Home Forums Long Island & Eastern New York Soccer Message Boards BOTN Main Message Board Open practice vs tryout

Hi Guys,
Can anybody please explain the difference between an open practice and regular tryouts? I apologize but this is new to me.

Among other questions-

What are coaches looking for from a prospective player in an open practice?

What is the process/ protocol for a player to be offered a spot or rejected after attending an open practice?

When is the best time to attend an open practice- one of the early sessions or one of the last sessions for evaluation?

Ordinarily, does a player attend more than one open practice or just one to be evaluated?

Is it easier or harder to earn a spot at an open practice vs regular tryouts?

If a team is not having regular tryouts but only offering attendance at an open practice, does that mean it’s harder to make the team?

Any additional information would also be welcome.

Thank you.

Attending a practice is better. It gives you a chance to see how your kid meshes with the current players. On a strong team they will probably only look to add a couple of kids in any given year so "chemistry" and how your kid deals with players and an environment they dont know is important. I cant really say whether having tryouts vs open practices or a combination indicates very much.

When do they tell you if they think your kid is a fit? At the end of the session, at the end of open practice season or some other time?

If they liked your kid a lot it's usually pretty quickly. A lot of teams essentially have their rosters set before they do one cattle call late spring; that's just to find 1-2 undiscovered diamonds

In addition to the above benefits, you as a parent can watch how the coach interacts with the kids, and you can ask questions of parents at the club. Cattle call tryouts aren't a good way to assess skill and fit. This way is much better, even if this particular time it doesn't work out.

GOOD QUESTIONS. Why doesn’t anyone answer. I would like to know as well.

It's all semantics.

That being said an "open practice" should mean something along the lines of "we are just looking to add a player or two to our existing team so come to one of our regular practices for us to check you out" where a tryout is more open and formal process, sometimes run by third party for impartiality.

It is a form of poaching without poaching a player prior to the official "June tryouts season" which in all actuality has started. It is completely kosher and it got its start years ago when the LIJSL was the only league and they did not allow tryouts to be published until the end of the Spring season. Think of it as a workaround that is not SOP.

Clubs are looking for players that will make the team better. They're less likely to cut a current player for someone who is similar to what they already have. That means your player needs to be in the top half of who's on the field. It is very difficult to stand out at cattle call tryouts where they're trying to assess 40 kids at once. At a practice your player may be the only non team player, or maybe they have 2 or 3 others. The coach can really focus on the ones he's evaluating, not only for skill but how they fit within the context of his current roster.

As for the other questions it really can vary team to team in terms of how many practices you go to, how quickly they get back to you etc. Timing? You go when they ask you to come. It's mid April and you're running out of time if you want to have your kid go to a practice session.

Keep in mind they also are scouting competitor's players during the year but those players aren't allowed to attend a practice without permission from their current club (yeah, good luck with that). But they get to see the kid in game play against their team and can go watch them play in other games. Involved clubs also scout non league players to see them in games. In other words, there's no telling who you're really competing against.

Here's a new thing I've seen this year that I've never seen before:

An EDP NL 1 team held an open tryout and liked a kid so much they offered him the chance to play for them for the rest of this season for free. The ultimate poach.

Anyone here besides me remember the king of the poachers, Larry The Poacher Fisher?

Player wouldn't have left, or even looked elsewhere, if he was happy where he was. Personally I would have my kid finish out his commitment for the year. But if it was a truly bad situation I'd consider bailing too

Depends on what club the kid is currently playing. If he is playing for a town-based club and this was a big step up for him, that's a reasonable offer. If he's with a competing club, then that's a little shady. However, in either case, his current team would have to release him before he could join (assuming they play under the same carding system).

2 club teams that played in the same EDP division last year.

Also, I disagree that looking elsewhere means you're unhappy -- always good in life to know what your options are. Sometimes the grass actually is greener elsewhere and sometimes you find out that it isn't. Both are good things to know.

My experiences: An open practice has the same concept and goal in mind - to evaluate a player's abilities and fit on the current team. (Will this player help our team or will they fill out the bottom of our roster). The only difference I see is that you may have less outside players showing up as opposed to the "tryout" in which you may have many outsiders coming in.
Unless your child is so far below the abilities of the team you are trying out for, your child should make the team. Teams absolutely are looking to better themselves by adding athletically skilled players, but they will take lesser players many many many times in the hopes of filling out the bottom of their roster (bench - teams need numbers to A) have enough players for an entire season, and B) share expenses by pooling the budget together) and as long as you have a bank account, credit card, they'll make the team.

As they get older I don’t think top kids go to tryouts they contact the club and maybe come to a practice or have private tryout.

Tryouts are a waste of time. Tryouts are looking for kids to create another team at that age group. If a club wants to add a player to an existing team, the trainer will often want a reference or even video of the player before agreeing to an open practice.