Yesterday was the last day of the Berkeley Fall Ball clinics. While it’s going to be nice to have some time off – working with them 3 times a week was pretty fun. There’s a couple of players out there…we will see if they put in the necessary work to make something out of their talents…(we have all seen players year after year with talent – but it takes much more).

We decided that we would run our last day as a scout/mock try out day. We kept their times, and discussed with them the mindset of scouts or anyone else assessing you, and what we as players need to be ready for.

After they stretched out – we split them into 3 teams: 1 team ran the 60 yard dash, the second team ran home to first (both times we recorded and they had about 5 minutes to run it as many times as they could/wanted) and our last group soft tossed. Each group had 5-10 minutes and then they rotated so that all players had equal time at each station.

After that round we put them all together and had them do a long infield/outfield where they threw to every base a couple of times. This is always a time that’s rather boring but if in a game you don’t get a ball your way – it’s the only time a coach/scout/whoever can see your arm (let it all go!).

After infield/outfield we put them back in the 3 teams and had them scrimmage for about 40 minutes. Each batter started with a 1-1 count and each team got 4 outs.

As practice was going on each coach took the time to let them know how their mental approach should be at each station. When a group came from soft toss – they needed to take every opportunity to get loose.  Some camps won’t look out for the player’s health and they must learn early to get yourself ready to give %100.  No excuses – control what you can.  Same goes for players who ran to first then had to run a 60.  Good thing is that they’re loose but they may be fatigued — how quickly can you bring your heart rate down…

Our hopes were by getting a glimpse of what it’s like, come spring/late winter, they will be ready for try outs (they’ll know what to expect!).