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Anyone hear of tryouts by position, not just defense and forwards?


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Northland wrote:Anyone hear of tryouts by position, not just defense and forwards?


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What's left besides Goalies??

Can't Never Tried wrote:

Northland wrote:Anyone hear of tryouts by position, not just defense and forwards?


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What's left besides Goalies??

CNT.....get back over on the boys side!

Seriously, I ass-u-me that he meant center, left wing, right wing etc....

Are you talking like forwards - rw, c, lw and defense - ld, rd?

Especially when you have a number of returning players this makes sense - ultimately after tryouts kids are going to line up in one of the five skater positions. Most coaches probably have at least a mental depth chart of these positions to establish their rosters.

Silent But Deadly wrote:

Can't Never Tried wrote:

Northland wrote:Anyone hear of tryouts by position, not just defense and forwards?


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What's left besides Goalies??

CNT.....get back over on the boys side!

Seriously, I ass-u-me that he meant center, left wing, right wing etc....

Goalie was a given.

I know many programs have seperate defense, and forward tryouts. They also then have combined tryouts. Coaches try many combinations of kids to see what might work. To tryout for a certain postion could limit your playing time.

I was just looking for info of programs actually having postional tryouts.


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joehockey wrote:Are you talking like forwards - rw, c, lw and defense - ld, rd?

Especially when you have a number of returning players this makes sense - ultimately after tryouts kids are going to line up in one of the five skater positions. Most coaches probably have at least a mental depth chart of these positions to establish their rosters.

If I'm the coach I would take the best forwards and D and then adopt them to playing specific positions. The exception might be if there are only one or two positions to fill, and your line combinations are otherwise already set. Then it would be which one or two players could best fill these holes in your lineup.

A related question on tryouts is how many schools make just one cut all at once vs. doing it more gradually leading up to the first game? I know some teams take a larger number into their pre-season scrimmages and pay special attention to the bubble players, seeing how they do against different opponents and maybe trying them at different positions.

It's a sad fact that some programs dont' have to make decisions on kids because of numbers. I haven't heard of any coach in HS just making one cut if there are many trying out. Usually need a scrimmage or two to see who can walk the walk.

Now that hockey had officially started ... we have to wait for the games that count.


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MNHockeyFans wrote:If I'm the coach I would take the best forwards and D and then adopt them to playing specific positions.

You should get the job, because that makes sense!

Can't Never Tried wrote:

MNHockeyFans wrote:If I'm the coach I would take the best forwards and D and then adopt them to playing specific positions.

You should get the job, because that makes sense!

That was my thinking also.

Someone mentioned the 'trying out for a specific position' to me last week, so I thought I'd ask.


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Ooops

How about tryouts based on checkbooks. Leave one or two positions open and let them go to the highest bidder. It would eliminate the need for fundraising and maybe ride more charter buses!! We all know there would be at least one in every crowd.

Valley Eggroll wrote:How about tryouts based on checkbooks. Leave one or two positions open and let them go to the highest bidder. It would eliminate the need for fundraising and maybe ride more charter buses!! We all know there would be at least one in every crowd.

I hope this wasn't intended to be a serious suggestion, and you just forgot to put a at the end.

Northland wrote:Anyone hear of tryouts by position, not just defense and forwards?


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It happens that way when a team only loses one senior from last year and there are only specific position spots to fill.

More emphasis needs to be put on changing positions before we get to the point kids are specialized for one position only. if more time was spent at a younger age playing several positions, many would understand the game more fully.

Valley Eggroll wrote:More emphasis needs to be put on changing positions before we get to the point kids are specialized for one position only. if more time was spent at a younger age playing several positions, many would understand the game more fully.

I think most kids do. I know that our teams rotate kids on a pretty regular basis (every 10-12 games or so) through U12, for just that reason. Even if a kid has shown a propensity for playing one position, they still get rotated to ensure they learn what each player does on the ice and will have more of an "instinct" towards getting the puck to or from another player when they are in their permanent position.

HS Ref wrote:

Northland wrote:Anyone hear of tryouts by position, not just defense and forwards?


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It happens that way when a team only loses one senior from last year and there are only specific position spots to fill.

That's assuming the coach is totally satisfied with his line up and will do no more experimentation. And that everyones skill level is maintained.


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I believe there is only one way to do a tryout...if you are taking a team of twenty you look at it like this:

top 2 goalies

top 12 forwards

top 6 defense

plain and simple.

If someone can play both ways, or does play both ways, you factor that in. But you don't take for example, 4 centers, 4 left wings, 4 right wings. You take 12 forwards. You don't take 3 left d and 3 right d, you take 6 d.

boblee wrote:I believe there is only one way to do a tryout...if you are taking a team of twenty you look at it like this:

top 2 goalies

top 12 forwards

top 6 defense

plain and simple.

If someone can play both ways, or does play both ways, you factor that in. But you don't take for example, 4 centers, 4 left wings, 4 right wings. You take 12 forwards. You don't take 3 left d and 3 right d, you take 6 d.

That's the way I believe it should be done. Forwards should be able to play the three positions, and D should be able to play both sides.

Depending on your offensive scheme, F1 is the first over the blue line into your apponents zone independent of their position. Works for me....


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Northland has it right. A forward should be able to play all 3 positions. We found it to be a huge disadvantage to moving to the next level with NDP. Since her last year at U12 and through 2 years of HS hockey, our daughter has only played center. It is now the position she is most comfortable at. In NDP tryouts they expect you to play all 3 positions. On wing, she found she was just skating up and down the ice with teammates who never seemed to pass. Pretty difficult to show what you can do if you never get the puck. It occurred to us that perhaps if she had more experience at wing, she might get the puck more. What does everyone else think? How do you get that experience if your HS coach needs you at center?

Thunderbird77 wrote:Northland has it right. A forward should be able to play all 3 positions. We found it to be a huge disadvantage to moving to the next level with NDP. Since her last year at U12 and through 2 years of HS hockey, our daughter has only played center. It is now the position she is most comfortable at. In NDP tryouts they expect you to play all 3 positions. On wing, she found she was just skating up and down the ice with teammates who never seemed to pass. Pretty difficult to show what you can do if you never get the puck. It occurred to us that perhaps if she had more experience at wing, she might get the puck more. What does everyone else think? How do you get that experience if your HS coach needs you at center?

It seems that in these tryout situations, if you're a forward you stand out more if you just play super aggressively and do everything you can to control the puck as much as possible. The evaluators are looking for the girls who are showing they can consistently make an impact by controlling the play. It becomes more difficult to get noticed when you are mostly concerned about being in the right position and waiting for your linemate to find you. It's usually every player for herself, unfortunately, and they are all trying to make a big impression in a short amount of time. So if you're a wing this can often mean leaving your lane and normal spots and just going and get the puck. So my advice would be to encourage your daughter to worry less about trying to play the position of wing correctly, and instead just go all out and do whatever it takes to control the action and score points, especially goals.

In the defensive zone a wing MUST play her position. When going into the offensive zone you can play first player on puck 2nd support 1 and 3 read play or go to the net (no positions). If entering zone with puck control 2nd player crashes net and third plays slot.

Coaches should see a player not passing and make adjustments.

Melvin44 wrote:In the defensive zone a wing MUST play her position. When going into the offensive zone you can play first player on puck 2nd support 1 and 3 read play or go to the net (no positions). If entering zone with puck control 2nd player crashes net and third plays slot.

Coaches should see a player not passing and make adjustments.

Of course this is very true in normal team hockey but in NDP tryouts, for the forwards, it becomes secondary to generating offense. A forward who comes back deep to help the D may the one left out going the other way for a two on one score.

The difference is that good high school and college coaches are trying to make adjustments to make their team better vs. the NDP evaluators are looking at which individuals to select for the next level.

Agreed that coaches should make adjustments for people not passing, but from what I've seen few do. Agreed that the NDP process needs to be designed to select players for the next level. However, by not considering the players ability to play the whole game, we end up like we did this year with the U18 team...the few goals we did get were all unassisted. Until HS coaches, AAA coaches and the NDP process figures out a way to promote and reward total team play, we will always be a step behind the Canadians. This was what Herb Brooks accomplished in Lake Placid. He did't necessarily take what was regarded at the time as the best players, but he did take the right players.

It's my opinion that evaluators are looking for players who are TEAM players, who hustle to and from the bench, and who not only forecheck but also backcheck. Skate hard all the way to and from the bench!

Most players won't use the points or not pass on a 3 on 1. That indicates to an evaluator a lot about that player. It's not necessarily the player who scores most often who makes the team.

There were great players who didn't make teams last year and whom I felt were awesome skaters. Reasons being selfish play.

I'm not sure most teams even need tryouts. You can't tell me that any coach who knows his job and hockey doesn't already know who he wants for his/her team. It's just a formality to make people feel good. Honesty would probably be a better policy.