Tryouts

It's the time of year where travel teams are holding tryouts for the winter.  As a club administrator it is important that you don't take tryouts for granted.  Regardless of whether you will be cutting kids or not you want to make sure that you evaluate the players who choose to participate accurately.  To do this you need to evaluate players on 3 different criteria:

1. Athleticism/Coordination
2. Fundamentals
3. Skills Application

Let's take a look at each criterion individually.

1)      Athleticism/Coordination - Let me preface by saying I'm not a believer that the raw athlete is the player I want on my team so I can mold him into a player.  In a sense I'm not looking for raw athleticism here but rather how coordinated and gracefully a player can move through a couple of athletic drills that have basketball applications to them.  The drills that I choose to run are the following: 

a)      Lateral slides to see how well they can shuffle their feet,

b)      5-yard shuttle run where I set up cones in a square about 5 yards apart and I have the players run to the first, slide to the second, run backwards to the third, and slide to the last one.  This drill covers agility and how effortless it is for a player to change direction and style of foot movement.

c)      Line jumps both forward and lateral so we can see how quickly the players can move their feet.

2)      Fundamentals gives us as coaches an opportunity to see how skilled each player in your tryout is.  The fundamentals that we like to review are the following:

a)      Dribbling – watch them dribble moving up and down the floor.  See why well they are capable of using both of their hands without looking at the ball.  First do speed dribbles and then follow that by slaloms which will give the players a chance to crossover using all of the following methods:

i)       Straight Crossover

ii)     Between the legs

iii)   Wraps

iv)   Spins

b)      Layups-watch their footwork and make sure they can use both hands.  Do the following:

i)       Right hand layups

ii)     Left hand layups

c)      Shooting-What you are looking for here is how they catch and shoot.  Most shots at young age levels come from catch and shoots.  Stress to them that you don’t want them shooting 3’s.  You want to see their form.

3)      Skills Application-With this criterion you want to see how well each player can apply their skills when they are guarded.  I like use small sided games for this criterion because I feel that at 5v5 some players may not get touches.  To me 3v3 is ideal.  It gives me a chance to watch them play and look for how they get their teammates involved and follow instructions.  I stress the following things to the players before they begin:

a)      Once you pass you need to do something.

i)       Cut to the basket

ii)     Screen for the ball handler

iii)   Screen for the other player

b)      Dribble only if you are going to the basket.

c)      Play man to man defense.

d)      Make sure you look for both of your teammates.

I usually like to have 90 minutes for tryouts and I will allocate about 30 minutes for each of the 3 criteria.  This will give me enough information on each player to make a good enough decision when selecting my teams.  

I will devote another couple of posts on the following items:

1)      Cuts vs. forming other teams

2)      How to announce team selections and how to break the news to kids that did not make the cut.