A lot of it does seems predetermined as I’ve noted over the years.

Tryouts matter a lot for established players. At least for those who are firmly established in the bottom third of performance for the team.

Anonymous wrote:Little for determining who is best/worst on the team, but does factor in when comparing to new kids. So a coach probably already has in order who they would cut if someone better comes along, so if your kid is in the middle of the team, but sucked during tryouts, they will base it more on how they have done throughout the year than a bad tryout. However, if you are on the bottom of the team and you have a bad tryout and a new kid looks good, you might be in trouble.

Every player is ranked by position(or positions) in the club. New players are evaluated against the current players and slotted in. Sometime preference is given to current player. Factors no one would want to hear( like this family has 4 kids who will come through this program $$, their parents played college- better connections to kid playing in college, parent is active in club, etc) can make a difference on a roster. Sometime coaches believe they have to get better at a position and goalies are alway in demand.

Where is your DS now? Back in rec or found another club?

I stopped believing in tryouts, my kid scored a lot of goals, created many opportunities, outplayed their teammates and yet he was not offered a spot the coach doing the evaluation at tryouts wasn’t even looking at him.

Don't underestimate the knucklehead factor, whether that is the players themselves, or their overbearing parents.

If you know you as the parent are overbearing and a douchebag on the sidelines, or that your DC has trouble focusing and can be disruptive in social settings, be on alert.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:tryouts are really to see how new players would stack up against players the coach already knows.

Train like everyday is a tryout and your parents won't have to come on this board and ask this question.

+1000. My kid trains like this every practice only because he's overly competitive (to a fault sometimes), but I agree with this.

Little for determining who is best/worst on the team, but does factor in when comparing to new kids. So a coach probably already has in order who they would cut if someone better comes along, so if your kid is in the middle of the team, but sucked during tryouts, they will base it more on how they have done throughout the year than a bad tryout. However, if you are on the bottom of the team and you have a bad tryout and a new kid looks good, you might be in trouble.

Anonymous wrote:tryouts are really to see how new players would stack up against players the coach already knows.

Train like everyday is a tryout and your parents won't have to come on this board and ask this question.

tryouts are really to see how new players would stack up against players the coach already knows.

If it's the same coach he/she knows the existing players well so already knows if there is a weakness somewhere. Parents can tell be noticing how much the kid played in games, if they were starters, if the current coach liked their style of play, etc. Sometimes coach and player aren't a good fit.

What I see more often (esp. with bigger clubs) is the new Coach never saw the kids play the prior year. Not once. He/she relies a bit on what prior Coach tells them---but not in reality. They like to assess the players themselves sometimes. Sometimes kids can get moved down to allow for a new one to come in.

For the more elite teams--ID sessions are held, players picked from there and then invited to team training sessions to see over time how they do against existing players.

Anonymous wrote:How much do tryouts matter for a kid that has been part of the same team for the whole year and the team will keep the same coach? If you have coached before, how much weight do you assign to the season vs the tryouts for selecting kids or for assigning them to your first and second team?

Existing team members are usually not "trying out" themselves - they should have been assessed over the course of the year. They are usually asked to participate both because numbers are often needed to make the tryouts useful and because they also allow the new candidates to be measured against the existing team.

I would hope the coaches have assessed the kids throughout the previous year rather than relying on a try-out.

Our club will not have try-outs for returning kids this year so that is definitely the case for us.

Preface this by saying I’m not a coach.

But in terms of evaluation for a season vs try outs id have to be inclined to think that you would weigh in the question of ‘does this player improve my team from what I’ve seen over the period of a year and will continue to produce going into next year?’

How much do tryouts matter for a kid that has been part of the same team for the whole year and the team will keep the same coach? If you have coached before, how much weight do you assign to the season vs the tryouts for selecting kids or for assigning them to your first and second team?