Middle School Tryouts

Hi guys,

Is there a standard criteria for conducting middle school basketball tryouts? The reason for my question is that my school district has a new coach that has put kids through a first day tryout of just running, suicides, etc. The only basketball skill he did at all were foul shots. There were no other lay-ups, scrimmages, and actual ball drills. Afterwards, based on the running he made first cuts. Several players who cannot even play basketball were selected over some kids with outstanding basketball abilities, but may be short on speed. He is also the soccer coach. What do you think and Is this a typical tryout?
Thank you and best regards,
Fred

I thought he was the track coach..... I will keep my thoughts to myself... but this is NOT how I would conduct a tryout... for any level.


Ken

Fred:
I know of no standard tryout procedures for try outs, most coaches have their own way of conducting them. However, although conditioning is important when playing any game or sport, it would be only a small part of my tryout. This coach is coaching two entirely differently played sports and if my child was involved, I would certainly want to ask him his philosophies on selecting players from his tryouts.

As an afterthought, did he introduce the Zedani head butt or the Beckham bend during this workout.
coach Mac

You're bad Mac :-)

Hello guys. I agree that different coaches have different approaches to tryouts. At my school we have an evaluation form for all players trying out for the middle school teams. The middle school head and assistant coach put the players through numerous basketball/conditioning drills and a third party does the evaluating. Our tryouts are usually three days and then cuts are made based on numbers and the results of the evaluation form. A basketbal tryout should primarily involve BASKETBALL and nothing else.

Coach Cleveland

Well I had 41 try out and I did use the 1st day and ran the life out of them. We lost 12 so were down to 29 for the rest of the try outs. That would be the only reason I could think a coach would do it. Is to eliminate those who just like the idea of playing basketball.

Can you give me one good reason why you would waste a day just running kids? You ran off 12 kids.... you never knew IF they could play or couldn't... maybe they were just thinking... IF THIS is what BASKETBALL is all about - then I want no part of it.

Isn't that what its all about.... playing basketball... if they wanted to try out for track they could do that. Why not find out IF they can pass, dribble, shoot, defend, rebound, OR have a clue about the game?

Ken

If they are serious about playiong basketball they stay and understand that it is part of the "weeding out " process. I am more than comfortable with the 12 who left.

Do you think a true basketball player/athelete will quit after 1 day of conditioning - I'll help you - the answer to that question is NO!

As a coach you have to know who can hold up and be there for you in the 4th quarter. Those who quit after 1 tough practice will not be - no matter how good they or their parents think they may be!

Again, different coaches and different approaches to how tryouts should be conducted. The original post on this topic was about middle school age kids and I think player age should be considered when conducting any kind of tryout. In my opinion, running the players at a tryout is important because it allows you to see who's in shape and who's not. It also helps you to see which players are mentally tough. However, I still firmly believe that players at a basketball tryout should be evaluated on just that, their basketball ability or the lack there of.

To each his own... but you can accomplish the same thing with a BALL rather than just run them. The longer I coached the more I realized how important the time on the floor is.... We never ran just for the sake of running... we conditioned our kids through well thought out practice plans.

"Do you think a true basketball player/athelete will quit after 1 day of conditioning - I'll help you - the answer to that question is NO!"

You are certainly entitled to your opinion... somewhere down the line you will be saying I wish I had that two hours back so I could teach them more. You can be as tough as you want to be, but if you aren't using that time to teach, you are wasting it.

When I held try outs it was to find out who can or can not play, who can or can not shoot, pass or dribble... I don't care if he can run all day... IF he can't play, what good is that? IF you listen to guys - X players - on radio talk shows they always talk about how good they were at the combine.. but the players or coaches in the know would always say, but can he play football?

JMO

Ken

I did try it your way the year prior and that 1st day with all those girls was chaos!!

You are better than me if you can have a meaningful practice with 41 girls. It is hard enough with 20!!

I wont disagree with that... hopefully you had some help???

Do you think you might have chased away a PLAYER?? What if someone came up to you and challenged you the way you chose the team? What would you have to fall back on then? What would you say to a parent or administrator?

She couldn't run for two hours or she cant handle the ball, she cant dribble or shoot. I think you would have a lot less problems using the latter.

Use drills like 3 man weave full court .. full court passing / shooting drills. etc. You can find out who can do all the fundamental things along with conditioning. The one or two that you ran off just might have been your best shooter, best defender, best ball-handler, best rebounder ...............
or just the best one for last spot on roster..

Just some food for thought.... good luck. :-)

Ken

One other person to help.....And they wweren't cut they just didn't come back.

That is actually what the administration suggested to weed out the pretenders. And no I don't think that a PLAYER left or was cut I should have cut more>......

I guess I would have to disagree with the Administration then too!
Obviously they don't understand athletics very well.

IF I was a parent and watched that "tryout" I would have my son/daughter find another place to play. I coached a long time and NEVER saw or heard of anyone doing that.

Would you waste two hours in one of your classrooms to "weed out" the kids that would have a hard time getting it? Sports are just an extension of the classroom.

Ken

Basketball is optional or extra carricular academics are not so no you do everything you can in the classroom.

You do everything you can for them in recor Upward basketball but when there are 20 spots and 40 people trying out you do what is necessary - unfortunately we disagree on how to handle it!

Yes, sports like other extra curriculars are optional but they are still an extension of the classroom.

As for how to handle it.... well...Thats what makes this game so great!

First of all, I feel for you Pin 21. That’s a tough situation. It sounds like more of administration and/or facility issue. You should not be in the position to coach 41 girls every day. For that many girls, you probably need at least 2 gyms and 2 more coaches. At the same time, I also don’t believe in cutting players at the middle school level. That's probably not your fault, though.

Even when I had 25 players at the Fresh/Soph level, I did some ‘hard’ conditioning. Looking back, I probably would have done conditioning like Coach Sars mentioned. Use drills to incorporate basketball skills while conditioning. Full-court drills work great for that.

My thoughts may be a little bit out of the ordinary on running players, but my view has changed and I don’t like to run players. There are some exceptions at the high school level which is a whole another topic. Here’s why I don’t like running players:

1. Quit sports & turn to other extracurricular activities – It puts a bad taste in the player’s mouth about running. They may end up hating the sport (or all sports), because they always had to run. Sports (or basketball in this case) are supposed to be fun so when they grow up, they still like to play and exercise. Since, some kids hate sports because of bad past experiences like running them until they throw up, they turn to other things like drugs, alcohol, and other troublesome activities.

2. It can affect their future health – What do most coaches do to discipline (or sometimes punish, which I am against)? They run their players. As a result, they grow up with a negative feeling attached to running, because it was used when they did something bad or it was meant to punish them.

Typically, people who do not exercise as adults are unhealthier than others who exercise. I don’t want to be the cause of somebody not wanting to exercise. We should be creating an atmosphere where people love to exercise and be healthy.

To condition, use fun drills. To discipline a player who is acting up, don’t allow participation. Running should be a privilege.

I agree with you Jeff.... when I started coaching I did a lot of running too... but the more I coached the more I valued the time I had on the practice floor. We tried to use every minute possible... for example.... we didn't take water breaks as a team... if a player wanted a drink all he had to do was point at the water fountain... and IF we weren't explaining something I or my asst. would just say go ahead... sounds petty... but add up the 5 minute water breaks twice a practice.

I agree that Pin needed some more help with that group until he cut it down to a manageable number.... I tried 19 at the sophomore level one year (at the request of the AD) we practiced on a half court most of the time.... I told the kids I was going to hold back on final cuts because there were some close calls to make... I tried one week and finally made the last cut.. down to 15. The kids just weren't getting enough time on the floor, practice or games.

Good post.

Ken

Perhaps if you gave the kids who were trying out some sort of a practice plan. For example, telling them that the first day would be nothing but conditioning then if they were not into that type of try out they could weed themselves out. Many kids are NOT in condition coming into a tryout. I am of the belief that its a coaches responsibility to get them into condition once your team has been selected by using full court drillsn"WITH A BALL" . Forgive me for saying this, but I want a kid that can play not one that CANT but can run all day. I was in a city in China called Chongqing and was watching a display of kids on the stage that could do amazing things with a basketball, like spin them on coke bottles, bounce them off their heads back to their fingers, and do great things in the one on one game like double dribble, fake a drive and put the ball up their shirt etc. But when it came to playing a five on five game with a referee, they were completely lost and got pounded by thirty. But they could do great things with the ball except the right things.

coach mac

Amen to that Mac....


Pin,

Here is another thought.... we did this with our freshman... we had two coaches at that level.. and we had a lot of kids trying out.. so they split up the players into two groups.... one tried out early for 1 1/2 hours and the remaining kids tried out in the second session... we made some cuts after two days.... then had one more session that way and made the remaining cuts.

Yes, some kids saw the writing on the wall early and didn't come back after the first day - cutting themselves and that happens. After the third they had the players picked.... then they sat down and split up the players into two squads - A & B teams.

The first 7-8 went to the A Team and the next 8 went to the B team.... but we always made sure that the B team got a good post player to build around. Hope this helps.

Ken