Middle School Softball Tryout Prep: The 3-Week Plan
Middle school softball tryouts are, for a lot of kids, the first time a roster has a limit. Rec ball took everyone. Now there are forty or fifty girls on a field or in a gym, two or three coaches with clipboards, and twelve to fifteen spots per team. The good news is that the evaluation is simpler than it looks. Coaches at this level are watching whether a kid can catch, throw to a target, put the bat on the ball, and run hard, and whether she does those things the same way when the coach is looking and when she is not.
Expect a rotation. Most middle school tryouts move kids through stations: ground balls at short and second, fly balls in the outfield, a round of hitting off a coach or a machine, a timed run from home to first, sometimes a throw from the outfield to a base. Almost nobody gets to stay at the position they want. A kid who has only ever played first base will take ground balls at third and fly balls in left, and the coach is watching how she handles the ones that are not her spot.
The plan below assumes about three weeks, a glove, a bat, a bucket of balls, and a wall or a net. It runs with one parent feeding or alone. If your kid pitches, her pitching-specific work stays with her pitching coach; this is the everything-else.
What coaches are actually looking for
At this level the list is short and it starts with the glove. Middle school coaches lose games on throws that sail into the parking lot and pop-ups that drop between three kids, so the tryout is built to find the players who catch it, get rid of it, and hit a target. A kid who fields eight of ten ground balls cleanly and makes eight ordinary throws to first has shown the coach more than the kid who makes one diving play and airmails three.
Hitting is about contact and a swing the coach can work with. Nobody expects power. They want to see a kid get her front foot down on time, swing at strikes, and put the ball in play, including on a bunt if they ask for one. Then they want to see her run: hard out of the box, through first base, on every ball, including the dribbler back to the pitcher. Coaches at this level write down who jogged.
The last thing is whether she looks like a teammate in a group of forty. She says her name clearly when asked, jogs between stations instead of walking, calls the ball on a pop-up three times and loud, and when a coach fixes her glove position she does it the next rep. In a tryout that big, being visibly coachable is worth as much as any single skill.
What the days themselves look like
Most middle school tryouts run one or two days after school, on a field if the weather holds and in a gym if it does not. Day one is everyone: a lap, a group stretch, throwing in lines, then stations. Expect ground balls at an infield spot, fly balls in the outfield, a round of swings off a coach or a machine, and a timed run from home to first. Some programs add a throw from the outfield to a base and a few bunts. Day two, if there is one, is a smaller group with live at-bats and sometimes a short scrimmage.
The single most common mistake we see is a kid who has not thrown in three weeks walking in and airing it out on the first throw. Her arm is cold, the throws get worse as the day goes on, and by the outfield station she is short-arming everything. The plan below spends its first week on a throwing progression for exactly that reason. The kid who warms up her arm the way she practiced looks like she has done this before, because she has.
Face masks: a lot of middle school programs require them for pitchers and infielders, and some require them for every player in the field. If your kid has one, she wears it. If the program requires one and she does not own one, that is a phone call to the coach before day one, not a surprise at the field.
This was written for every middle school softball player. ParentEdge writes one for yours.
Their position, their team, what they’re working on, and what the next few weeks actually look like. Two minutes, nothing to sign up for.
Tryout day checklist
- Physical form and school paperwork turned in before day one. Many programs will not let a kid on the field without it.
- A glove that is broken in, not a new one. If she needs a new glove, it needed to be bought three weeks ago.
- Cleats she has already run in, plus sneakers in the bag in case tryouts move inside.
- Batting helmet with a face mask, and a fielding mask if the program requires one for infielders and pitchers. Ask before day one.
- Water and a snack. School ended two hours ago and the field is hot.
- Get the arm loose before the first real throw: wrist flips, then the ladder, exactly like the plan. Never cold to hard.
- Run everything out. The dribbler to the pitcher, the pop-up to short, the ball she thinks is foul.
- Call every pop-up, three times, loud enough that the coach hears it.
- When a coach fixes something, say "yes coach" and do it the next rep.
- After the day, write down three things she did well and one thing to fix tomorrow. Then let it go.
Does my daughter need to have played travel ball to make a middle school softball team?
No. Most middle school rosters are a mix of travel players and rec players, and coaches know the difference is mostly reps. A rec player who catches and throws cleanly, puts the ball in play, and runs hard is a straightforward keep at most schools. Where travel experience shows is on the base-running reads, and that is what the reads block in the plan is for.
What if she has only ever played one position?
Tell her to expect ground balls at every infield spot and fly balls in the outfield, and to take them all seriously. The coach is not deciding where she plays yet; she is deciding whether the kid can field. The fundamentals are the same at every spot: feet moving, glove out front, throw to a target.
How many kids get cut at middle school softball tryouts?
It depends entirely on the school. Some carry one team of fifteen out of forty; some carry an A team and a B team and keep almost everyone. Ask the coach or a parent of a current player what last year looked like. The number changes what your kid should lean into.
What if she gets cut?
Ask the coach for one specific thing to work on, thank her, and keep playing: rec, a fall league, a local travel team that takes developing players. A lot of kids make it the following year because they came back visibly better at the one thing the coach named.