Basketball tryouts allow coaches to evaluate potential players and gauge their ability to be a part of the team. In tryouts, players are put through both individual and team drills, showcasing their skills against players who play the same position. Guards compete against guards and big men compete against fellow big men. Basketball coaches look for players who possess strong fundamentals, as well as a good sense for the game.
Conditioning
As a coach, you want your players to be in shape before the start of the season. Begin tryouts with a conditioning session to get an idea of which players put in work during the offseason and who just took the offseason off. Include jogging, sprinting and defensive slide drills to simulate the conditioning players will need in a game. Continue to mix in conditioning activities throughout the tryout session to help identify the players who wear down more easily.
Basic Offensive Skills
Regardless of a player's physical conditioning, he still must possess basic offensive skills to be an effective member of your team. Have players perform basic drills, such as shooting right-handed and left-handed layups, dribbling through cones and full-court passing drills such as the three-man weave. Give players one minute to shoot and record the number of makes and have them play one-on-one to evaluate players' offensive moves.
Basic Defensive Skills
Do defensive slides and check for proper footwork and stance -- feet should never come together and backs should always be straight. Run players through defensive shell drills to get a sense of their understanding of positioning and footwork on defense. Play full-court one-on-one to see how well a player can recover after getting beat by an offensive move, and play a variety of games where the offense has an advantage, such as two-on-one, to evaluate a player's fight and determination -- both key attributes of a good defensive player.
Scrimmage
Let the players scrimmage. Unstructured scrimmages where the teams have no set offenses or defenses gives coaches a good understanding of a player's basketball intelligence. Does he know what to do without the basketball? Does he know what to do with the basketball? How well does he work with this teammates? Does he help his teammates out on defense? Frequently mix players up in their groups to get a sense for how they play with a number of different teammates. This will also help you identify potential lineup combinations once the season starts.
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