Learn

How to Run a Tennis Tryout: A Coach's Step-by-Step Guide

To run a tennis tryout, you evaluate every player across core skills (groundstrokes, serve, volley, movement and footwork, and live-ball point play), score each on a consistent 1-to-5 scale, and then confirm the order with challenge matches on a ladder before you set the team. The hard part is rarely the scoring sheet. It is organizing the whole event so the evaluation stays fair, the courts stay busy, the day runs on time, and you can defend every roster and seeding decision afterward, especially when you are moving hundreds of players across a handful of courts in a single weekend. This guide walks through exactly how to conduct a tennis tryout from first planning to final offers, whether you are a junior program placing players in levels, a club selecting a competitive squad, or a school district putting 300 players in front of 15 to 20 coaches.

Coaches running a youth tennis tryout with players rotating through groundstroke, serving, and live-ball stations on multiple courts

What Skills Should You Evaluate at a Tennis Tryout?

Evaluate five core skills at a tennis tryout: groundstrokes, serve, volley, movement and footwork, and live-ball point play. Most coaches add a sixth, intangible category (competitiveness, court sense, and coachability) that adjusts a player's overall score up or down. These six cover everything a player does in a match, and a short list keeps a large evaluation panel focused and consistent.

Here is what evaluators look for in each skill and how each is typically assessed at a tryout:

Skill	What evaluators look for	How it's assessed
Groundstrokes	Clean contact off the bounce, depth, consistency, spin control, and ability to hit both forehand and backhand under a steady feed	Coach feeds a basket of balls or rallies cross-court; the player hits a fixed number of forehands and backhands to targets
Serve	First-serve percentage, placement, pace, and a reliable second serve that lands in	Player serves a set number of balls (commonly 10) to deuce and ad courts; evaluators count makes and note placement
Volley	Ready position at the net, clean punch volleys off both wings, and control on balls fed at varied heights	Coach feeds volleys of different speeds and heights while the player works the net
Movement and footwork	Split step, recovery to the middle, balance, and speed to wide and short balls	Observed during rallies and cone or shadow drills; a short agility pattern adds an objective number
Live-ball point play	Shot selection, point construction, ability to close points, and composure	Short head-to-head points or a mini-set against a comparable player
Intangibles	Effort, focus, attitude, and court sense	Observed throughout; used to add or deduct points from the overall score

The serve benchmark above reflects common coaching guidance: players should aim to make most first serves and nearly all second serves, so counting makes out of a fixed number gives evaluators an objective, repeatable number rather than a guess.

How Do You Score a Tennis Tryout?

Score each player from 1 to 5 on every skill, where 5 is the best, then total the scores to rank players objectively. A simple, shared 1-to-5 scale turns subjective impressions ("she looked good") into comparable data you can sort, defend, and revisit. Movement and intangibles are usually handled as adjustments: add a point or two for the quickest movers and the players who compete on every ball, and deduct for the slowest or those who coast.

Tennis has one extra tool most sports do not: the challenge ladder. Because match results are the truest measure of who beats whom, many programs use the skill scores to seed an initial ladder, then run challenge matches to confirm and refine it. A player who challenges and defeats someone above them moves up the ladder, and the loser moves down a spot. Use the 1-to-5 station scores to set the seeding and break ties, and use challenge-match results to settle the close calls and finalize the order.

Two rules make the scores trustworthy at scale. First, align your evaluators on what each number means before the tryout, so a "3" serve and a "4" serve mean the same thing to every coach on the courts. With 15 to 20 evaluators grading the same players, this calibration is what keeps scores comparable. Second, score immediately after each rep while it is fresh, and add a short note next to the number. "Heavy forehand, second serve breaks down under pressure" tells you far more in a week than a bare "3."

How to Set Up Tennis Tryout Stations at Scale

Set up one station per skill and rotate small groups through them so the courts are always busy and every player gets identical reps. Use court space and cones to define each station: a groundstroke feeding lane, a serving court, a volley station at the net, an agility or footwork lane, and a couple of courts reserved for live-ball points and challenge matches.

How you staff those stations depends on size. At a small tryout, one coach can grade a whole skill. At scale, with 300 players and 15 to 20 coaches, you do the opposite: put several evaluators at each station so a large group keeps moving, and have every coach score the same drill against the shared rubric. Some programs run it in panels, splitting evaluators across stations, while others move all coaches to one station at a time so everyone grades the same drill together, which is common for serving and the timed footwork test. Either way, the goal is multiple independent scores per player, which you average for a more reliable result than any single grader could give. Keep a staffed check-in table at the entrance so you always know who has arrived and who is still expected.

Ready to take your game to the next level?

Tennis Tryout Timeline: From Planning to Finalized Teams

Plan to start two to three weeks before tryout day, then move through registration, check-in, evaluation, review, and offers. Here is the full end-to-end checklist for hosting the event:

Two to three weeks before: Planning

Lock the dates, courts, and rain date; reserve the facility or indoor backup
Decide levels, number of squads, and roster sizes
Build (or reuse) your evaluation form with the six categories above
Recruit and brief evaluators; align all 15 to 20 coaches on the 1-to-5 standards
Open online registration so you have a confirmed player count

Registration

Collect each player's name, age or birth year, dominant hand, current rating (such as UTR) if any, and contact info
Assign every player a tryout number (bibs or numbered tags) so evaluators score by number, not by name, which keeps scoring objective even with hundreds of players
Send a confirmation with arrival time, location, and what to bring

Tryout day: Check-in

Check players in against your registration list and hand out numbers
Group players by age or rating and brief them on the station flow

Tryout day: Evaluation

Run players through each station; evaluators score 1 to 5 and add notes in real time
Use the station scores to seed an initial ladder, then run challenge matches to confirm and refine the order
For multi-day tryouts, repeat key stations on day two so a single off-day doesn't sink a player

After the tryout: Review and decide

Combine every evaluator's scores into one ranked list and overlay the challenge-match results
Discuss bubble players as a staff, using notes and head-to-head results alongside the numbers
Finalize the squad, levels, and singles or doubles order

Offers: Accept, decline, and finalize

Extend offers to selected players with a clear accept-by deadline
Track accepts and declines, and go to your next-best player when a spot opens
Send respectful, timely notice to players who weren't selected
Confirm final rosters and communicate next steps (practice schedule, match calendar, fees)

Run Your Entire Tennis Tryout with Rizzler Sports

A tryout at scale is a logistics problem before it is a tennis problem. Three hundred registrations, hundreds of check-ins, a stack of evaluation sheets for every coach, a ladder to seed and update, then the follow-up: inviting selected players, tracking who accepted, and back-filling spots as players decline. Rizzler Sports handles all of it in one place, which saves coaches and administrators hours of work per tryout. Players register online, coaches score evaluations on a phone or tablet at every station, results rank automatically, and you send and track offers without a single spreadsheet or group text.

Running a larger program, a full junior league, a club, or a school district? We will set your tryout up end to end and show you how much staff time it saves.

Talk to our team

Running a tryout at scale? Let's talk.

Tell us about your club, league, or school and we'll come back to you within one business day with a walkthrough of how much staff time Rizzler Sports saves by running your tryout end to end: registration, check-in, evaluations, invites, and offers in one place.

Cut tryout admin from days to minutes
Online registration and check-in for hundreds of players
Evaluate, rank, invite, and track offers in one place

Tell us about your program

6 fields · takes 60 seconds

Name

Organization

Type

Size

What are you hoping to solve?

Lands in the same inbox as the Help button · human response only

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a tennis tryout be?

Most youth tennis tryouts run 90 minutes to two hours per level. Competitive programs often add a second session or a separate challenge-match day so the order isn't decided by a single off-day. Build in time for check-in before the clock starts.

How do you staff coaches at a large tryout?

At scale, do not assign one coach per skill. With 300 players and 15 to 20 coaches, put multiple evaluators at each station, or move all coaches through one station at a time, and have everyone score the same drill against a shared 1-to-5 rubric. Averaging several independent scores per player is more reliable, and far faster, than a single grader working through hundreds of athletes.

Should I use challenge matches or skill scores to pick the team?

Use both. Skill-station scores let you evaluate hundreds of players quickly and seed an initial ladder. Challenge matches then confirm who actually beats whom, which is the truest measure for setting the singles and doubles order. Most programs use the scores to seed and the matches to finalize.

What should players bring to a tryout?

Two racquets if they have them, court shoes, water, a hat or visor, and any rating information (such as a UTR). Tell players to arrive early enough to check in and warm up before evaluations begin.

How do I tell a player they didn't make the team?

Communicate quickly, privately, and respectfully, and keep it about the roster decision rather than the player's worth. A short, kind message with an offer to share specific feedback goes a long way, and it protects your program's reputation for next year's tryout.

See also: How to Run a Volleyball Tryout → · Player Evaluations in Rizzler → · How to Run a Track and Field Tryout →