It never fails to practice the theory that depending upon the purpose your team has, choose players to take part in tryouts soccer. Suppose you are coach working with kids, help them to improve their competitiveness. 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 a situation, take account of the time you’ve got to prepare him for the tryouts.

What you find below are only a few points that 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 will help build stamina. If they can easily run 2-3 miles by the end, they’ll be in good shape.

Soccer Training

Agility and steadiness are also very important. Good running and stopping as well as change of direction are essential too. Doing short sprints will help the players 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 target should be about two feet from the ground and approximately a foot or so diagonally. Ask the players to hit the target from a 10 feet distance.

When the players are able to do that, increase the distance and ask them to try.

Day of Tryouts: On the day of tryouts, get there early with your players so that they get plenty of time to warm up.

If kids need not wear something specific, ask them wear something distinctive. It will helpful for the coach 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. Players are rated as a) definitely b) may be c) certainly not in many cases. Players in the ‘may be’ category are given most of the playing time so as to decide to move them to either of the other two categories. And that’s why you should encourage players to play with energy and take control of the game.

You should communicate well in the games, because it makes your player to observe you and to stand out in a positive way. Any player can be a leader if they are able to give instructions and if they help other players with vocal and visual signals. Some players appear to be out of the game mentally by being silent.

On all possible occasions, players should greet their coach. Soccer association is very strict about the etiquette of the players.

Some food for thought; players who keep asking questions know better what’s going to happen at the tryouts soccer and during any follow-up tryouts. That’s not all. Our youth soccer coaching community 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.