The Trials Playbook

Before the trial

Write your criteria first

The single most important thing you can do is decide — specifically and in advance — what you're evaluating, because criteria that live only in your head get applied inconsistently even by you. A five-area starting framework: technical skills, decision-making, defensive effort/habits, coachability, and team behaviours. Then share the criteria with every evaluator in a 15-minute briefing so everyone watches for the same things.

Count your courts

Before designing a single drill, divide courts by athletes. No athlete should stand around — not because standing is harmful, but because standing time is unobserved time, and every athlete deserves to be seen.

Move to gameplay quickly

The most common design mistake is too much isolated skill work. A rough-looking dribbler can be an excellent decision-maker in a game. A workable shape: ~15 min warm-up/skills, 30–40 min of 3v3/4v4 (where most evaluation happens), ~20 min of 5v5, and position work if needed.

During the trial

Time-segment evaluation

The most important tool. Evaluative impressions crystallise within the first hour — after that you mostly confirm what you already decided. To protect against it, have every evaluator rate each athlete independently at 20, 40, and end — fresh each time, not updated. Comparing segments reveals the late starter, the fader, and the athlete whose first impression dominated your rating.

Self-evaluation, and reputation bias

Have athletes rate themselves before staff feedback — the gap between self and staff assessment is often more revealing than either alone. And watch reputation bias: the known athlete gets the benefit of the doubt while the kid from a less-known club doesn't. Where possible, include one evaluator who hasn't seen the athletes before — fresh eyes, fresh data.

Keep it moving

Effort drops when athletes wait more than two or three minutes — keep transitions under 60 seconds and demonstrate rather than explain.

After the trial

The 5pm announcement rule

Posting selections at 10am on a school day means a disappointed kid finds out alone in a classroom. The standard coaches arrived at: announce at 5pm on a weekday, when families are likely together. It costs nothing and matters enormously at the athlete's most vulnerable moment.

Stop / Start / Keep feedback

Two or three specific dot-points per athlete — what to stop, start, and keep — not twelve. A disappointed athlete can't absorb twelve things. Deliver it well: ask them to self-evaluate first, confirm/add/correct, give two or three actions, and close with something specific you genuinely observed. Put it in writing — the athlete who hears feedback in an emotional state retains little, and a written record protects the coach too.

The parent conversation

Set expectations before the trial (criteria, timing, how results come out), and run a 24-hour rule after it — no selection conversations in the car park; submit concerns and allow a day. The conversation 24 hours later is almost always more productive.

The one idea above all

A trial isn't just a selection event — it shapes how athletes feel about themselves and the adults who run the sport. Written criteria, structured evaluation, a 5pm announcement, and written stop/start/keep feedback for every athlete (selected or not) turn a fraught morning into a fair, defensible process — and the single most impactful thing you can do for your program's relationship with its families.

Unofficial fan-created resource. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Basketball Victoria. All content based on the Talking Split Podcast. Full credit to Rob Calder, Mike Zeppel, Justin Shuler, Ash Arnott, Zoe Carr, Darren Best, Nathan Cooper-Brown, and all guests.