Reddit reviews Fundamental Method for Mallets, Bk 1: Comb Bound Book

Fundamental Method of Mallets is the book I learned most of my two mallets stuff out of. It is a really comprehensive book with a section dedicated to sight reading which is really nice.

Methods of Movement is basically the gospel for all there is about four mallet technique.

You don't have to be super well rounded before college. I did really well in high school and college auditions and I used Burton primarily. Now I'm going to grad school! I sucked at Stevens my first year but my prof and I worked on it slowly and now I'm more comfortable with it. You don't need to worry about it too much.

That being said, if you want to work on it beforehand, I'd recommend Mitchell Peters' Fundamental Method for Marimba and/or Stevens's Method of Movement for Marimba. Peters is a standard and he explains 4 mallets and the techniques well without getting too overwhelming. If you want a challenge, Stevens quite literally wrote the book on his own techniques. It's much more intense but really good. Best of luck!