QRunning Tryouts

I've been trying to find a tryout routine for sometime. One that doesn't waste any time and also gives the players the time needed to show off their skills. I presently run them in stations, which is okay but you can't always get a good look at the player. Any ideas?

AI assume you are asking for more advice than is covered in the site on Running Tryouts.

The area of concern for you may be having to perform a dual role - running the tryout and scouting the players. Nothing is more important than getting helkp - even from none baseball parents. Theire role is simply to keep players cycling through multiple stations, so that you can focus on scouting. Biggest challenge of course is to know who to look at and what to look for as a scout.

1. Some guidelines... Pick in order of team priorities - first find pitchers, then power hitters, catcher, middle infield, etc (Your personal order may be different.)
2. If a player has one obvious talent you really need (home run power, great glove, whatever) then stop looking at him for the rest of the day - you know he's a pick.
3. Part of the exercise is also deciding who not to look at. Don't waste time with drills that don't have an elimination factor. So, for instance, in the Round the Bags drill, in a normal practice you would keep everybody in, at a tryout one miss (or two) and a player is pulled to the sidelines. (If you don't want that kid to feel bad, have someone available to work with him on that skill, but you keep your focus on the best.)

Hope this helps. And remember. Even MLB scouts don't always pick winners!

QTimely Advice

I am a former Division 1 coach now coaching class D high school ball. The MHSAA doesn't allow practice until about March 5-10 and our first game is last week of March. I would love to get ideas from other coaches in the same situation as to how they prepare their pitchers in time for game play. We have the additional problem of practicing in a gym that is only 60 ft long by 45 ft wide. Thanks for your help.

A2-3 weeks is not an impossibly short prep time - if your pitchers have been working on their own in the off-season with private pitching instructors. If not, the challenge will be a combination of throwing and conditioning that won't burn out their arms.

The basic approach would be every second day arm, alternate days body (no arm work at all). This to allow the rest and recovery cycle. Also I would start with 20 warmup / 20 game pitches in first outing and slowly advance with another 10 warm ups each time and another 5 game pitches (another batter in other words), through until you are at 50 warmups - then level of there while you continue to add 1-2 "batters" to each game pitch cycle until you are at 50-60.

This should take two weeks.

First sign of stress/strain that doesn't alleviate in 1 rest day then drop back to previous pitch counts. On alternate days, do wind sprints, lower body work (legs, hips). And in both spend some time on the psychology of pitching. Plus keep to fastballs for first week, introduce fastballs with movement (i.e. cutters, sinkers) the second week plus some work on breaking pitches. As for size of space - with catch nets you can still have them full throwing. See the team drill list for some ideas for fielding in tight space (after all, pitchers do need to work on fielding sometimes).

QWarmup Shortcuts

This is a question from a player, but it's an issue coaches have to deal with all the time...

When i pratice by myself i usually warm up and stretch. Do you have any tips for a really quick warm up. Because when I practice by myself I don't really want to spend 20 minutes stretching and running around where I could be working on skills.

AA warm up is to prepare your muscles, energy and cardio systems for hard strenuous work. As you are likely to pack more in (i.e. work harder) in a practice - or solo session - than during a game, you need to do the full warm-up if you want the full results. It seems to me you are serious about this game. Well, when you're not practicing someone else is. Only a very few make it all the way - my money is on the guy who doesn't look to get out of the work effort required. That's not a baseball lesson, that's a life lesson. Work hard, do well. Work harder, succeed.