How to Run Volleyball Tryouts

These are the stations the scorecard builder can add to the sheet, in the order they usually run. Delete the ones you are not running: a station on the sheet that never happened leaves a blank that looks like a missing score.

1. Serving. Players serve from the line to called zones, a set number each, with an evaluator watching the toss and the contact and a counter keeping serves in. Run it with a few players serving at once across the courts so nobody waits. Decide the serving distance for the age group, and let the youngest serve from closer if your league does. What to score: Serving: the technique and the targeting. Write serves in out of ten in the measurables table, and take approach and block touches from groups as they wait.
2. Serve receive. Players pass against real serves from servers they have not practiced against, to a target near the net, a fixed number each and in the same positions. Include a serve short, a serve deep and one to the line. Count passes on target out of ten, and watch the platform and the footwork on every one. What to score: Serve receive. Score where the ball goes and the platform, not only whether it stayed up, and record passes on target as a number.
3. Setting. A passer sends the ball to the setter, who sets to a hitter. Give every setter candidate the same mix of good and off-target passes, and have them set both forward and back. Keep it short, and watch the hands and the feet to the ball. What to score: Setting: location and tempo, from an off-target pass as well as a good one, and the hand position.
4. Hitting lines. Hitting lines with a setter feeding, a few swings each from the left and the right where the age group allows. Start with an approach and a contact against no block, then add a block. Cap the number of swings per player, and stop anyone whose shoulder is sore. What to score: Attacking: the approach, the arm swing and the contact, and the shot choice once a block is added.
5. Blocking. Footwork along the net, then closing a block with a partner against a hitter. Keep lines at the net spaced apart, so no one lands on a foot. Run it short, and demonstrate the footwork once. What to score: Blocking: the footwork, the timing and the position of the hands, and whether the player reads the setter.
6. Defense and digging. A coach hits or tosses balls to the back row from the other side of the net, with the players moving to a platform and playing the ball to a target. Include a ball hit hard, a ball tipped and a ball to either side, and rotate players through so the evaluator sees each of them several times. What to score: Digging: the movement to the ball and the platform, and whether the ball stays playable. Take communication from the calls players make.
7. 6-on-6 scrimmage. 6-on-6 in short games, with the teams mixed every game and every player rotating through the front and back row. Use your league's rules for the age group, and serve in a set order so every player serves. Put an evaluator on each side of the net, and one on the setters. What to score: Awareness and communication, and a second look at anything that looked different from the drills.

The usual way to wreck a tryout is to run it with too few evaluators and ask each to watch everything. A workable plan, by turnout:

Two evaluators on every station is better than one, scoring independently, and impossible for most volunteer clubs. If you can only double up on one thing, double up on serve receive, which often decides who plays.

The 6-on-6 is the only place a pass, a set, a hit and a call are tested together, which makes it the part most worth running well. A badly arranged one scores the arrangement.

• Mix the teams every game. Two players who are always on the same team are judged as a pair. Write the rotation down before the session so nobody is choosing sides in front of the group.
• Do not stack the strongest players. A team of the best players makes everyone else look worse, and a team of the weakest makes the best look like stars. Spread the ability you already know about across the teams.
• Give every setter candidate the same balls. A setter who gets three good passes and one who gets nine bad ones have not had the same tryout. Rotate them in, and write down who set.
• Rotate through the front and back row. Every player should be seen at the net and in the back, so you see more than one role.
• Keep the games short. Games to a low score keep the pace honest, because as players tire, their play becomes less representative of their usual level.
• Call it the way your league does. Players who have only played informally may not have met a referee, and a tryout is a fair place to see how they react to a call.

Average the independent sheets before anyone discusses a name, tell families privately and before the roster goes up, and keep the sheets until any appeal window has closed. The longer version, which applies to every sport, is the general tryouts and evaluation guide.

Once the teams exist, the paperwork is the registration form, the code of conduct and the uniform and equipment checkout.