Coaches Try outs

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dmytv

Coach
So I have decided to have tryouts for team. Mostly for compulsories. Due to some parents deciding to take off for the summer and other parents worried about the level changes, I have decided that we will be open to all decisions about team placement. I want to have a team tryout day similar to a cheer or soccer like tryout. 1 day where the kid does the exercises and from that we decide the team placement. Just wondering if anyone else does this? I want everything out in the open and everything fair. So I am looking for some objective goals. Would parents like to see a list of goals for each event? Would parents like to see each child comapred to the other?What about a clinic?
 
So I have decided to have tryouts for team. Mostly for compulsories. Due to some parents deciding to take off for the summer and other parents worried about the level changes, I have decided that we will be open to all decisions about team placement. I want to have a team tryout day similar to a cheer or soccer like tryout. 1 day where the kid does the exercises and from that we decide the team placement. Just wondering if anyone else does this? I want everything out in the open and everything fair. So I am looking for some objective goals. Would parents like to see a list of goals for each event? Would parents like to see each child comapred to the other?What about a clinic?
==
Why? ... Just make a decision on each kid, based on what YOU know. God forbid some kid takes the whole summer off, has one good day and makes a higher level, meanwhile another kid who worked all summer just had a bad day and now is in a lower level. In other words, you are setting yourself up for problems.
 
We do open tryouts each year. I create a sheet with skills listed for each event for the minimum level you are interested in. Like on bars I list pullover, 2 foot pullover, hollow body casting, cast back hip circle, underswing dismount, etc. I also do a category on flexibility and behavior. I have a value system in place (3=did well and solo, 2=did okay or had light spot, 1= poor form or heavy spot, and 0=did not/could not do). I count up how many skills are in a category and multiply that by 3 (15 skills x 3= 45) to get the available points for the category and add up the categories for the total number of points available. I then divide the points earned by points available to get a percentage. We then typically take the kids that score an 80% or higher. I also give each kid that tried out a copy of their sheet so they see what they did well on/needs to improve on.
Sorry for the drawn out explanation. We are government run (parks and recreation) so there are some things we have to do because of that. I also have to be able to prove why we took certain kids and not others. I like open tryouts because I see kids that I might not have noticed in classes that do really well.
 
^^^ Valid point.

However, I like the pat on the back method. Especially if I want to bump a rec or new kid into a training group (say L2/3 instead of L1/2).
 
hanks mustang99. We are a parks and rec program too. Just to add a little vinegar to the oil, blairbob, what other sport does the tap on the back method? In my opinion, this is a problem with the sport of gymnastics. If we want more participation, we must have more openess. After all if we are only slapping the backs of what we think are future olympians, then we are missing alot of kids who could participate in the sport and grow as athletes.
 
When I saw "tap on the back" this often means I see a kid in kinder or rec and they may have team potential. It's time for that child's coach to go talk to a team coach/director about so and so kid. This is why it's important to train your rec/kinder staff to see potential and to have enough cooperation between the non competitive and competitive programs to keep that up as they are your feeder system.

While I like tryouts, as heck you might get a kid off the street who is friends with one of your gymnasts on team or rec, you do have to deal with the repercussions if they don't make it or if they do (compared to kids already on team). OTOH, you still have to deal with the repercussions if you take a kid out of kinder, rec, or a lower preteam/competitive level and bump them up.

In smaller programs, the "Tap on the back" method is much easier employed especially if you aren't at capacity within group levels due to gymnasts or coaches.

It's somewhat common and unspoken of in many martial arts, be they classical/archaic or modern/sport systems. Heck, it's very much the same with many employers if so and so has an inside connection. Politics as well from the grassroots to National level.

You can't have yellow belts beating brown belts, you can't have green belts owning black belts.

Tap on the back method is pretty much what scouting is all about. Heck, this is also how many regional athletes get to the national level in other sports through the political game of their coaches.
 
Our HC was going to have tryouts this year... but opted to do evaluations for 2 weeks of our then current team members. She then placed the gymnasts as New 3 or 3/4 or 4 or 4/5 or Optional (for anyone who would be L6+ or def going to do Excel). Final decisions for some gymnasts were made @ Nationals. Of course, I had submitted a suggestion sheet to HC for placement ideas for all team members. There were 5-6 of the 42 that I had listed as unsure (usually it was between a JO level and Xcel Gold ... but also had 2 that I double listed because the level I WANTED for them would require petitioning, even though it would be better for them). I was only wrong on 1 girl ... and she is at the level she is because mom INSISTED on it. She is struggling with some of the skills, but is getting the routines down otherwise. She has improved a lot since attending all 5 possible days of team camp for her level, but it has not been without a LOT of tears. She is one that could have qualified for Nationals fairly easily had she not moved up (Mom has already booked her hotel for next year's Nationals)... but now, she needs a lot of skills to make it.

The team is a lot bigger this year too. We are maxed out @ L3 with 21, have 17 L4 (none of them have the skills to do L5), 4 L6, 4 L7, 9 Excel Gold, and 2 Excel Platinum. There is also a possibility that we may get 2 more of our girls from last season back later in the year and they would both be doing Excel Gold if so.

We are so big because 16 class girls were ready to move onto team... and 2 from rec camp were good enough to go onto team (at rec camp, gymnasts are split into 4 ability groups and the highest one learned a modified version of the New L3 routine on floor, beam, and bars).
 

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