The Terror of Tryout Season

Who hates tryout season more than sport parents?  Well actually, the coaches.  And who stresses about tryout season more than the coaches?  Unfortunately, our kids.  So why has tryout season become the most terrible time of year?

3 Reasons Tryout Season is Terrible

1. Commercialization of youth sports. Regardless of what sports your kids play, several towns, teams, clubs, and academies are competing for your dollars (notice I said competing for your “dollars,” not for your “kids”).

2. Lack of communications from tryout organizers. It would take a lot of pressure off our kids if they got some clear communication about what evaluators will be looking for at tryouts. That would be a huge step up from the current state of affairs where kids and their nervous parents try to guess what’s in store at the tryout. Get an eval tool! Having a clear rubric takes the objectivity out of the process.

3.Lack of consistent and fair methods for evaluating players. Every team, club, academy, and township I speak to has a different method. Outside evaluators are fair, but don’t really get to know the players well enough in a 90-minute tryout. Coach evaluators know the players but may have biases. And in both cases, there is no consistent criteria or objective scoring system from one evaluator to the next.

Bring Humanity to Tryouts

As a sports parent and coach, I got so fed up with the tryout season that I actually changed careers and started a company to fix the problem. And now, iSport360 has features that bring humanity to tryouts:

• First, our app provides coaches with 10 well-defined, age-and gender-specific goals for his/her players which can be emailed to all parents on the tryout roster in advance. Can you imagine how stress levels and emotions subside when parents and players know exactly what the evaluators will be looking for?
• Second, our app provides an objective player assessment tool that evaluators can use on the sidelines. Our mobile assessment tool brings consistency, objectivity, and fairness to players.
• Last, our app provides a rating report for the coach that ranks players based on their overall scores or can be sorted by any sub-category score (such as technical skills, tactical skills, physical skills, or life skills).

I’ve spent years researching this problem and it is felt from North-to-South and coast-to-coast. It’s also a problem in places like the UK, Israel, India, Japan, South Korea and Canada.  So if you are terrorized by Tryout Season, please get your team on iSport360. Join our community of progressive sports parents and coaches.

iSport360 is a youth sports software company improving communication, organization and player development for young athletes and their teams.  To learn more about how iSport360 can help your team or club click here.