Approximately 35 tryouts converged on the soccer fields at CSU-Northridge in LA this past weekend. This West Coast tryout was the first of two, as the tryouts finish with the East Coast edition next weekend in Sarasota, FL.

Tryouts were closed to the public after much thought by the UPA directors. This was done to create a small, manageable, and safe environment for the athletes to go all out. The UPA thoroughly thought this decision through, and they were right; the somewhat private setting kept the focus on the field and was extremely helpful for the athletes (and I can only imagine for the coaches as well). As one of the athletes, I felt very well provided for.

9am start, and almost every player was there by 8:30am, and certainly cleated and throwing, if not sweating, by 8:45am. Is there a lesson here?

Here’s the nuts and bolts of what we did:

SATURDAY
- Initial huddle with Head Coach Greg Connelly

- Active warmup, led by assistant coach Ron Kubalanza

- Personal time, then directional talk with Coach Connelly.

- First drill; simple vert stack cutting and throwing. First line, from the front of the stack, made a lateral cut. Continuation to the second (back of the stack) line. Progression to away-leading initial throw and deep continuation look.

- Split into 4 groups. Groups went to 1 of 4 stations:

• Station 1: Triangle sliding drill, testing marking/sliding position and quickness.
• Station 2: Sprinting, each tryout getting two chances at a timed 70-yard dash and a timed 40-turn-40.
• Station 3: Brian Doo’s tennis ball quickness drill. We ran a double circuit of this exercise, which meant a 40ish second conditioning drill…brutal on the quads. Everyone got 2 chances.
• Station 4: Each player got a quick 1-2 minute talk with the Coach.

- Initial scrimmaging: We broke into 4 teams, and played 2 games to 2 against 2 of the other teams, and then a game to 3 against the third. Breaks in between each game kept the level of play high, as there was only 1 sub, per gender, for each team.

- Lunch (a 1-hour break for a welcome rest and welcome boxed lunch)

- Short active warmup w/ Ron

- ‘Triangle of Death’ throwing drill. Each player got one chance to make 20 cuts and throws in a row. A diagonal, 5-yard out-in cut, a short dish, and then 10 throws to cutters coming under in a vert stack. Immediately thereafter, 10 throws to cutters going deep from other sideline.

- Triangle Marking drill. Groups of 4. Each player rotated through, marking the other players in a triangle, no hands, for 60 seconds. Second rotation through hands-allowed.

- Scrimmaging. Split up into 3 teams. Each team pulled for a point, then received for a point, then rested. The level of play was extremely high; solid defense benefited from throwers and cutters that didn’t know each other well, but the turnover numbers were very low. If your team turned it, you could not expect to get it back.

- 1-v-1 Marking Drill. 3 Groups of 12-13. A pair would be marker and thrower, while the rest were cutters from a vertical stack. The marker would have a disc, and give it to the thrower after they ran a 7-yard out-back cut. Thrower would try to break the mark to the first cutter. Then another out-back, then another cutter, repeat through the stack of cutters. Then thrower and marker switch. Continue until each person had a chance to be in the marker/thrower pair once.

- More Scrimmaging. Again, 3 teams. This time with special rules for the games to work on specific strategy points.

- Conditioning: Ron’s GPP routine (15 seconds of a calistenic, sprint 40 yards, then rest for the remainder of 45 seconds total).

- Cooldown.

SUNDAY
- Active warmup with Ron

- Horizontal stack cut warmup. 3 cutters across the field. Live side cutter initiated action by sweeping across the middle and turning deep. The other two cutters were live, and finishing with a deep throw to the first mover.

- Hucking drill. A simple sideline hucking drill, using a light mark and cuts from the dump position heading deep.

- 1-on-1 defense. Simple 1-v-1 cutting from the stack, with an open thrower catching a swing. Coaches arranged specific matchups that they were looking for to compare specific players.

- Scrimmaging. Again, 3 teams. This time rotations were three points, so your team would be on D and then O for 6 points total each time up. Points were longer, and fatigue brought more difficulty cutting (and the expected greater number of turnovers).

- Footwork and Deep 1-v-1. -A football-derived footwork drill to look at sliding and balance, ending with throw players being sent for a high, floaty disc. Again, coaches arranged the matchups.

- Scrimmaging

- TRC Competition (to take the edge off a very competitive and draining weekend)

- Final set of scrimmaging in three teams

- Final set of conditioning (staggered sprints of increasing distance, with intermixed pushups)

- Cooldown.

All in all, and extremely difficult weekend (physically and mentally) that the coaches said showed good resiliency and focus. The drills were varied to the point where weaknesses could not be hidden as a thrower, marker defender or reciever. Having been involved in the Team USA Boys tryouts, I would say this was a singificantly more comprehensive tryout over more areas of the game than we performed back in 2004.