If you are a coach, choosing players for your team roster can be one of the largest challenges facing you. There are many considerations to take into account when you are doing so. They include the ages of the players, the level of competition that your team will take part in, and the players that are trying out for your team. Some team rosters are easy to establish. The players may be preselected due to where they live or you may, in some minor sports, be provided with a randomly selected team roster.

However, if you are holding tryouts and have to then narrow down the people who will be on your team, your task becomes somewhat more challenging. Do you go with the strongest players knowing that you may leave out some players who could be excellent if their skills are developed properly? This may lead to an increased number of victories for your team but may end up leaving quality players out in the lurch.

Ideally, you would be able to create a team roster that has many different strengths and quality players. It is not a good idea to choose only those players who excel at one area of game play but who are substandard at others. If you pick players who are one dimensional, you may find that in the event of injuries your team will lack important skill sets. Whether they are offensive players or defensive players, by only choosing players who are one dimensional for your roster, you may find you come up short partway through your competitive season.

There is nothing wrong with choosing a few strong players who are excellent at one area of play or another. You also want to choose players for your team roster that can fill several positions. This may be a defenseman who is also good in goal and who can fill in for your regular goalie should that position suddenly be vacant.

The ages of the players you choose is also an important consideration for your team roster. Ideally, you would include several developing players who may be a bit younger than others on your team. This is because by doing so, you are looking to the future and building a team full of strong returning players who will be used to working with each other. Because they have familiarity with each other and with your coaching style, the team will be able to get up to speed much more swiftly than teams with all new players.

Of course, you want to ensure that any younger players have the skills and size to keep up with older players. In this case, it might be a good idea to pick the strongest of the younger players since it gives the less proficient players the chance to come back the next year to try and get a spot on the team. Often, teams at higher levels may have feeder squads that less skilled or experienced players may join in order to prepare them for the big time.

If you build your team roster properly you will be amazed at how effective your team is and how easy it is to defeat the teams you come up against in the course of your playing season.

How do you choose your team roster?

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