Protocol for open practice tryouts

[Anonymous]

When a player is attending practices with another team they would like to join for next fall, when would you expect to hear from the coach if they are interested or not? 2 practices? 3? 5? More? What is the norm?

Do you continue to follow up with the coach to get future practice dates/times that are ok to attend? How long should this go on? Or should you wait to be invited back?

Do you miss your current team’s practices for these?

[Anonymous]

You should be able to get feedback after the first practice.

Maybe the coach will see some different things at the second practice, but by the third one, the coach should have figured the player out already and start to see the same things repeatedly. The level of the player will come out by then.

As a disclaimer, I am an experienced coach. I can tell after one practice with about 70% certainty where the player will fit into the team. After two practices about 90% certainty.

Questions you may want to ask:
How does the player fit at this level? Do you see this player being a fit? Is this player in range of the players on the other team, on the higher end, lower end, or in the middle? The most important thing is, is the player within comparable range of other players on the team. If they are then it's not a no.

It also might depend on tryouts and if they're losing players or if they're getting other strong players to join the team so the coach may not have a final answer yet.

If there is an option to continue training with the team on your off days from practice, that's always good to take the coach up on it.

You should not miss your team practices with your current team to attend practices with the new team if you have not officially joined them yet. It's okay to miss one but not on a regular basis every week.

No one is going to come knocking on your door but your players coach May sense that you have one foot out the door already and will make your spring season miserable by reducing playing time, because why invest in a player who won't be with your team next year and is probably mentally checked out already

[Anonymous]

Not the OP but great advice, thank you.

[Anonymous]

Yes great advice. Thank you.

Any advice on the flip side of the question - what’s the protocol if your player is considering a few different club and one on an earlier tryout schedule makes you a verbal offer? Say “thank you and I’ll get back to you after all tryouts are done”? I assume kids do this all the time out of necessity but would love to hear experiences of coaches or even other families who have been through this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes great advice. Thank you.

Any advice on the flip side of the question - what’s the protocol if your player is considering a few different club and one on an earlier tryout schedule makes you a verbal offer? Say “thank you and I’ll get back to you after all tryouts are done”? I assume kids do this all the time out of necessity but would love to hear experiences of coaches or even other families who have been through this.

Its not an official offer until you see it in writing with the cost and everything that's included in the cost. Some coach makes you a verbal offer, say thank you, we are very interested.

[Anonymous]

Yep, delay. Some folks are taking anyone with a pulse as well

[Anonymous]

A verbal offer isn't an offer. Smile, say something enthusiastic but non commital.

[Anonymous]

This is a great topic.

If a player is interested in joining the team and the coach has given the player an offer for next season, should that player still continue to come to practice?

If the player is only practicing once a week with its current team and the new team practices three times a week.

[Anonymous]

Confirm with coach, but coaches are always happy to have to sets of 11 for positional coaching and scirmmaging. More bodies the better, plus it will your player adjust to new culture

[Anonymous]

If a coach is interested, they will make an offer after 1-2 practices. If they are not, it could take more. I have heard players attending 5+ sessions before getting an offer. If you get a verbal offer and are interested, ask for the official offer via email to ensure your kid has a spot. If you are unsure, don't request the official offer so you have more time to consider. If the coach is very interested, they will follow up to see if you have questions. If the coach is somewhat interested, they may follow up, but will probably put a deadline on your offer.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should be able to get feedback after the first practice.

Maybe the coach will see some different things at the second practice, but by the third one, the coach should have figured the player out already and start to see the same things repeatedly. The level of the player will come out by then.

As a disclaimer, I am an experienced coach. I can tell after one practice with about 70% certainty where the player will fit into the team. After two practices about 90% certainty.

Questions you may want to ask:
How does the player fit at this level? Do you see this player being a fit? Is this player in range of the players on the other team, on the higher end, lower end, or in the middle? The most important thing is, is the player within comparable range of other players on the team. If they are then it's not a no.

It also might depend on tryouts and if they're losing players or if they're getting other strong players to join the team so the coach may not have a final answer yet.

If there is an option to continue training with the team on your off days from practice, that's always good to take the coach up on it.

You should not miss your team practices with your current team to attend practices with the new team if you have not officially joined them yet. It's okay to miss one but not on a regular basis every week.

No one is going to come knocking on your door but your players coach May sense that you have one foot out the door already and will make your spring season miserable by reducing playing time, because why invest in a player who won't be with your team next year and is probably mentally checked out already

Thank you Coach. This is the best post I read in a long time.

One thing I always wondered, why don't more tryouts use videos to record the players, especially when so many players tryout?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should be able to get feedback after the first practice.

Maybe the coach will see some different things at the second practice, but by the third one, the coach should have figured the player out already and start to see the same things repeatedly. The level of the player will come out by then.

As a disclaimer, I am an experienced coach. I can tell after one practice with about 70% certainty where the player will fit into the team. After two practices about 90% certainty.

Questions you may want to ask:
How does the player fit at this level? Do you see this player being a fit? Is this player in range of the players on the other team, on the higher end, lower end, or in the middle? The most important thing is, is the player within comparable range of other players on the team. If they are then it's not a no.

It also might depend on tryouts and if they're losing players or if they're getting other strong players to join the team so the coach may not have a final answer yet.

If there is an option to continue training with the team on your off days from practice, that's always good to take the coach up on it.

You should not miss your team practices with your current team to attend practices with the new team if you have not officially joined them yet. It's okay to miss one but not on a regular basis every week.

No one is going to come knocking on your door but your players coach May sense that you have one foot out the door already and will make your spring season miserable by reducing playing time, because why invest in a player who won't be with your team next year and is probably mentally checked out already

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you Coach. This is the best post I read in a long time.

One thing I always wondered, why don't more tryouts use videos to record the players, especially when so many players tryout?

Another coach here and I'll mostly agree with what the first coach said. When they actually make the official offer, even after they know if they are a fit, can vary on a lot of things as has been previously mentioned. A good coach will be honest and upfront with you, I would encourage you to do the same with them, but in short they should know pretty darn well after two sessions.

With regards to using video to record players during try outs. It's not that it is a bad idea, but more a resources and time thing. Believe it or not there is A LOT that already goes into tryouts, especially for coaches with multiple teams and in age groups that have multiple teams within them. Remember this is all happening near the middle of the season at this point (man tryouts just keeps getting earlier and earlier...) so it's not like we're doing this in the off-season with nothing but time on our hands.

I can't imagine trying to create a video setup that captures the entire tryout process well enough to assist with determining which player makes it or not as well as having the time to analyze the video properly AND get offers out fast enough that doesn't cost me players. A well run tryout should provide an environment for the coaches to make pretty accurate assessments of all the players in attendance unknown to him/her. Keep in mind that some (sometimes most!) of those players are already existing team or club players and known to the coach in some shape or fashion, so in reality there are less players to actually evaluate then are actually out there on the field.

Also the number of slots that a team is looking to potentially fill can often dwindle down the number of "Yes' " that a coach is looking for that some of the tryout session is an exercise in futility after a certain point. This can be frustrating for players and parents fighting for spots who've been around the block enough to know when the tryout session has gone into what I'll call "let em play" mode as all the yes', no's and maybe's have already been sorted out. However as the previous coach mentioned it generally doesn't take more than two sessions to be pretty darn sure how you feel about a player. Do players get missed? Yes - all the time, especially in extremely large pools where there isn't enough staff/field space/etc. to properly evaluate them all. And not all coaches value the same things... so it becomes even harder to "get it right" when dealing with multiple coaches across the same age group even.

Some clubs are also "better" at creating additional teams based on an over abundance of new players at tryouts, and shifting players around based on actual skill level, instead of part skill, part politics. There are certainly pros and cons to all these methods, but I'll leave it there for now.

[Anonymous]

Cautionary tale. DS practiced with a team a few years ago for the entire spring season. The coach seemed interested because he kept emailing me to make sure he’d return. We thought tryouts were just a formality based on our exchanges but an offer never came. What a huge waste of time. DS was disappointed because he’d had no time to go elsewhere since he was playing both school and club that season. So we scrambled and reached out to another big club where the coach verbally offered him a spot the first night. Then he ghosted us. That was a stressful spring! Thankfully there was another club that had been wanting DS for years and they happily rostered him that summer. Lessons learned. Don’t put your eggs in one basket. A verbal commitment is meaningless.

[Anonymous]

To the PP: first of all so sorry your DS went through this. It sounds like a frustrating and stressful and frankly sad situation. What age group was it?

Did the coach of the first team ever discuss why an offer wasn’t made?! It’s pretty darn &$#% of him if he didnt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP: first of all so sorry your DS went through this. It sounds like a frustrating and stressful and frankly sad situation. What age group was it?

Did the coach of the first team ever discuss why an offer wasn’t made?! It’s pretty darn &$#% of him if he didnt.

This was u14. The coach never gave an explanation though we did hear from him again mid-year when he wanted to know if DS was still interested in a spot on his team. We said no.