Hockey tryouts can be a very stressful time of year for parents and players. There is a lot of pressure put on young players trying to make their competitive teams. As parents, we are always looking for ways to help our player achieve their goals. Here are five simple tips on how to help your young player impress at their tryouts this year.
1. Look Like A Player
This sounds very simple, maybe a little superficial, yet it is easy to do and can make a big difference. If you’re trying out for a new hockey team or a new set of coaches, you want their first impression of you to be a good one.
- Remove all branding – Take stickers off of your helmet, and wear a generic jersey and socks. Don’t wear anything that associates you with your past teams. Sometimes coaches see a player with stickers or a jersey from a lower-level team and assume that a player isn’t good enough to play on their team.
- Equipment – Make sure that your equipment fits properly. Hockey pants shouldn’t look like spandex. Make sure your skates are done up, nothing worse than sloppy feet in tryouts. Tape your stick properly. Coaches don’t want to see tape falling off your blade or a zebra pattern on your stick.
- Body Position – Keep your body in a good, upright position. Don’t rest your stick on your pants or shin pads when you’re tired, and avoid holding your stick halfway down the shaft exposing your butt end when you’re in a drill or performing a skill. Try to always revert back to “Hockey Player Position” – keep your head up, back straight (leaning slightly forward) and knees bent.
2. Work Hard in Your Tryout
Try to look engaged throughout tryouts, work hard when you’re on the ice, don’t cheat during drills and try your hardest with every repetition. Hard work goes a long way in the game of hockey, and coaches love hard-working players. When making a decision between players for the final spots on a team, coaches will almost always choose those “blue-collar”, hard-working players.
3. Pay Attention
Understand what the coach is asking, listen when drills are being explained, and if you don’t understand a drill ask the coach or go to the back of the line and watch how the drill is being performed. There is nothing that stands out more than a player who consistently messes up drills during tryouts. If you are constantly messing up drills in the tryouts, coaches are going to assume you will also do the same in their practices which will frustrate everyone.
4. Play Your Game
Showcase the skills that you are good at. If you are a great skater – skate, if you have a great shot – shoot. Often times players try to do too much in tryouts or get away from the type of player they are, which ends up making them look bad and hurts their chances of making the team.
5. Have Fun
Tryouts can be a very stressful time for both parents and players. There is nothing better than seeing players smile and having fun when they are on the ice. We need to remind our players that hockey is fun and tryouts are one experience that players should embrace and enjoy no matter the results. If a player makes the team then that is a great accomplishment. If a player is released, it should only be looked at as a learning experience with areas of improvement. Nelson Mandela said it best “I never lose. I win or I learn.”
Good luck with your hockey tryouts! Work hard, have fun and enjoy the process. If you’re a parent of a young player you’ll be going through this process many times. The more you can help prepare your player for these types of situations the better equipped they will be in the future, whether it is in sport or in life.
Want to connect and share ideas with other hockey coaches from around the world? Join our Minor Hockey Coaches Group on Facebook, which has coaches from across Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and even Australia.
Looking for help to practice your skills before tryouts? Check them out here.