Try-outs & team rules

Question
QUESTION: I have been coaching vb for several years and I am interested in improving the quality of my try-outs.  What kind of try-out system do you use and any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated?

ANSWER: Good evening Michelle!   

Welcome to www.allexperts.com!  It's great to hear from you!  I think I can help you.    

In May 2003, one of my ex-players was 21 years old and she accepted the head coaching position at a middle school in South Carolina.  She wrote and said, 揅oach Houser, I need some ideas.  I feel completely lost.  What would you do if you were in my situation??br>
My response deals partially with middle school teams, but every volleyball coach who抯 new to a school will get something out of this!

PART I:  PICKING YOUR TEAM

THE PROBLEM:  So many deserving girls are cut and so many undeserving girls are kept because the coach didn抰 take the time to get to know the girls who were trying out.  I have some methods where girls can avoid this happening; but, come on coaches!!  It抯 so much easier for you to prevent these catastrophes!   

Why do we pick kids for teams after a 4-hour or a 6-hour tryout?  I don抰 ever want to hear again, 揌er tryout was lousy, so she was cut.? Teachers don抰 give semester grades based on what a student does for 4 hours?   The parents of my Junior girls don抰 judge me on how I act for 4 hours.  Thank goodness my wife doesn抰 judge me during any random 4 hour period!

SOLUTION:  Have most of your team picked BEFORE tryouts ever start.  

IDEAS:   Let me tell you what the local high school varsity volleyball coach here in Roanoke has already done.  (Remember, it抯 June!)  She抯 had open gyms this spring.  She抯 preparing for a 2-day mini-camp in a few weeks.  In July, the entire team heads to a team camp out of town.  Then as a fundraiser, they host a doubles tournament where most of the kids play.   After all this is over, I抦 sure the coach will be 95% sure of which girls will make varsity, which will make JV and which will be cut.   I would do the same thing.  So if one solid player has a bad tryout, she抣l just have to work her way up from 2nd team.  She won抰 get cut.

SUMMER CAMP:  Is it too late to hold a camp at your school this summer?  If not, then you go!  You'll learn so much about your players.  If I can help, just let me know.  To see my summer camp schedule, go to:  www.coachhouser.com

TEAM RULES:  You may want to scratch much of your team rules up this summer and present them to the AD and/or principal to make sure they agree AND to keep the administrators in the loop!  Principals HATE surprises and the fewer fires you create for them to put out, the more they'll appreciate your work.

PICKING THE TEAM CAN扵 BE GUESS WORK!!   
Cutting kids may be one of the hardest things you'll ever do.  Let抯 make it easier.
 have some open gyms before tryouts and watch the kids;
 if the kids are attending any local camps, go by and watch;
 talk to the parents, get to know them, and let them get to know you;
 maybe even video the open gyms and watch the tape later;  
 maybe you could have visited their PE classes and watched for a few minutes this spring.  

Why do all this?   So that you have a better feel for who you抎 like to have on the team.  In your mind, open gyms will be used as 損re-tryouts攨厖just don抰 tell the girls!

PRE-TRYOUT NECESSITIES:  

a) On the first day you meet a prospective player in the spring (in the gym, in the hallways, etc.), get her name, phone number, email address, birthday, list of her teachers, etc.  Give a list of names to the teachers and say, 揑抎 like to know about their academics and their behavior.?   Why keep a kid who makes all D's & F's?  Or why keep a kid who can't behave in class?  OR, a better idea, you may see potential in one of those marginal kids and so you抣l be able to tell them, "You either do x and y and z during our season, I may have to take your jersey, give it to the manager, and make you the manager.  Don抰 make me do that."  

b) Email/IM/text the prospects about anything!   Yes, include some thoughts on commitment and dedication and loyalty.  But also send the kids birthday internet cards, happy weekend cards, holiday cards, etc.  They'll LOVE getting email from the coach!   

c)  Email the parents as much info about you, the team, the team's schedule, etc. as you can think of.  This email should also include what you expect in the areas of effort & commitment, how long practices will be & how often, how the girls will get to matches, and what reasons you consider excused for missing matches & practices, etc.  If you want to see one of mine from this past fall, let me know.   This will help you avoid hearing the phrase 揑 didn抰 know how long practice was,?or 揑 haven抰 made up my mind yet,?or the famous 揑 forgot about tryouts?  

d) On the first day of tryouts, get email addresses, birthdays, etc. from the new kids.  Send out all those emails that the new players and their parents have missed.  If you have a family that抯 not on line, have those emails already printed out to hand to parents.  WOW, will you look organized!  

THE LENGTH OF TRYOUTS:  The less you know about your team, the longer the tryout sessions.  At one school where I taught, I knew the players so well that there were no varsity tryouts - - the girls received invitations to be on the team the week before our season began!!   But if I ever coached at a school where I didn抰 know the players, I'd be forced to have 4 or 5 or more days of tryouts.   I wouldn抰 know the girls?games or their personalities at all, so I抎 want to see who抯 willing to work and to commit.  I抎 want to see who'll get an attitude, who'll be late and ask to leave early, who抣l quit after 2 or 3 hard practices, who'll get mad at the coach, etc.  

THE FIRST KIDS THAT YOU扡L KEEP ON YOUR TEAM!
Look for girls who have those special qualities:  good attitudes, willing to sacrifice, love of the sport, commitment, hard work, spirit, has fun, smiling, helping teammates.  Those are the girls you want to keep!   If they're good athletes, that's gravy.  But regardless of their athletic ability, you抣l have a nucleus of kids who will bust their butt for you and for the team!    And you抣l have a great season!!

Don抰 judge a season by how many you win,
But by how much you hate to see it end.


PART II:  WHAT TO DO AT TRYOUTS

I run tryouts as if they're practices.  

I think especially in middle school, if you don't use tryouts to teach passing, serving and setting and start work on your offense/defense, then your first match will be right around the corner and your team will be more unprepared than it should be.  Yeah, the first several matches will look choatic, I'm sure.  But I抦 also positive that the team who is the least chaotic will win.

Here are the 5 activities that you should cover each day.  (I抦 writing the following assuming you抣l have a typical middle school team:  entirely or considerably made up of rookies.  But if your team is full of girls who抳e already been playing for several years, ignore some of it.)

1) PASSING.    Show them how to pass..........no swing, no poke, just still arms & use the lower body.   Don抰 forget the encourage them to use their hands to serve receive!

2) SERVING.    Show them how to underhand serve.  You say, "No EVERYONE will learn this.  We'll start overhand serving at the end of the week."  Many games can be won at the middle school level by merely serving the ball in the court!  So let抯 make sure we can do that!!

3) SPIKE APPROACH.   Show them a spike approach, but only spend a few minutes a day on it.  They can learn it at home if they抮e motivated to do so.  I discovered that chocolate at the end of the week works out great, but only IF EVERYONE can properly do a spike approach 3 consecutive times.

4) OFFENSE/DEFENSE.  Go over this about 15 minutes a day.  4-2?  5-1?  6-6?  (whoever's in the "3" is the setter! haha) 1 blocker up?  (that's what my 14's junior team did for 2 entire years)  3 blockers up?  front row switching?  back row switching also?  How about this:  3 contacts?  haha.  How you play your offense & defense will be decided by the talent level of your girls.  

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR POTENTIAL SETTERS:  They need to be athletic, hard working, good attitude, leaders, and quick!  That抯 not asking much, is it?  Haha.  

5) COMPETITIONS.    Here's where you can really have some fun.  Relay race serving, pass to targets etc.  They can be timed, or they can last until x number of targets, or, what's GREAT for youngsters, "this drill is over as soon as a team can underhand serve 20 times (not in a row, just 20 total!) w/o dropping or tossing the ball.  I don't even care where the serve goes."   Then two days later, "20 serves in the court, and if you drop or toss, the serve doesn't count," then a week later, "Your team gets 1 big point each time an individual can serve 3 in the court in a row.   Eight big points and the drill is over.  If you drop/toss, your attempt is over."   Similar progressions can also be done with passing, setting, spike approach, etc.  

Gosh, we抮e still talking about tryouts, huh?  Well, after 3 or 4 or 5 days, you can whittle your team down to 10 or 12 or 15, and then continue onward and upward!!  

TRYOUT ACCOUNTABILITY WARNING:  Your principal or AD may force you to keep notes, use a stopwatch, etc. to justify who you keep.  But I hope they don抰 because if you did what I recommended in Part I, it would be such a waste of time.  But if you抮e forced to justify, email me and let me give you some ideas.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, that's an article I wrote in 2003.  Is this what you wanted?  Or did you want me to be more specific?

Just let me know.  Once again, it's great hearing from you.  If you've only been coaching for a few years, you will absolutely love what "I Can't Wait" Volleyball can bring to your school!  Our first camp starts in 10 days!  I can't wait!!

Coach Houser  




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Coach Houser,
Do you hand out team rules prior to try-outs and would you mind sharing your rules with us less experienced coaches?
Michelle

Answer
Hello again Michelle!

Team rules are as individual as coaches themselves.  

When I coached in the little factory town, where many of the players didn't understand my definition of commitment, I had 1 page of rules, 1 page of consequences for breaking each rule, one page of interpretations haha, and 1 final page where parents and players signed.  

When I moved to the suburbs, the coaches would tell me, "Tom, this stuff is over the top.  The kids here don't need this.  They won't skip practice, they will be late once a season, if they smoke/drink then their PARENTS will kill them before you can kick them off, they don't make C's in conduct, they don't get arrested."  And after a few years, they were right.  So I shortened my 4-page handout to an email to parents and a discussion with the girls.  

Team rules have one purpose:  To help the team.  Period.  They are to prevent the team from splitting apart as some girls are late, late and late again, or when some girls roll their eyes at each other, or when some girls get after school detention, or when some girls lie to the coach, etc.  If your players do A LOT of these things, then make fair %26 comprehensive rules to stop it.  If the girls in your community do hardly any of it, then consider the email %26 talk thing.   

I am very uncomfortable with coaches who discipline from anger, from whims, from "you just got on my last nerve".  That's subjective.  One of my previous coaching acquaintances, however, was JUST like that and she %26 I debated about it a number of times.  I was like, "How can you be that way?  How can you bust one girl for being 1 minute late, but not do anything to another girl fir being 3 minutes late?  And the next day YOU'RE the one who's late!"   

My advice when you create your team rules:  Do what your team needs.  Do what's in the best interests of your team!!  

Michelle, my "factory town" team rules are in my "I Can't Wait To Coach" ebook. The previous post was an article from the "I Can't Wait to Coach Volleyball" ebook.  I have sold my ebooks and drill collection to over 200 coaches, parents and spectators.  I hope you understand.  I'm just not comfortable pasting another 4 pages here.  I have a 200-person "team" that I have to consider.  :)  If you want to buy either ebook, they are $15 each.  Both are $25.  You can download 6 free articles from the ebooks by visiting www.coachhouser.com, and touching the "I Can't Wait" link at the top. If you like those articles and you want 350 pages of them haha, you will see the link to making a purchase.  

If I can ever be any more help, please visit again.  I hope you understand about the dilemma I'm in.  I'm sorry again.   

Tom Houser
www.coachhouser.com