Stressful for everyone
Trials put players in an unfamiliar situation, being assessed by people they don't know, often alongside unfamiliar teammates — and coaches running trials are trying to make meaningful judgments from limited information, often about children who are (understandably) nervous. Acknowledging this upfront shapes everything else.
What trials are actually trying to find
Not just "who's best today" — a player having an off day in an unfamiliar, stressful setting isn't necessarily representative of their normal level (see our match-day nerves guide, which applies doubly to trials). What's more useful: attitude, how a player responds to instructions and to mistakes, and glimpses of underlying ability even if not fully on display.
Reducing anxiety: format matters
Small-sided games (see our SSG guide) rather than isolated drills give players more chances to be involved and show something, and feel less like "being tested" than, say, a one-by-one skills assessment. Familiar-feeling activities — similar to normal training — reduce the "this is different and scary" factor that can suppress how a player actually performs.
What to actually assess
Beyond raw ability on the day: does the player communicate? How do they respond when something doesn't work (frustration, giving up, trying again)? Are they aware of teammates, or only the ball? These often predict development trajectory better than a single day's technical performance, which is heavily affected by nerves and unfamiliarity.
Setting up a fair process before trials start
Decide what you're actually looking for before players arrive, not while watching them — a short written list (attitude, coachability, awareness, technical basics, for example) keeps the assessment consistent across players rather than drifting toward whoever happens to catch the eye in the moment. If you have more than one coach assessing, briefly align beforehand on what matters most; two assessors working from different criteria without realising it is a common source of inconsistent, hard-to-defend decisions later. Taking brief notes during the session, rather than trying to recall impressions afterwards, matters more than it sounds — memory of a two-hour session with unfamiliar names is far less reliable than most coaches assume.
One session is rarely enough
A single trial session captures a single day, with all the nerves and randomness that come with it. Where it's practical, running two shorter sessions (even a week apart) gives a fairer picture than one longer one — a player who's anxious and quiet in the first session often relaxes visibly by the second, and that shift itself tells you something useful about how they respond to a new environment over time.
Communicating outcomes
However outcomes are communicated — selected, not selected, "let's see how training goes" — doing so promptly, kindly, and without over-explaining (which can come across as justifying a difficult decision more than it needs to) respects both the player and the family's time and feelings.
For players not selected
"Not selected today" is genuinely different from "not good enough" — see our academy tryout guide for the broader point that selection involves many factors beyond a single player's ability on a single day. If there's something genuinely constructive to share ("keep working on X, trial again next season"), that's valuable; vague reassurance often isn't, but neither is unnecessary harshness.
A note for parents watching from the side
Parents often find trials harder to watch than the players find them to play — it's a natural instinct to want to help, but shouted instructions from the touchline during a trial usually distract more than they assist, and can make a nervous player more self-conscious rather than less. The most useful thing a parent can do during a trial is stay visibly calm and encouraging regardless of how it's going, and save any debrief for well after the session has ended — a trial is stressful enough without an immediate car-ride analysis of every touch.
Trialling a player who already plays for another team
It's common for a player trialling at a new club to already be registered elsewhere, and handling this carefully protects everyone: be upfront that you're aware of their existing team, keep communication with the player and their parents rather than approaching their current club directly, and follow whatever your league or association's rules on player registration and approach actually require — these vary by league, so it's worth checking rather than assuming. A trial handled indiscreetly can create bad feeling between clubs that outlasts the player's actual move either way.
Running trials for goalkeepers specifically
Goalkeeper trials need a different structure from outfield ones, since a few minutes of small-sided games rarely gives a keeper enough shot-stopping or distribution situations to assess fairly. Building in dedicated goalkeeper-specific moments — shot-stopping from realistic distances, distribution under a bit of pressure — alongside the general session gives a fairer picture than judging a keeper purely on what happens to come their way during open play.