I know that this is kind of old, but could you maybe go into more detail about how you ran your tryout process? How exactly were you able to prevent inconsistent skills from slipping through on a stroke of luck?
The first thing you have to realize is that our tryouts start long before our tryout dates. My best friends own an all star gym that teaches general classes in our town. I work with all but one of the high schools in town, and with every middle school. I also teach private lessons. I also watch our two feeder middle schools like a hawk all year long. I've been doing this for years, even though I have only had my coaching job for two full seasons. I know every kid with experience that's coming into our program. Basically, tryouts are an opportunity to evaluate those kids side-by-side, see how they work in stunt groups, and catch any surprises (like a former hockey player who showed up two years ago who had never cheered but showed great enthusiasm and athletic ability to learn).
We have a parent meeting where we go over all of our expectations and standards. We only have one rule, "do not let your teammates down." The tryout score sheet as well as teacher rec forms are included in the packet. We break tumbling skills down into ranges so that everyone with a backhandspring will receive 0-2 points, a bhstuck 2-4, etc. We give a 1-point bonus for a skill on the hardwood. So a kid who does a well executed BHS on the hardwood scores as well as a kid who does a sloppy tuck on the mat. That is incentive for them to only do skills they are completely confident in. I also spend a great deal of time telling them they only get two chances. If they have a skill they're willing to throw and want to chance it, they have a backup opportunity. I almost always get to a point where I see where their true skill level lies. We judge all tumbling the first day, because that always seems to be the most excruciating part.
Also on that first day, we spend some time teaching the material. I use our fight song, and one of our easy chants. Colleges around here do the same thing, and I'm fine with the fact that it gives my returnees an advantage for two reasons: 1) it's the only way to objectively give them credit for their experience on a score sheet and 2) my kids are well versed in the idea that if I hear they aren't being helpful to other kids trying to learn the material, their 10-point clinic score will be a big zero. We also open our tumbling class to anyone who wants to try out for us the week after nationals, so those kids get a chance in that class to learn that material. On the second day of tryouts, we continue to reinforce the material and judge their jumping ability.
On the third day of tryouts, we judge their chant and fight song. We didn't have a single kid, old or new, bomb it last year.
Finally, on the fourth day last year (4th and 5th days this year, I wanted more time), we just shake them up like dice and throw them into stunt groups. I evaluate their technique on fundamental skills, how well they accept coaching, and the most inportant thing: if I make a suggestion, does it at least change. It doesn't have to be correct, but if I'm correcting you, it better at least look different. Otherwise, you don't care.
We judge all of these things in front of God and everybody. The girls have all commented how much they prefer having the other kids around as opposed to having to be in the room with just themselves and the judges.
When we are done, we line up the scores from highest to lowest and start making stunt groups. We spent more time doing that part last year than we did in the tryout sessions themselves, and with maybe one or two exceptions, we got it right.
One of the exceptions quit by the end of summer. The other actually asked to be moved to our nontumbling team by the end of the summer and we did a little juggling.
