August of 2006 saw the girls "graduate" from the Academy program and make the move to the "Elite" programs (U13+ age groups and above) in our club.  Once again, tryout time was both an exciting and stressful time for all those involved.

With nearly 70 girls attending this year's tryouts at the U13 age group, it was virtually impossible to form teams after just two days (four hours) of tryouts.  As the coach of the top team I had a pretty good idea of which players I wanted to take.  I had been identifying talent at this age group since our inception in 2004 and, of the girls who ended up coming to our tryouts, I thought I knew who would help our team best.

With all this said however, I could still not make a sound decision on the bubble players after four hours.  Anyone who has had any experience with tryouts will agree... identifying the talent and the buckets (the truly untalented) is the easy part.  I'm fairly confident that in a matter of minutes I can tell who can play and who cannot play.  The tough part becomes sifting through the players in the middle of the pack - separating players who might rank anywhere from 12 to 18 on my roster.  The difference among the players may not be that great sometimes, but even the minute variance here can drastically affect the performance and chemistry of a regionally/nationally competitive team. 

So, it was determined that we would announce the rosters for the Black and Green teams, the lower two out of the four teams we were going to form.  We would then pool train the remaining 32 girls and announce the final rosters for the top two teams at this age group (Blue and White) in early October.  "Pool training" meant training the entire group as one unit, one pool of players. 

There are some distinct disadvantages to this pool training concept.  First and foremost, girls do not know final placement on teams until after many other clubs have already held their own tryouts.  Girls coming into our club who only had an interest in playing with the top team (Blue) could find out in October that they have been placed on the White team.  If they have not been sold on our training program by then, they could find themselves out in the cold as the majority of other stronger club teams probably had already made their final team selections. 

Another disadvantage to the pool training concept is that it keeps 12 and 13 year old girls and their parents in limbo for an extended period of time.  The girls could go through the fall thinking that they were on a constant tryout and may never relax enough to show their true abilities on the field. 

A last disadvantage is that one could say that the teams lose a season of playing together, lose a season of developing as a team because no one knows which team they are really on. 

I understand all this.  However, I feel the long term positives of pool training far outweigh the negatives. 

Pool training benefits all players involved; the White players (the players we knew would more than likely end up on the White team), the Blue players (the top players at the age group who were basically "locked" into the top team in our minds), and the bubble players (players who could be placed on either team). 

Girls that we knew for sure were White team players got the benefit of training alongside some of the top players at their age group for two months.  This allowed the lower level player to be challaneged more than they have been used to in a training environment, which helped their individual development.  The lower level players were also able to better realize what they needed to do to play at the top level because they saw and experienced firsthand the skills of the higher level players.

For the top players in this pool system, this was a fantastic opportunity for them to be leaders and role models to other girls.  I always tell my top players the same thing... great players make players around them better.  Sometimes playing on a top team can lead to arrogance and over-confidence, and this was a chance for me to see which of my top players could adapt, teach and mentor, and not get frustrated when not surrounded by other high level talent in training session games.  None of these girls deserve to look down at another player, and this fall season allowed me to identify those players with negative attitudes in order to be able to address the situation promptly.

Another benefit to the top players is that at the end of the day pool training allows coaches to add the strongest possible talent to the top team.  Stronger talent makes for a more challenging training environment throughout the year, a major factor in my mind in accelerated player development.

For the bubble players, pool training lets them really show their stuff over a prolonged period of time.  All players battle nerves during tryouts.  Pool training gives all players the time to settle in, be more comfortable in their surroundings, and be more able to show what they've got in the training sessions. 

For the coaches, pool training allows us to see who can be coached, who adapts well to new and challenging surroundings, who thrives and who fades in our higher level training environment?

All in all I thought the fall pool training was a huge success for the club and played a major role in the final Blue team formation.