This post was kind of ready for some time, but I did not want to put in the time to review it, but I think it is still fitting, especially now after Copenhagen Games. Teams fold, girls are looking, teams are looking. Trying to finally find the girl with the same goals.
First of all I would like to say what one of our past coaches said to us, when we were trialing new players. It is not only us, who is trialing someone, we are also being trialed.
I feel like in the female scene, existing teams think, there is such a big pool of players and that the rare resource is not the players, it’s the teams, which gives you an advantage. Let me tell you, you are wrong.
You should always want the best for you and for your team, the best does not come easy. The best will also demand things from you and your team.
If you take playing professionally in any team serious and want to be taken serious you will have to start treating it like a professional. It is some sort of a business after all.
When you are trialing someone you also need to show yourself from the best side. Many times I have trialed for teams and I hear them talking bad about previous trialists.
You don’t want to tell your current trialist how it goes with other trialists, you also don’t want to ‘shit talk’ other players of the female scene while your trialist is there for the first time. While shit talking is not really a positive characteristic anyway, keep in mind everyone knows everyone. You don’t know, who your trialist is friends with.
As a team you want to show your comittment to the game, you don’t want to play around in another game 5 minutes before practice or a tournament.
Twitter, what should I say. Take care what you post on the internet. No, I am not trying to sound like your parents, but there are enough careers that suffered, because people tweeted something stupid.
We also used to check the twitter pages of trialists, watched their past streams and trust me we have seen a few things. In a few cases it already determined our decision in other cases we still gave it a shot, but the first impression is there.
Give your trialist easy calls. If you already have proper setups and strategies, sure use them, if you know you have the time to explain them, but don’t expect your trialist to instantly do what’s in your head when you call a planned strat mid game, which your team had several games to get used to.
As the team ask your trialist if they have any questions and also as trialist you should never be too shy to ask questions. Be demanding, if you already know what you want.
Warm up! Get warm with the trialing player, have some small talk if needed. See if you get along. Many games are about confidence and you are more confident the more comfortable you feel around your teammates. But you should also warm up for the games. This is not only an advise for the trialist, but also for the whole team.
Just keep in mind as a team and also as a trialist, to treat the tryout like a serious interview, unless we are talking about a just for fun mix team and also do not forget to have some fun!