thought -- Make sure you have a drill that requires them to listen to you explain it, and then try to execute it -- you want to see how coachable they are, and their attitude about listening and observing. Might be something more important for older (14U and up) girls
Fourth -- you want to see these skills in context -- that's why I prefer having tryouts with my players there, doing a lot of my usual practice drills -- nothing fancy -- for instance, on throwing, we almost always in practice do a short round the horn throwing drill (multiple players at every base, with 24 throws in one direction, then 24 in the other, players rotating in and out to take throws). Right away, you can figure out how their arms fit with the talent on your team -- strength and accuracy
First, for perspective, I'm coaching 14U now, second time through. I coached 12U through 18U before this team. So my thoughts might be skewed more to older players.
First thought -- About 90% of the time, you can figure who can play and who can't from their warm-up throws. The only question after that is who has potential to be a player that you can develop.
Second thought - Skills I'm looking for in developmental players -- speed and power. So I always do timed home to first and home to home running times. Second, I always do front toss hitting on the field -- I want to see what they can do with a ball in a way you can't really tell in a cage, for the most part.
Third thought -- Make sure you have a drill that requires them to listen to you explain it, and then try to execute it -- you want to see how coachable they are, and their attitude about listening and observing. Might be something more important for older (14U and up) girls
Fourth -- you want to see these skills in context -- that's why I prefer having tryouts with my players there, doing a lot of my usual practice drills -- nothing fancy -- for instance, on throwing, we almost always in practice do a short round the horn throwing drill (multiple players at every base, with 24 throws in one direction, then 24 in the other, players rotating in and out to take throws). Right away, you can figure out how their arms fit with the talent on your team -- strength and accuracy
What am I looking for. Orphan pitchers.
