How soon before tryouts to attend practices?
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Anonymous
| We have a rising U12 who may want to switch to a different club for next year. Aiming for first or second team. Many places have not yet published a tryout schedule, but I assume they will take place between mid-April and early May. How soon before an open tryout should an outsider attend a practice? Is now a good time or wait a couple weeks? Will coaches remember a kid who attended practice a month or more before tryouts? I imagine some clubs see a lot of kids come through. Don't want them to forget who our child is by the time the tryout rolls around... |
Anonymous
| Is your kid physically memorable or more blends in with the crowd? Like is he a really tall lefty with red hair? Or a short skinny kid with brown hair like most of the team? Etc etc? |
Anonymous
| The sooner the better. Ask for feedback after the first practice and if your kid can attend another practice once/week or every other week. Pitch it as wanting to get a feel for the team and how well your kid fits with the other kids. |
Anonymous
| What's the kind of feedback you should expect? An email? How detailed? |
Anonymous
Just general verbal feedback is fine. We had a kid come out and when she was done, her and her mom got in the car and left w/o speaking to the coaches. "We would like to see more of your player" is good feedback. "A lower/ higher level team might be a better fit" is good feedback. Trust me, it won't be detailed, they will see how aggressive and skilled your player is and make a quick assessment. |
Anonymous
I’ve been the parent who leaves right after because the coach was caught up talking to another parent or coach and it felt awkward to just stand there waiting. But do coaches prefer the kid and parent stick around for a quick chat/feedback as opposed to an email the next day? |
Anonymous
| Um, we were invited to bring my dc to practices this spring, the coach specifically said to bring him to as many practices as we wanted. After the first one, and the second one, I didn't stay around to get feedback from the coach. Was I supposed to? Yikes. |
Anonymous
I would consider that positive feedback. Did you watch your practice? Does your son seem to be around the same level as the other kids? |
Anonymous
+1. That's positive. They want him to try out. |
Anonymous
I think it is a little better to get the feedback in person. (Coaches sometimes evaluate families too, like you will be a pain to deal with... or ideally you just leave you kids at practice and run errands; coaches seem to like those parents more) Some coaches just are not very good with e-mail. But theoretically it shouldn't matter. |
Anonymous
| Like the other posters said, this is a good time to reach out to coaches to join a practice, well before typical U12 tryout season in late April/May. After practice, I'd recommend thanking the coach for the opportunity and getting some initial feedback (even better if the child shows some initiative and chats with the coach at the end directly, esp. at U12). We had a lot of pre-tryout players practicing with my child's team last spring and it was better for the newcomers when they were more spaced out and got more attention. |