Tryout Triage: Developing an Effective Hockey Tryout

As a hockey coach in a tryout setting, I usually think in terms of “triage.” You may have heard this term in the emergency room. It’s where the nurses sort through everyone who’s sick, and figure out who needs attention first.

Here’s a quick definition:

tri·age
trēˈäZH/
noun
noun: triage

(in medical use) the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.

the process of determining the most important people or things from amongst a large number that require attention.

Structuring Your Tryout

You want to format your tryout schedule to give you the best chance of triage possible. Here are a few tips I recommend:

• Have a good mix of skill sessions and scrimmages. I like a 1:2 skills-to-scrimmage ratio
• Structure your practice plans to show what you want to see; skating, pivots, agility, power turns, crossovers, puck control, passing, shooting, etc.
• Remember, tryouts are not for development. Don’t worry too much about correcting form. 
• If possible, have a real ref for the scrimmage
• Keep game stats for the scrimmage
• Get a few coaches in the stands, and a few on the ice. I like to use walkie talkies for communication among the staff

Selecting your Team:

So what does triage look like for a coach selecting a team? Here’s my workflow, assuming a standard tryout format as described above, with 1 or 2 skills sessions, followed by some games:

• Find the kids that look like definite cuts. Scratch them on your list.
• Find the kids who look like definite keepers. Circle them on your list.
• Watch the drills for “stand-out” plays (i.e. bar down snipes, big hits, slick hands, raw speed, etc.)
• At about 3/4 through the practice, are there any kids who you still haven’t noticed? Kids who aren’t blatantly bad, but who also haven’t stood out? Watch each of these kids specifically.
• Once you have your initial impression of each player, spend the remaining sessions watching to see how accurate your assessments were.
• Are there any kids who struggled in the drills, but contribute well in the games?
• Are there any kids who looked flashy in the drills, but faded away in the games?
• Did any of your bubble players rise up (or down) in the games?
• Re-evaluate your lists, and check your impressions against the game stats from tryouts. Do the numbers match what you felt you saw?

I should mention, I have a little game I play while I’m watching the players getting ready to come on the ice. I try to see if I can guess the top kids by the way they look; how they wear their gear, how they carry themselves, posture, how they interact with other players, etc. I’m usually pretty accurate. The best players usually look the part, even before they step on the ice!

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