It never fails to practice the theory that depending upon the purpose your team has, choose players to take part in tryouts soccer. If you are a player builder working with kids, keep the kid and work on the competitiveness part. Help the players to shine in the game if you notice athleticism and love for the game in them.
But you may have the right player who’s new to the team but has an innate ability to learn fast. In such cases, take time to prepare the player for the tryouts.
Following are some of the points that may help coaches to prepare players for the upcoming tryouts and soccer tournament.
Prior to Tryouts: You should make the players run 3 days a week to bring them to be in shape. This surely helps to build the stamina. Ability to run 2-3 miles by the end will definitely make players to be in good shape.
Agility and steadiness are also very important. In addition, good running, stopping, and changing the direction are important too. Players should do short sprints to accomplish this. For example: count out 40 yards and 100 yards on a flat surface and place a marker. The players should run between it few times.
Players can practice shooting by hitting at the round target drawn with chalk on the wall. The perfect place to draw the target would be two feet from the ground and a foot diagonally. Ask the players to hit the target from a 10 feet distance.
When they are able to do that, vary the distance and ask them to continue.
Day of Tryouts: On the day of tryouts, get there early with your players so that they get plenty of time to warm up.
When the kids are not required to wear something specific, request them to wear something distinctive. You know it is easier to point to someone wearing blue socks and give an opinion than pointing to a group of girls wearing red T-shirts and white shorts.
Most tryouts soccer sessions start with small-sided games, like 2v4 or 4v4 to goals, and work up to 8v8 to goals with goalkeepers.
In fact, most decisions are made in the small-sided phase. Frequently, players are rated in 3 categories: a) definitely b) may be c) certainly not. Often in the 8v8 stage, only the “may be” players get the most playing time because a decision has to be made. So it is good to encourage kids to play with energy and take control of the game.
Communicate in the Games: Good communication makes your players stand out in a positive way to observing coaches. By giving instructions and helping other players with vocal and visual signals, any player can become a leader. Silent players somehow appear to be out of the game mentally.
Players should take every opportunity to greet their coaches. Soccer association is very keen about the etiquette of the players.
Players who ask questions know better what is happening at the tryouts soccer and during any follow-up tryouts. This is not the complete list. You should consider joining our youth soccer coaching community for it has got newsletters, articles, and videos to make you a better coach.
Andre Botelho is a recognized authority in youth soccer coaching and has already helped thousands of youth coaches to dramatically improve their coaching skills. Learn how to explode your players’ skills and make training fun by downloading your free ebook at: Soccer Training Drills.
Tags: soccer association, soccer tournament, Tryouts soccer, youth soccer