Wishing...

Wishing. This is the step during which I look back on my inquiry and evaluate. How did I do? What could I have done better? Can I continue this in the future?

Overall, I think I developed a very workable tryout plan, especially considering that I have no formal coaching experience. I have never run a tryout before; I have simply participated as a player. I do think that I came up with a good final product, especially with the addition of the explanatory Power Point presentation. This is not only helpful for my peers to read it, but I could also use it in the future for fellow coaches who are unfamiliar with my drills.

As satisfied as I am with my tryout plan, I do realize that many questions and variables remain:

- What happens if I get into a situation where I have not already seen my players perform at tryout time? The situation I have in mind is one in which I am thrown into a coaching position right before the season starts. I may have to extend my tryouts beyond three days. However, I could re-consult the sources I used for more drill ideas.

- What if I am working in a large district and have a huge number of girls try out? I may have to extend my tryouts to accomodate this in order to effectively evaluate each girl.

- What if I do not have very many assistant coaches to help me run tryouts? Many of the drills require several coaches to run them and evaluate. I may have to extend tryouts so I can evaluate each girl.

I also realize that this plan is suited specifically for tryouts. What will I do once I have a team in place and need to run practices? I think that my tryout plan gives a rough skeleton of how practices can proceed. I can use some of the drills - after all, they do work with the fundamentals of the game - and build in other drills from my sources or that I may pick up along the way between now and when I have my own team. I think a lot of variables remain, especially because I do not know at which level I will be coaching. I could have a freshman, junior varsity, or varsity team. I think that with this tryout plan I have a good blueprint to begin my softball coaching career and that the rest will fall into place along the way.

Waving!

I finally made it! The time has come to communicate my findings to an audience (that's you). Lamb notes that one needs to identify an audience during this stage. My audience is essentially myself for part of this project - I am letting myself know what kind of practice plan I will need to run a tryout. I am also, however, using part of my final product to communicate to my peers. I created a Power Point presentation that provides explanations of each of the drills I used in my plan. It also provides a list of sources I used. This way, those who are not familiar with softball or just some of the drills I used may understand what I am speaking of; they may also visit the sources I used for their own knowledge. This step also follows the Creating step in the Alberta Inquiry Model (Callison and Preddy 58). I created the product that will be most useful for me - my tryout plan - and then went back and thought about my audience. Not everyone reading this blog will be familiar with the drills I used. So, I went back with that audience in mind and created my Power Point. Thus, I satisfied the needs of both audiences.

I have included the links to both the tryout plan and the Power Point presentation in my OnCourse worksite. They are the only two documents in the folder. The Excel workbook contains six pages. The first three are the tryout plans. The fourth is the evaluation template, and the last two are examples of how the template can be used.

https://oncourse.iu.edu/portal/site/~cworthma

Please let me know if you have any trouble accessing my links!

Resources:

Callison, Daniel and Leslie Preddy. The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.

Lamb, Annette. "8 Ws of Information Literacy." http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/ws.htm.

Wrapping...

I am on to the wrapping portion of this inquiry, which involves choosing how to present my findings (Lamb). I need to figure out how to best present my final product. In this case I feel as though I need to make some kind of chart or template for my practice plan. I have used Microsoft Excel to make a tryout workbook. The first few pages contain the list of drills for each day. The following pages contain a general template for player evaluation along with examples of how the evaluation pages can be applied to the drills. I feel like I need to explain myself a bit in addition to this. I will either provide a written explanation in Microsoft Word or construct a PowerPoint presentation. I have yet to decide which will be most effective.

Resource:

Lamb, Annette. "8 Ws of Information Literacy." http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/ws.htm.

Weaving...

I spent the weekend weaving my information together. I went back and looked through The Blue Book to see if any of the other models presented by Callison and Preddy could make me think about this step any differently. Essentially, I wanted to see if I was leaving anything out. I feel like weaving is an in-between step: I have found my information but now need to turn it into a product. When I looked through Callison and Preddy's text I found a description for the Alberta Inquiry Model (58). The authors present a table of phases in this model and provide what skills and strategies correspond to each. The last strategy between "Processing" and "Creating" was "make connections and inferences" (58). Right now I am making connections between what I already know about the game of softball and what I am learning from books, websites, and other individuals. I am then drawing conclusions about how to best use the information. I really do feel like I'm at an in-between stage in this inquiry.

After compiling a lengthy list of drills I realize that I need to come up with a tryout template. Veroni's book contains a practice checklist with all of the drills that could possibly be used in a practice. I based my own drill list off of this in terms of organization. Veroni also provides a sample practice plan (62-63). This gives an idea of how long each drill should last. I will use this as a rough example for my practice template. I will also be using the advice of Scott Sutherland, the expert who answered my question on AllExperts.com, and make a template that allows me to list each player's name and assign a points ranking system for tryout drills. Sutherland explained to me that tryouts must use a level playing field. Each girl should get the same amount of reps for each drill. For example, hitting off a pitching machine. Each girl gets ten swings and the coach should record her results: eight out of her ten swings would count as a hit. Pitching, you could record how many pitches each girl throws that hit her target. I have decided to use my first day of tryouts as a teaching session. I will not record any statistics on this day. Instead, I will simply get girls into the swing of things, so to speak. At the high school level I could have some girls who are coming from intensive winter conditioning and who have prior varsity experience or have played competitive travel softball. Others may be coming from recreational leagues. I will give them a day to learn some fundamentals and begin evaluating on the second and third days.

Onward. My tryout template awaits.

Resources:

AllExperts.com. 2008. 27 January 2008. http://en.allexperts.com/q/Softball-2562/.

Callison, Daniel and Leslie Preddy. The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.

Veroni, Kathy J. Coaching Fastpitch Softball Successfully. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1998.

So Much To Weave!

Let the weaving begin! I must confess that I am rather overwhelmed at this point; I have so much information to synthesize! I need to organize my information. I should compare drills and select the most useful for my tryout plan. I should also figure out how to most effectively use each drill and how the tryouts should be organized.

I have compiled, as I said in my last post, a list of the most useful drills from the books. I have also added some from the websites, although most of the material there focused on coaching techniques. I have also heard back from my sister and former coach, as well as the expert from AllExperts.com. While the IHSAA website did not mention tryout length, my former coach advised me to plan for three days. This makes sense, as hopefully I will have seen players during winter conditioning and have an idea of their skill level.

Now it is time for me to really buckle down with all of my information. I hope I can wade through all of it!

Wiggling...

Now that I have completely narrowed my task to creating a practice plan and found more sources, the time has come to wiggle the information I have found. This stage involves using and evaluating my resources and information (Lamb). I need to filter the information and figure out exactly what is usable versus what I can leave out. I find that Berkowitz and Eisenberg's "use of information" step in the Big 6 process helps me best understand what I need to do during this stage (http://big6.com/). I need to sit down with my information and figure out how I am going to use it in my final product.

I have bookmarked different drills in my materials and have begun compiling a list of the ones I feel will work the best at the high school level. I have listed every drill that could be useful in a tryout situation. I have pulled drills from my own memory, books, websites, and have e-mailed my sister to see if she remembers any that I may be forgetting.

My next task will be to weave all of this information together into a usable tryout plan. I am going to contact my high school coach to ask how long tryouts typically last, as I am having trouble recalling this detail. I may also look at the IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletic Association) web site to see if it gives a timeline for tryouts. I know that the IHSAA regulates when tryouts can begin and I wonder if it regulates tryout length (in days) as well. I will also ask my high school coach what kind of system he used for rating players during tryouts. I have e-mailed an expert at AllExperts.com as well and await his reply in regards to rating and scoring players. Once I know what kind of time frame I have to work with and what kind of format works best I will be able to divide and organize the drills into a workable practice plan.

Resources:

Big 6: An Information Problem-Solving Process. Eds. Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz. 22 January 2008. Big 6 Associates, LLC. 3 February 2008. <http://big6.com/>.

Lamb, Annette. "8 Ws of Information Literacy." http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/ws.htm.