The ULTIMATE Guide To Basketball Tryouts - How To Make The Basketball Team

If you've got tryouts coming up, this video is going to tell you exactly what you need to do to make the team. Now, there's so many different factors that go into making your team, but the number one thing that you need to do, that you need to focus on is controlling the controllable things. A lot of times players go into tryouts so worried about things they don't control. How many other kids are going to be there, how good the other players are, whether or not they know the coaches, the coaches like them or not. And if that's your focus, you're going to put so much of your mental energy towards that and not enough towards the things you can actually control and. And maximize to give yourself the best chance of making the team. So right now, we're going to go through the exact things that you do control, that you need to focus on that are going to. That are going to give you the absolute best chance of making your team. In the state that I live in, tryouts are less than a month away, and I know for a lot of players that I've talked to recently, tryouts are coming up very, very soon. So let's dive into it. The first thing that you need to understand is that we want coaches to go window shopping and not test driving. What that means is that we. We don't necessarily need the coach to get a full scope of your strengths and your weaknesses in the initial couple days of trials. Most tryouts are two, three, maybe four days, so not necessarily long enough that coaches can get a full scope of exactly what it is you're capable of doing. So because we don't have a ton of time with them, we want to make sure that we are displaying our strengths and not necessarily displaying our weaknesses, at least not displaying them as much as we're displaying our strengths. So how I would describe it is we want to think about having our coaches go window shopping and not test driving. When you go window shopping, it just means that you're walking by and looking at something. You don't really get to touch it or feel it or try it out. You just get to look at it and make your assessment that way. So what that would mean is that we're putting our best foot forward. So if we're a really good shooter, we're going to show the coaches that we're a good shooter. If you're a really good ball handler, really good facilitator, then you're going to do those things. You're a really good defender, you're Going to take a lot of pride in showing them that. And on the flip side of that, we don't want the coaches to be able to go test driving, meaning if you're not a very good shooter, we don't want to shoot the ball a ton in those first few days of tryouts because we don't necessarily need to have them see all the aspects of our game. If you're not a good shooter, but you are a really good driver and maybe a really good passer, we'll do those things as much as you possibly can and limit the things that you're not good at. We want coaches to not necessarily have that full scope of your weaknesses, but, but instead when they think about you, they think about the strengths that you've shown them. So what this starts with is being self aware. Stick to what you do and avoid what you don't do. Well, the other thing to understand with this is that teams need to fill roles. You don't need to be a star, you don't need to be the best at everything to make the team right. Obviously on, on a lot of teams you have a LeBron James type player who can shoot, dribble, pass defenders, rebound, does everything right. But you also have players who aren't that right. You could even think about with the, with the Lakers you can think about how they have guys who can fill different roles. They have guys who are spot up shooters, they have guys who defend, they have guys who play point guard. And so you just need to figure out what role you can fill, what role you can fill best and put that foot forward throughout the, the entirety of the tryout. On a basketball team, you're going to have one, two at most, like three star players. So not everybody on the team is going to have to be that. But you can be just as valuable to that team if you can fill a role at a high level. Every team needs great perimeter shooters. They might not need to do a whole lot else, but if they can make threes, they're going to play. Every team needs great defenders. They might not do a whole lot else, but if they can defend, they're going to play. Every team needs great rebounders. You can do those things, you can make the team, you can play. So be honest with yourself, be self aware, think about what it is that you do really well and try to do those things as much as you possibly can. And that's going to again, give the coaches the best view of you. As you go through the two, three, four days of trials that you may have. The second thing is an acronym that I call pcaw. So pcaw, and this stands for Positivity, Communication, attentiveness and want to. Starting off with the first one, positivity, you want to be the most positive person there, right? That this doesn't mean that you don't want to do well or that you don't, you know, care whether you succeed or not. It just means that you're positive. You have a positive reaction to things. So when you make a shot, you're positive about it. When you miss a shot, you stay positive and you keep your focus on doing your best. When your teammate does something well, you're the most excited person in the gym for them. When your teammate struggles or makes a mistake, you're right there to be positive and lift them up and help them keep their confidence and keep playing. You want to make sure that you're the most positive person. When your coaches are giving you feedback or giving you criticism, you take it in a very positive way, okay? Where you can say, where you, you can accept it and not get defensive and be able to take what they're saying and use it to make you better. You want to keep that positive mindset as much as possible because you're, that's a player that coaches are going to want to coach, right? Even if it's between you and somebody else. And maybe they're even a little bit better than you. When that coach likes coaching you because you're so positive and he knows that you're going to have a positive impact on your teammates as well and you're just going to be a good addition to the culture of the team. That's going to give you a massive leg up and it's going to help you to make everybody else on the team better, which is one of the most important things you can do as a player. So number one is you want to be positive all the time. Number two is communication. So you want to be the, the most vocal player there. You want to be just a high level communicator. You're always talking on defense, kind of going back to our last point. You're always speaking to your teammates, giving them encouragement, helping them out through situations. If they miss something, you're saying, hey, like, you know, next time make sure you look for this or hey, my bad, I missed you on that right there, or hey, hey, next time try going there. And you're just constantly communicating with the people around you in a positive way. That's also going to stand out because again, Much like the pos, the positivity aspect of it, which, when you communicate, you make everybody around you better. And that's the most important thing that you can do as a player if you really want to make a huge impact. And the next part of that is attentiveness. So you've always got to be locked into what's going on. So if a coach is going through a drill, are you able to hear that or see it demonstrated one time and be able to be focused enough that you can execute what you need to execute? If you go through a play or. I know when I was in middle school and our school tryouts, our coaches would give us a. A couple plays on the first day, say, hey, we're going to go through and run these tomorrow, so come back and know what's going on. Are you able to do that? Are you able to be attentive when you. When the coaches are speaking or demonstrating, are you making eye contact with them and focusing on what they're saying and showing them by being an active listener where, again, you're making eye contact with them, you're nodding, you are responding back to them. That's going to show that you're attentive. And again, that's a. That's a player that coaches are going to want to coach, is someone who's listening, someone who's attentive, someone who can hear or. Or see what's being demonstrated and immediately execute it. Very important skill to have Another thing that you can control. Then the last thing is want to. So this describes a couple of different things. Number one, how badly do you want to win? How badly do you want to compete? How much does it matter to you? So when you're actually going through the reps and the drills, are you giving your full effort? Are you running full speed? Are you going as hard as you can after every loose ball? Are you doing everything you could possibly do to win? Everything that you do, are you trying to win every single sprint that you go through throughout the entirety of tryouts? Right there. Can you demonstrate the fact that you really want to win? You want to be great, you want to be a part of the team, you want to be a positive addition to the team. When you can do that, you again become a player that coaches want on the team, because you're going to elevate everybody else, you're going to push everybody else around you, and ultimately, that's what leads to winning right there. So those four things that acronym pcaw, something to remember as you go into trials, positivity, communication, attentiveness and want to. If you can be those four things, then you're going to put yourself in the best position to make the team. Now if you want another resource that's going to help you make your team, click the top link in the description down below to get my free Basketball IQ Masterclass. This is an hour long and it's going to go through a bunch of different things that are going to immediately help you stand out as a high IQ player at your trials right there. It's going to help you to score more, make more plays for your team, make better decisions throughout tryouts and really show coaches that you understand the game, you understand how to play and just make you a player that coaches are going to want to have on their team. So completely free. That's the top link down below. Make sure you check that out before you head to tryouts to give yourself the best chance of making the team and the biggest leg up possible on everybody else around you. Hopefully these tips have given you an idea of what you need to be focused on going into trials. Like I mentioned, the most important thing is that you put your focus on the things you can control. So focusing on having your coaches window shopping and not test driving, so having self awareness of what you're good at, what you're bad at and sticking to what you're good at as much as possible and then peacock being positive, communicating, being attentive and then demonstrating want to as much as possible. When you focus on doing those things to the best of your ability, you're going to put yourself in the best position to make the team. So hopefully this gives you some confidence going into tryouts. Let me know down below when you have tryouts and what else do you want to know? If you have any other questions for me, appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.