Preparing for, and dealing with tryouts

There will come a time in your athletic career that you will have to
"tryout" for your sport - to make a select team, a school team, or
provincial/national team.
Tryouts are not only designed to see how well athletes can perform, but also
to place them in a high pressure environment to see how they handle
themselves. Coaches do not want athletes who "freeze" or "choke" at the
first sign of pressure.
Athletes need to prepare for the tryouts just like any other major
competition. Athletes should highlight the tryout dates in their annual
training plan. Seasoned athletes do not regard tryouts to be as important as
young up-and-coming athletes, therefore, you need to decide how important
they are to you.
Your training program should prepare you to physically peak at the right
time. Most young athletes leave their physical preparation to the last
minute, which we all know is too late. I advise athletes to start preparing
for next year's tryouts as soon as this year's have been completed.
Physical preparation is only half the battle; mental preparation is as
important. The best way to prepare for a high stress environment is to train
in similar environments to gain experience. The old adage "practice as you
play" comes back into effect.
I advise athletes to develop good training habits; their training sessions
should mirror competition (high intensity with high quality).
Athletes should be nervous going into tryouts - this tells me that they care
about the sport and their performance. The best way to deal with stress is
experience, so athletes need to view the tryouts as an invaluable
experience. Good luck.

The PURSUIT Training and Rehabilitation Clinic located inside the Cloverdale
Athletic Park, providing complete sport conditioning and physiotherapy
services. Contact Craig Dalrymple at 604-574-2895 or
pursuittraining@telus.net.

Craig Dalrymple

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