GU11 tryout advice

[concern]

Anyone have any good ideas about a tryout plan for GU11? Thanks.

[Jerzy]

I haven't done that yet, but let me highly suggest that you get a second or third person to help you with your tryouts, even if they are not going to be coaching. There's just so much to see, and you will bring your own biases to the table, so having another opinion is going to be good opinion.

I would also recommend having the tryout over a couple of weekends. Some girls may have been tight and nervous, or actually sick, and you want to make sure every girl has the opportunity to preform at as high a level as possible.

You should also know up front how you are going to tell the girls that don't make the team this unfortunate fact. I think it shows great character, poise and some element of toughness, to tell every girl face to face, or at least via phone. Highly unpleasant, but these are young girls who may not have been judged before and this early memory will go a long way towards determining whether they want to put themselves in such a position again.

[ian.curry]

Alway give a three week tryout period. I have been able to tell a kid after one session if he isn't good enough, when its been painstakingly obvious.
Recently I had a lad finish his 3 week period, he didn't make it this time because of numbers but he is invited to continue training with us until the next squad pick in July.

He took players on too much in the first week, didn't get much touches the second week and the third week he passed the ball beautifully. Just shows the difference between one pressurised session and 3 or 4 relaxed sessions.

[lanesra]

Good question. I guess the most important thing is to know how many girls you're expecting and how many sessions you're going to have. Do you know any of these girls, and is there going to be anyone else with you acting as another pair of eyes.

Say you have 25 girls trying out for a team with 15 spots. (Good enough approximation?) I'd start with some simple 1v1 in a 10x10 yard channel. Defensive player serves the ball to the attacker and attacker tries to beat the defender coming at her and stop the ball on the defender's line. You're looking for two things here. For defenders you want girls who know to close quickly to 3-5 feet, so as to challenge for the ball and to make the attacker put her head down. For the attacker you want to see who really relishes attacking the defending player, really going at her.

You want to keep an eye out also for girls who like to play goalie. Not a lot of U11 girls want to play keeper, and while I'm still very much a proponent of rotating keepers and all my U10s - U12s play some keeper, it helps to have a girl who likes keeper. So, let any girl who wants to play defender in the drill above as a keeper, meaning she should be able to charge the attacker and dive for the ball. Any U11 girl who is willing to contest the ball at the foot of the attacker is a girl worth keeping.

Beyond 1v1, have them play some 5v5. Again, see if any girl wants to play keeper. First session, give them positions. More than skill or speed, I'd be looking to see who positions themselves correctly vis a vis the other players. Here's where having a familiarity with the other players would come in handy. Like Jerzy said, this is a good time to have someone else's eyes on the game: he can be watching the girls picking out who has the ball skills, you can work on checking out who has game and positional sense. Second game, let them sort themselves out and you can see who might be the on-field coach for your team.

[concern]

Thanks everyone for the insight!!

[Jerzy]

Having a standard assessment form to grade everyone helps when you have to justify your decisions to yourself, your co-coach and your parents.

[newmana]

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