Athletic Skills tests at tryouts

Good question.  

You can engineer some straight line speed out of players but those same players aren't necessarily the best athletes.  Explosive agility drills like the 5-10-5 (20Yd) and Rotational PowerBall Throw can offer greater insight into a players athleticism. I think most of these tests you mention are included in Area Code tryouts.  A college prospect camp my son attended included 5-10-5 and vertical test.

It would be great if these tests would be included in PG Showcases.  If they're going to refer to someone as an "outstanding athlete", the testing of measurable's should include tests for lateral movement, agility and explosiveness.

I know a kid with a PG score of 10 that runs a 6.6 for the 60 - solid straight line speed.  But he'd bomb a 5-10-5 drill if tested - absolute zero agility and range.  Kids at the high school joke about his assessment as an outstanding athlete - they run circles around him in hoops.

Improved tests for determining true athletic ability would be a valuable addition to be used for rating players. I'm sure college scouts that subscribe to PG would like to add that to the filter to down-select players they could be interested in.  MIF's having decent 60 times 6.8-7.0, but score high in 5-10-5 drills would reveal an explosive first step and likely have the agility to cover the range for balls hit in the infield gaps, as well as for stealing bases.

The link you provided goes directly to the Nike website (I know Nike is a JV partner in sparq testing).

Thanks for bringing this up.

I found this website this afternoon.

https://lehmansbaseball.wordpress.com/5-tools/

How do you measure the performance during the rotational powerball throw?

My 2016 does these types of drills at his workout facility - they get a baseline and then re-test down the road to track improvement.  But I haven't seen these tests at any of the camps or showcases he attended the past two years.  The standard showcase format seems to be what most schools use when they have you on campus (he attended several D1 camps and 1 D3 camp) and the showcases were pretty much the same format except that one had him pitch a bullpen instead of live.  

If you were a D1 coach and you have 80 kids on campus for 1 day do you want to use time to have everyone measure rotational powerball throws or watch them hit baseballs with power?  

Valid point. If a D1 coach is looking at a group of MIF's, the coach should also use the more athletic drills showing quick first steps and agility (like the 5-10-5).

Improved tests for determining true athletic ability would be a valuable addition to be used for rating players. I'm sure college scouts that subscribe to PG would like to add that to the filter to down-select players they could be interested in.  MIF's having decent 60 times 6.8-7.0, but score high in 5-10-5 drills would reveal an explosive first step and likely have the agility to cover the range for balls hit in the infield gaps, as well as for stealing bases. 

Gentlemen,

I would like to know if there are 5 or 6 universally accepted athletic skills tests that are used by professional baseball to determine standards that most baseball players would have that translate to achieving success.

I found these but I do not know if these are universally accepted. And, No I am not promoting this one below.

Tests Measurement In Game Attribute

• 20-yd Shuttle Agility & Quickness Ability to Change Directions
• Vertical Jump Explosive Power Dynamic Speed & Reaction
• 30-yd Dash Speed Basepath Speed (Home to 1st)
• Rotational PowerBall Throw Core Strength/Power Bat Speed & Rotational Power

1. The 20-Yard Shuttle: measures lateral mobility and agility, as well as body control during changes of direction.
2. The Vertical Jump: measures elastic strength and leg explosiveness.
3. The 30-Yard Dash: measures pure speed and acceleration. This is also a reliable indicator of explosiveness.
4. The Rotational PowerBall Throw: measures core power through the hitting zone, as well as total body strength.

Most all athletes score between 1 and 100 on the Baseball SPARQ Rating. According to the SPARQ Baseball Performance Guide (see below), the average score of high school baseball players on the Baseball SPARQ Rating is 50.80. At this point, only one athlete has scored higher than 100, and this athlete is a Baseball Northwest alumni. Boston Red Sox centerfielder, Jacoby Ellsbury’s Baseball SPARQ Rating of 102.31 is the highest Baseball SPARQ Rating achieved by a baseball athlete. Jacoby’s performance on the Baseball SPARQ Rating puts him in an athletic class of his own. You can view Jacoby’s incredible 102.31 SPARQ testing performance at: www.sparqtraining.com/trainers/matt_james. This score is incredibly impressive considering SPARQ has tested over 25,000 players at the high school, college and professional levels.