So as part of my How to Have Your Best Season series, I wanted to take you through beginning to end and touch on all the events along the way. My coaching season for ringette is just starting to get underway and first up is TRYOUTS!

I don’t know about you but tryouts always made me so nervous as an athlete. You know those horrible butterflies in your stomach, nervous pee and full body jitters? Yup I had those too! Looking back now as a coach, I can empathize with all the girls trying out. Even yesterday as I walked into the arena for my first tryout as a head coach I had those same feelings.

I was always told that having those feelings is a good thing .. it means you care. It is a sign of good stress that motivates you to try your hardest and put in the effort. However, it’s important that we manage these feelings properly to give us good energy, get us focused and ready to perform as opposed to hinder our performance. So here are my top tips as a coach and as an athlete on how to have your best tryout yet!

1. Prepare

   1. If your association gives you the drills ahead of time, study these so you know what is expected of you.

      • If you are familiar with the drills there is less chance of you making a mistake which could penalize you.

      • There is no harm in contacting the coach ahead of time to ask what their expectations are as well.

   2. Get a good sleep the night before

      • Getting rest allows your body to recharge and give you the energy you need to perform

      • If your mind is racing try some journalling (see below), deep breathing or meditation to calm the mind.

        • I love the Headspace sleep stories to help me fall asleep

   3. Eat and hydrate to fuel your body

      • Have a good meal with carbs and protein to give you the energy to perform

2. Pause

   1. Take time to reflect on your goals for the season.

      • Where do you want to end up? What team, what position?

      • Why do you want to play at this level or for this team?

      • Why do I play this sport? What am I grateful for?

   2. Do some journalling around best and worst case scenario. If you are prepared now for how it may feel, you will have a better reaction when it comes to it.

      • What is the best case scenario? What will that feel like? How will I react?

      • What is the worst case scenario? What will that feel like? How will I react?

   3. Practice mindfulness and deep breathing

      • Being mindful and taking deep breathes will help regulate your nervous system and make you feel calmer.

3. Perform

   1. Give it your all

      • Don’t hold back or be afraid to make a mistake. I’d rather see you give it your all and make a mistake than be timid and hold back.

   2. If you make a mistake KEEP GOING!!

      • Brush it off, pick yourself up and keep going. It’s inevitable to make a mistake .. YOU ARE HUMAN! One mistake shouldn’t be the difference between a spot on the team and getting cut. So shake it off and move forward.

   3. Be loud and proud!

      1. Show how much you love the game

         • There’s nothing I love seeing more than girls out there having fun! Especially in a tryout situation, I wanna see your love for the game.

      2. Show how passionate you are about performing

         • Give me the intensity! I want to see you work hard and challenge yourself with every task

      3. Cheer on your teammates

         • Seeing as they are your competition, sometimes this one is forgotten about. But seeing you cheer everyone on shows me you are a team player and care about everyones success!

      4. Communicate and be vocal to get eyes on you

         • Even if it feels scary to bring attention to yourself, if there is a big group of girls trying out you need to do something to stand out.

           • Using your voice will help bring attention to you and shows you are a good communicator.

           • This is helpful especially when you are playing with girls you are not familiar with to get some chemistry going

At the end of the day your value and your worth as a person and as an athlete do not rest upon the outcome of one season or one tryout. There are THOUSANDS of stories of professional athletes who didn’t make their high school team (Michael Jordan .. nbd), or didn’t get drafted and survived and still became successful athletes. So give yourself some grace, don’t put too much pressure on it. Trust me the universe has a funny way of working itself out .. and everything happens for a reason. Sometimes it is hard to see the silver lining when you don’t get the outcome you were hoping for. But no matter the result, there’s always a bright light for you somewhere.

You got this baby girl!

Jenna