This is your guide for tryouts and in-season evaluations.
Tryouts are stressful. In just a few sessions, you need to test the player's skills, their compete level and select who has the potential to be a great addition to your team.
Add in the responsibility of cutting players, communicating your decisions with parents and keeping the players engaged - there's a lot to consider.
In this section, Candace Kourounis, Assistant Coach with the York University Lions women’s team and the Hamilton Hawks U15AA girl’s team, will uncover best practices for all of this and more, and share how you can track your player's progress throughout the season.
Chapter 1: Defining Success for your Program
A coach’s journey to success begins by asking two fundamental questions: are players leaving your program better individuals than when they first arrived? And are you creating an environment for your players to define their vision of success, while also working with them to accomplish at least one of their goals by the end of the season?
Chapter 2: Preparing a Successful Tryout
If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail. This video discusses how to prep for a successful tryout and includes information on the responsibilities of the development director, guidelines for support staff, guidelines for communicating with players and parents, and suggested drills to use during tryouts.
Chapter 3: Evaluation Criteria for Players and Goalies
There are two crucial factors that contribute to a successful evaluation process: establishing clear and comprehensive evaluation criteria, and having a pre-evaluation meeting with your players. Find out why in Chapter 3.
Chapter 4: Evaluator Guidelines
To maintain the integrity of the tryout process, key expectations and responsibilities need to be made clear for evaluators. Learn helpful information for your evaluation process.
Chapter 5: Releasing Players and Communication
Once tryouts have completed, coaches have the daunting task of releasing players. But what’s the best method to approach player releases? The answer is simple: be as honest and as specific as possible.
Additional Resources
- Article: How to Perform Training Camp Player Evaluations
- Article: 5 Key Elements for Hockey Tryouts and Training Camps
- Article: 6 Ways to have a great Training Camp
- Article: 7 Tips for Cutting Hockey Players at Tryouts the Right Way
- Podcast: Breakaway, the Minor Hockey Podcast - Player Evaluations
