Tryout Advice

[aaaahockey]

Our team is getting ready to have a pretty competitive, higher level tryout. Looking at our roster, our head coach (I'm manager) gave everyone a good assessment at the end of the season where they stood and what they were doing well or not. He told kids if they were likely longshots to make the team again and he told the kids who were the best that he hopes they stay and gave them skills to work on.  

 

At this point, I'm starting to get a lot of calls about the tryouts.  We don't need to make a ton of money off tryouts so that isn't an incentive.  Anyone else have experience walking the line between telling everyone to try out and telling people probably 2/3 of the team is definitely locked in?   I'm also wondering - we use a tryout rubric that rates kids during tryouts.  Has anyone figured out how to incorporate past performance (last season) into something like that?  I guess it could be positive or negative but you couldn't do it at all for kids who weren't on your team?  I feel like doing it openly could be good because obviously you could have a better tryout than the best kid on the team but we aren't cutting him based on last year?   

[nemesis8679]

Should do half drills, half scrimmage. See who works hard and can follow directions, and see what they can do in game situations. 

And have a neutral evaluator from outside the organization score them. 

Not saying the organization's evaluators can't score them, too. But a neutral third party would help. Whether you think so or not, evaluators that know the kids will have bias whether intentional or not. Good to have someone with no horse in the race to say what they're seeing, too. 

[Loach]

I’ve been through the tryout rodeo awhile now as a coach. No need for any rubric that factors in last year. It’s pretty rare to get any pushback about any kid in the top half of a team making it again regardless of their performance. That said, if a lock player is coasting out there after the first skate, you light a fire by dropping a hint that they need to pick it up, and soon. Usually that does the trick. Otherwise, just let the evaluators do their job based on what they are seeing. Your coach did his job with the exit interviews, so kids should know where they stand.

 

 As for people asking about tryouts, leave it open to anyone who wants to come. No need to try to advertise how many spots are open. Most people know that there’s a good chunk locked in, or at least they soon will learn. But, multiple times, we had kids who weren’t on the radar show as a top player and push their way on. This meant a tough phone call with a family that was on the bubble albeit further up from the expected cut line before try outs. 

For new families: in general, if kids are close, tthe coach will usually go with incumbent. Unless there’s an attitude problem or issue with families. New kids need to be noticeably better than the kid they are replacing.

To sum up - no need to reinvent the wheel. 1) Give kids honest feedback at end of season. 2) Get multiple evaluators out at tryouts. 3) Head coach takes that info and combines with his own eyes and knowledge of previous year. 4) make room for kids who out perform the bottom players from last year.

 

 

[aaaahockey]

10 minutes ago, Loach said:

I’ve been through the tryout rodeo awhile now as a coach. No need for any rubric that factors in last year. It’s pretty rare to get any pushback about any kid in the top half of a team making it again regardless of their performance. That said, if a lock player is coasting out there after the first skate, you light a fire by dropping a hint that they need to pick it up, and soon. Usually that does the trick. Otherwise, just let the evaluators do their job based on what they are seeing. Your coach did his job with the exit interviews, so kids should know where they stand.

 

 As for people asking about tryouts, leave it open to anyone who wants to come. No need to try to advertise how many spots are open. Most people know that there’s a good chunk locked in, or at least they soon will learn. But, multiple times, we had kids who weren’t on the radar show as a top player and push their way on. This meant a tough phone call with a family that was on the bubble albeit further up from the expected cut line before try outs. 

For new families: in general, if kids are close, tthe coach will usually go with incumbent. Unless there’s an attitude problem or issue with families. New kids need to be noticeably better than the kid they are replacing.

To sum up - no need to reinvent the wheel. 1) Give kids honest feedback at end of season. 2) Get multiple evaluators out at tryouts. 3) Head coach takes that info and combines with his own eyes and knowledge of previous year. 4) make room for kids who out perform the bottom players from last year.

 

 

I might nominate this as the best post on this forum in years. 

[nemesis8679]

How many organizations playing PAHL A or AA do you think really 100% take the best kids available to their team? Most of them? Half of them? A few of them? 

[aaaahockey]

Just now, nemesis8679 said:

How many organizations playing PAHL A or AA do you think really 100% take the best kids available to their team? Most of them? Half of them? A few of them? 

I can promise we try.  There are some exceptions (insane parents or kids) but are they really the best? Rarely. Some people don't understand if your kid is in the box 50% of the game and costing us FPP you aren't one of the best regardless of your points.  At the same time we really try to be open and fair.  

[CranjisMcBasketball]

Best advice?  Don’t suck. Be so good no one in their right mind could turn you down. In reality, there’s far more that goes into team placement than who is marginally better than the other player in certain facets of the game. That’s life on life’s terms. Is it fair?  Of course not. Life is difficult. But if you want to play the game, play the game and let the chips fall where they may in the best organizational and cost fit for your family. If you want to play the victim, well, that doesn’t take much coaching. 

Are there “bad” organizations that pick kids purely on politics?  Absolutely!  Are there good ones that don’t?  Absolutely.

I can already see the parental tryout anxiety is through the roof on this board. Calm your egos. You’re only making your own and kids life worse. Find a good organization you can afford and roll with it.   If you aren’t sure if the next team will make the difference between your kid going pro/d1 etc or not, rest assured, you’re kid isn’t good enough. I’ll say it since no one else has told you. It’s ok. Let your kid play and enjoy the game. You aren’t going to make a bad move for their development unless it’s a shitty group of kids and parents and you can’t afford it.