The Point Missed

Now that another tryout season is over, I wanted to take a second to reflect on my experience in the process as a coach. One of the most glaring issues with tryouts, is not the process itself, but the perceived goals of tryouts. Why do we go through this process each year? We have not as a soccer culture found a better way, so this is the process we have at the moment. Obviously, it is an excruciating, anxiety ridden, long process, that no one really enjoys. Although, when hearing comments from parents, players, and coaches about tryouts, I feel there are some very important points about the process that are being missed. At the very least, if everyone can focus on some of these points and what really matters, and avoid being distracted by and burdened by the things that do not, the process can be a little more tolerable.

First, making a team or moving down a team is not be a reward or punishment by the coaches or a club. It is not a direct indication that a player improved or digressed over the course of the year. There are many variables and moving parts that determine the team a kid is placed on, so it is not a direct indication of the level of a player’s current ability or that that player’s future potential. The “level” of a first team or second team in a club is relative and the level of those teams change from year to year. A player could have improved over the course of the year, but still not be ready to move up on to the different team. A player may have digressed, but is still on the same level of team and is not moved down. That is why team placement is not as important as the simple fact of whether or not the player improved over the year.

You could say, “Well, shouldn’t a player be rewarded for all their hard work and moved up?” For me, the reward of the hard work is not making a higher team. The reward is getting better. Second, what is deemed as a “reward” (being moved up) could end up being a punishment. Just because a player is progressing, does not make it the right developmental move the player up if that environment is not appropriate for their continued growth.

For example, if your child is doing well in math class, and progressing in the right way, does it make a lot of sense to jump the child up into calculus before they are actually ready? I am pretty sure your child will not see that as a reward. If they are not ready, just because the class is harder, it will not help them become better at math or help them progress faster. In fact, it would probably discourage them pretty quickly, and previously made progress is lost.

This is why moving up a team is not a reward for a player who has worked hard. If a player is moved up, but is not ready, you can slam the brakes on their development progress and the game can quickly become a burden and point of frustration. It is a common misconception that playing against better players makes a player better. The asterisks next to that type of statement should read: “Only when it is developmentally appropriate!”

On the other side, being moved down a team is not a punishment or sign a player degressed over the year. Although a player may not have developed as much as needed over the course of a year, being moved down can be due to new players coming into the team or a coach’s belief that being on that team provides more opportunity, in more roles, in more situations, to develop faster than with their current team. The new team may provide the player to play more positions, take on a leadership role, not feel the need to defer as much to other players taking on responsibilities on the field in games and in training. All of which can have a significant positive impact to a player’s ability and confidence over the long term. Although, I would never expect a player to be happy about being moved down a team, as that would not be beneficial either, it is important the player sees what opportunities are provided in the move and how it can help them become a better player.

The point of tryouts is to place kids in most appropriate environment for them to improve, not to make teams stronger. If you are truly about player development, that is your primary goal when evaluating players and making teams. To my points above, there may be players who can make a team stronger from an athletic standpoint, but it is not the most developmentally appropriate place for the player as it will not provide opportunities for them to learn to do more with the ball. A player’s speed and strength can easily be exploited to help a team be stronger, without giving the player the opportunity to develop other areas of their game.

When placing players, the question asked should be, “Does the player have the correct balance of technical, tactical, physical, and psychological abilities to GROW (not compete) at this level?” I make the distinction between GROW and COMPETE because that is two very different things. A player may be able to compete at a level, but it does not provide enough opportunities to grow as a player.

Which brings me to my next point that is missed throughout the tryout process, that is irrelevant to team placement. In short, each player needs to continue to get better! That is the only goal and the only point to any of this (playing the game). Without improvement, continually, each day, each year, nothing else matters. The whole goal in a developmental, learning environment, is to get better, to be able to do more than you could do yesterday. Team placement should help a player achieve that goal, but being placed on a specific team is NEVER the real goal.

No one gets recruited because of the team they played for at U11. No one gets looked past because of being on the team they played for at U11. Players get recruited or have successful high school careers because of their ability to play the game at that time. By focusing on making a team versus getting better, you set yourself up to fail, as you are focused on something that will not help you be a better player. It has no value from that standpoint. As a player, your value is what you can do on the field, not what team you are on. “If you want to know the artist, look at the art.” You want to be able to paint your best stuff at 18 years of age, not 10.

An issue for many “first team” players, is there is a false sense of accomplishment, and they stop working and doing the things that helped them get to their current level. Over time, they slowly regress as others who have not lost the focus on getting better, slowly, or quickly, catch up or surpass them. An issue for “second team” players is they feel it has already been determined they are “not good enough” to play. When really, it is only been determined where the best spot is to continue to help them develop. The state of mind of being placed on either team can create an attitude and approach to the game that is not beneficial to the player.

Ego is the enemy of the process. Coaches want their teams to be better, parents want their child to be on the first team, and kids want to be on the first team. Not because it is the best place or the right thing for a player, but because it is a “status” symbol. “I coach a good team, so I must be a good coach. My child is on the first team, so I must be a good parent. I play on the first team, so I must be a great player.” In the end, none of those things may be true, and is why you cannot let ego and self-interest get in the way of doing what is best for each player to improve.

When coaches make it about rewarding or punishing kids, about making teams better, we all miss the point of the process, or what the process should be about, putting kids in the best situation possible to help them reach their potential overtime. It is about giving kids the opportunity to get better.

I believe I am part of a club who tries to do it the right way and makes the process as fair and objective as possible. With returning players, a body of work of the entire previous year was evaluated to help decide where a player was placed, and new players were focused heavily on by the coaches to try to get as much information as possible before making a decision on placement. When all is said done, although there is still a lot of room for improvement and players still get missed, the countless hours and very late nights reviewing players to form team helped make better decisions on player placement.

With all that said, none of it really matters if the focus on helping players get better is not the primary goal of the coaches and the parents. For the players, this is true as well. If the players are focused solely on which team they are placed on, they miss the greater purpose, which is always to try to be the best player and person possible by working hard at it each day.