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Just Softball
by Dave
Friday, August 08, 2008
For me, tomorrow is the start of the official tryout season. My team will be conducting tryouts all weekend. My kids will be attending various organizations' tryouts this weekend, the next one, possibly some weekdays over the next few weeks, etc. I expect that many of you will be trying out for teams as well. So I thought I'd say a few words about tryouts before you head out to face this sometimes daunting task.
First of all, it's just softball. Really, that's all that is involved, playing a little softball. You know softball, don't you? You've played it a few times. You've been to countless practices even if you've never dabbled in this travel stuff before. There is nothing much aside from knowing how to practice that you need to know.
Basically, most tryouts are run like fairly well organized practice. You fill out a little paperwork telling the organization what experience and training you have had. Don't fret if you've had neither training nor much experience. That likely won't be considered to exclude you from the roster. They're just asking in case it might matter to them. Most of the time, this information just sits on a piece of paper which is never consulted much.
After the paperwork is completed, if there are a large number of participants, you may receive a number to paste to the back of your shirt or something to hang around your neck so those who are evaluating your skills can make notes about you. That's far easier and less embarrassing than asking "hey you, what's your name" after you make an awful error or dazzle everyone with your fielding skills. If there are more than 20 kids at the tryouts and they don't hand out numbers, there may be something wrong about this circumstance. That doesn't mean there is something wrong but how are they supposed to evaluate a bunch of kids when they don't know who they are looking at?
At this point, there will probably be some opportunity to warm-up. The group may do some running, agility work, or baserunning. Hopefully the organization provides kids the opportunity to stretch, etc. But sometimes they don't and while that, in and of itself, is maybe a bad sign, you should still endeavor to warm-up and stretch a bit on your own right after the papers are filed. Did I forget to say come early because you need to get the paperwork out of the way and the last thing you want to do is arrive right at the starting time in order to be the last kid filling out paperwork while everyone else is warming up.
If girls are told to warm-up by throwing, it is not a great idea to try to dazzle the coaches immediately by getting your arm up to its usual 65 mph speed while loosening up from 30 feet. Instead, use the opportunity to get loose and move around a bit. I feel it would be better if girls demonstrated that they know how to loosen up. It drives me nuts when I have seen my teams in the past whipping the ball from close quarters before practice gets going. Invariably, one of the kids whipping the ball gets stiffness or soreness in her arm or shoulder and needs to sit down right as practice gets going. When I see kids trying out who whip the ball at each other from 30 feet, the hair raises on the back of my neck.
More important than showing one's arm strength from 30 feet is a continuous flow of throws and catches. If kids can't have a clean game of catch from 30 feet, what's going to happen when they move back to 60 or begin doing long toss? I want to see balls flying back and forth, hitting leather, not grass. Ideally, when there are those few errant throws, I'd like to see feet moving to the ball rather than arms stretching out in failed attempts to make catches. Even better than that would be a bunch of girls who move their feet to the ball, shuffle into throwing position athletically, and then make nice, even, accurate throws back and forth to each other. I would much rather see this than a bunch of balls bouncing around and one or two girls showing Div 1 throwing arms as they try out for my 12U team. I can't speak for all coaches but when I see one kid whipping the ball rather than warming up, I can't help but think, "there is a poor teammate who is just oh so sure she's the best kid around." That is probably a faulty judgment but that's what I'm thinking when I see this. I can't help it.
After warm-ups, perhaps some running or agility stuff, usually fielding drills begin. Some tryouts involve a line of grils receiving a couple grounders from some spot in the infield and then "next." Some tryouts involve a coach actually given instruction to the girls as they field a few balls. When that happens, the coaches are possibly more interested in how the kid responds to correction than they are concerned that she is ready for the next level with the skills she already possesses. Every organization, team, and group of coaches have different perspectives on things. But if a coach is providing instruction, very likely he or she is trying to see how you react to constructive criticism. Give me nine girls who react well and I suspect I can build a decent team. Give me 12 superstars who will only take instruction from mom and dad during tournaments and I might as well back up my equipment and go home.
Because big tryouts with lots of girls are often difficult to run, there can be a lot of standing around between iterations of drills. Not many kids will ever decide to do this but to the extent you are standing still, it would be best to keep doing some sort of stretching so you are limber when your turn comes. Very few kids do this because they generally like to socialize in line. But if you are cold and tight when your turn comes, don't blame me. I warned you to try to remain loose.
Usually after infielding drills, there is some sort of outfield drills. At the younger ages, this can be really trying. Some girls have never fielded a flyball before. Even at older ages, when the catchers are forced to do everything everybody else does, there are some tough moments during the outfield drills. The thing to remember is, don't get overly stressed out. Just do the best you can and let errors roll off your back. If a coach sees some kid go into a meltdown because she missed a flyball, he may be more concerned about the meltdown than the error. And when she notes that she's trying out for catcher not outfield, the coach might begin wondering what will happen when she suffers a passed ball with a runner on third the first time. I often find myself watching catchers in running drills or fielding flyballs and feeling sorry for them. I know they are going to be very tired when the catcher part of the tryout begins. But that's part of the overall experience. And the pitcher go through the same thing.
Once everything besides hitting, pitching and catching has been completed, it is generally time to hit. I expect that some kids will get into the batter's box with the expectation of drilling the ball so hard that the coaches will come up to them and demand that they sign team commitment papers after the first pitch from the machine. I've never actually seen that happen. Actually, I've never seen any kid actually hit the ball particularly well in tryouts. There are reason for this but I just want to say that I've never been impressed with how hard anyone has hit the ball in tryouts, particularly not on the first pitch!
Usually hitting tryouts are run via some sort of machine. Usually they use crummy balls - sometimes the kind of balls you aren't supposed to hit with that new composite bat your parents just shelled out $300 for. Some of those are beaten up and wouldn't fly out of the infield if Barry Bonds hit them, even right after a good juicing. Most coaches are observing much more than how hard the ball was hit. They want to see fairly sound mechanics. They want to see good balance. They want to see bat speed because while you can train a kid to hit the ball, it is difficult to make a timid hitter aggressive.
If coaches are giving advice to hitters, this is pretty much the same as when they did it with fielding drills. They want to see the "intangible," coachability. I remember one tryout I was involved with some years ago. This one kid was struggling. She just couldn't hit a machine pitched ball (we'll get to that in a minute). I felt bad for her. So I stopped feeding balls and walked up to her. I said, "Hey, I know you can hit because I can see you take a good hard swing. You don't need to do anything here to prove to me or anyone else that you can hit. Relax kid, this isn't going to make or break your oppportunity to join this team. How about you meet a couple balls and then start to drive them? Just relax and pretend you are at your old team where you are a big hitter. Make some contact and then we'll see where we go from there." The kid met my eyes and listened intently to what I said. I walked back and prepared to feed this kid some pitches. On they first pitch, she fouled it off and I said, "That's it. Just a little contact." The next pitch she swung and made contact again, this time hitting the ball into fair ground. After that she relaxed and then hit some hard ones. I wasn't interested in this particular kid that year but that's a different story. If I had an opening I most certainly would have invited her. To me, she demonstrated that she was coachable in some of the most stressful situations she would likely face.
Back to the general and away from the anecdotes for a second, some kids just cannot hit pitching machines. I really have no idea why that is. But I'm sure the phenomenon exists. I've seen it too many times. A select few girls actually ruin their ability to hit by facing machine pitched balls. They just can;t seem to get the timing down and then their swing goes to heck and they need thousands of iterations at the tee to get it back. These same girls knock the cover off the ball when they face real pitching. It is a very strange thing but it is something everyone should be aware of.
Conversely, there are some girls out there who can only hit machine pitching. I know this to be true because in my past I can think of several times when girls have been added to a team I was involved with because they hit well at tryouts, yet they never hit well in games. Again, I don;t know why this is but I have seen it.
Sometimes I suspect the speed of the machine can play an important role in these two strange happenings. One time I was supposed to evaluate hitters while somebody else operated the machine. One girl hit, the others did not. I walked out to the machine and asked the operator what speed he had set the thing at. he told me he had it set about 5 mph slower than anything we expected to see with this team. I asked him to turn it up to a couple mph over what I believed would be the slowest speed we would face. The other girls began to hit and the "big hitter" never touched another pitch.
At one tryout I attended not as a coach, they had a bunch of girls in different age categories from 10U to 14U. the 14s went first and those girls hit the pitches pretty well. Then the 12s went and very few made any contact at all aside from bunting. The reason was the machines were set to someplace between 55 and 60. When the 10s stood in, they slowed the machines down to 40. And those girls hit the balls better than the 12s!
One other anecdote I have for you is, at another tryout, there were two machines pitching side by side. The operator of one of the machines noticed that the pitch speed seemed wrong so he lowered it. Then he pointed this out to the operator of the other machine but that guy decided he wasn't going to lower the speed down to a reasonable level. The girls on the left hit and those on the right did not. I hope somebody was smart enough to figure this out but who really knows!
Another of the things which troubles me in hitting tryouts is the use of balls of all colors besides yellow. Come on now, fastpitch softball is played with a yellow ball. What's up with the white, orange, blue, grey, etc. balls? Some kids can hit yellow with red laces and nothing else. Some kids can apparently hit grey but will never touch yellow. They do sell yellow machine balls with red lace lines drawn on them. Somebody should be smarter than that. It would all be ridiculous if weren't for the fact that what most coaches are watching is the quality of the swing, not the contact. So, if you're trying out, just take your hacks, listen to any coaching, and don't fret the fact that you missed every pitch.
Oh, and when the coaches say bunt a couple, please be prepared for that. Nobody needs me to tell them that softball is a small ball game a lot of the time. As a coach, if I had my druthers, 12 girls on my roster would be able to put down a bunt. I wouldn;t mind seeing a few slappers at trouts as well. But the worst possible thing happens when some kid steps in, does OK on her bunts and hits a few balls, but then switches over to slapping and cannot make any contact. If you are going to slap at tryouts, it would be advisable that you be able to make contact before trying it out. Once you say that you can slap and then move to the left side, you cannot just miss a couple and then say, "I'm really just learning so now I'll go back to the right side." Once you claim you are a slapper and move over, you have to stay in there until you hit a few or the coach says "next." You are committed and you must slap. If you give up, you are saying more about your lack of any kind of mental toughness than you are about anything else. if you want to slap, make sure you can do it.
At this point, tryouts are probably over for most kids. Three hours have probably gone by fairly quickly and it's time to go home. Before you leave tryouts, make sure you understand what is expected of you. Many times we have been told that we must come back on Tuesday or tomorrow for an additional try-out. Some teams use a single day to make their selections. Some do not. If you didn't hear anything before getting ready to leave, ask a coach. And check with your friends to find out if they heard anything differently. Many times, the guy who is going to give the goodby speech is busy talking to some parent. You don;t know who he is. He finally finds a polite way to end that conversation and then comes looking for the girls. He never notices that 10 girls already left when he informs everyone that they need to come back tomorrow.
After this point, most likely it is time for the tired, sweaty pitchers and catchers to show their stuff. If there are a large number of pitchers and a small number of catchers, it is just possible that somebody else is supposed to warm-up the pitchers, somebody else meaning dad. Sometimes the coaches or evaluators will announce, "OK pitchers, go warm-up" and they don't particularly care if the poor pitcher has nobody to warm up with. If you are a pitcher, you should attempt to bring along dad or a catching friend to get you ready for your tryout.
I haver seen one interesting phenomenon play out in tryouts. There are only a few catchers available for say two dozen pitchers. All of these catchers have a friend who is tryout out for pitcher. They willingly catch for their pitcher friend and then when she's ready somebody else comes up and asks the girl to catch for them or their daughter. A few will comply with such requests, most won't. The girls who decide to catch opften get beaten up and then have trouble when tryouts move to the catching portion. If you are a catcher, get yourself warmed up, not a bunch of pitchers you've never met before. If you are a pitcher, bring someone along to warm you up.
So, now the tryout is over and you;re wondering what's next. Hopefully somebody has told you but often things are too disorganized for that. Many times, kids and parents just sort of melt away without proper instruction. Then they wait for some sort of phone call which never comes. The result of this is the kid and her parents will never come back again to one of your tryouts. They'll play for the Devil himself before playing for you. But that's the way things seem to work. There can be very little real communication around tryouts unless the team decides they really want you.
A few organizations do a really good job of communicating with those who come out for their teams. But even those organizations often do not give you the courtesy of a phone call when you are not being asked to join the team. I understand that. But I don't like it. Personally, I have always found a way to communicate with kids who tried out for my team that, while I thought they were wonderful kids and very good softball players, I just didn't have space on my team for them this year. It is a slightly uncomfortable job but, in my mind, a necessary one. Still, if you are not going to be asked to join a team, chances are much better than 50% you will never hear from them.
If you are interested in a team and the organization provides the opportunity to answer any of your questions before you leave the tryout, it would be best that you come with a set of questions at the ready rather than winging it. if you try to wing it, you are probasbly going to ask a bunch of questions which have no valid bearing on whether you join the team. You remember how it was back in your school days, don't you? There was always some kid whose hand went up immediately whenever the phrase "does anyone have any questions?" That kid asked some of the most innane, irrelevant question imaginable but he was pretty sure he was demonstrating his smartness by asking questions. When parents do that, coaches get irrittated. There are some valid questions you can and should ask. But the more detailed the question, the more detailed the expected response, the more the coaches are going to try to short circuit your questions. And you can ask some important questions when they ask you to join the team in a few weeks. Save something for then since the coach will probably be less tired from conducting 8 hours of boring tryouts when he or she calls to invite you to the team.
I would focus any questions on facts that differentiate one team from another like costs, fundraising responsibilities, plan for winter workouts, number and type of tournaments - going to nationals or not, and things of that nature. What is mostly inadvisable are questions like "how much pitching time is my daughter going to get?" or "can you offer me guarantee that my daughter will be your first string shortstop?" Any coach who can guarantee a certain amount of playing time before fall workouts and scrimmages, games or tournaments, before winter workouts, before your kid actually plays a tournament on some day in April or May, is essentially lying. Those things are not predictable at this point. And anyone who asks such questions is immediately suspect. You get the call asking you to play and want to know precise answers to these and other questions, then you tell the coach you'll get back to him in three days, then when you call five days later to say, "yes," he says, "sorry, you asked so many questions that I felt you weren't interested so when you didn't call 3 days later, I offered your slot to someone else. We can't wait forever, you know."
Well that's my advice for the day. Go to tryouts. Don't get nervous. It is just softball and you've played and practiced hundreds of times. Get there early and loosen up. Don't fret errors and missed swings. Be coachable, if you can be. Do things as well as you can and don't become upset if you make mistakes or can't hit the stupid machine. Learn what you can by asking questions but don;t expect the main coach to spend three hours with you explaining every detail imaginable or providing you a written guarantee about how much your kid is going to play. Ask smart questions you really need the answers to but keeop in mind that if they are interested in you playing for the team, there will be other opportunities for getting more information.Labels: Tryouts
 
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