Softball Practice Organization
So…. I was out walking the dogs at a local park in March and what do i see? AWESOME! Young boys and girls playing what looks like baseball or softball in the field. But wait! It appears to be a tryout. How do you conduct a softball baseball tryout?
I see 4 adults standing beside each other with clip boards, an adult hitting ground balls, with an adult on each side of him at the plate, and 2 adults standing with clipboards beside the loooooong lineup of 20 young boys and girls maybe age 11 or 12 and of course…. 1 player between second and third base fielding a ground ball before he goes between 1st and second base to field the next one and throw it in. Hmmmmm… are all of these adults evaluating this one athlete? I am thinking yes because they all have clipboards.
I wonder what the rest of the prospects lined up against the fence watching are thinking, doing and feeling? I would guess that they are watching their competitor field ground balls if they are close to the front of the line so they know when it will be their turn. The others might be watching… or they might be talking about how cold they are being that it was not a warm sunny day but a cloudy drizzly rainy day and sort of cold. They might be bored, anxious, thinking about their soccer game the next day or maybe they are hungry and would rather be doing something “funner”
I was sort of stunned watching the whole thing. Like watching a car accident almost. One player is active while the other 19 stand and wait to be active. Wow. Maybe I am thinking that the adults could have been better utilized to perhaps have stations where all of the players could be active. There were 6 adults with clip boards. I bet that it would only take 1 to evaluate the ability of an 11 year old to field and throw a ground ball. With 4 stations and 5 players to each station, they could have gone through all of the stations and been evaluated by 4 coaches at the different stations doing the same skill under different conditions. I bet that would have been “funner”
The more that are active the more that are learning and enjoying this great sport! See the coaching resources page for testing resources
