Creative Ways to Attract Athletes To Your Event

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Athletes have many options for events and tryouts to attend in their athletic careers. Offering a program that has great training programs, reputable coaches, and a proven track record is a sure way to continue the health of a program. In addition to this, there are other ways to impact the quality and quantity of athletes that come to your events.

When setting up an event, there are many ideas that can be easily implemented to expand the reach. We outline our favorite creative ways to attract athletes to your next tryout, evaluation, or scored sporting event.

1) Say no to boring pre-event emails

It is easy to fall down an administrative rabbit hole of Plain Jane emails built from templates or a “copy and paste” approach to last year’s material. Think outside this communication box and challenge yourself to understand what people paying for your event would like to see. Some examples are:

Video links of drills or skills to prepare with

Send over links to drills or skills to work on leading up to the event. These might be the actual drills you will be running the athletes through, or just tips for certain skills to get them ready for the day. Parents will be impressed with the forethought put into these links and athletes will show up feeling confident and ready to put their best foot forward! 

Send a checklist of what to bring

This could be as simple as equipment required, or maybe something different like requesting athlete resumes in advance. Having participants show up feeling organized will prove the validity and professionalism of your organization.

Provide a list of skills that will be tested

Similarly to providing links to sample videos or drills, consider sending a complete list of skills that will be tested to the athletes. This does not require you to spill your secrets, and you may even choose to include things that will not be tested but make sense to have prepared. Showing a complex, granular list indicates that the tryout will be well-rounded and allow athletes to properly prepare and visualize the event.

2) Make it easy for families to attend

When an athlete is attending an evaluation or tryout, there is often a sibling or two that is dragged along to these events. By taking some time to show parents how easily these other kids could be entertained, the attractiveness of the whole event will increase. Examples are:

Use technology

Athletes and parents have been to many sports tryouts and recognize that pen-and-paper evaluations have always been the status quo. Join the trendsetters and early adopters in using athlete evaluation software. Among many benefits for both your organization and parents, it also lends itself to the creative aspect of an evaluation that can be visible to all. 

Take headshots upon check-in (or anytime!)

Having the ability to take athlete headshot photos not only helps the administrative process of an evaluation but also offers a level of professionalism not seen before. It will add to the hype of the event and portray a new age and energy even before athletes step into their zone.

Record scores with mobile or tablet devices

The generation that you will be evaluating likely uses pen and paper for very few things in their life. When they see other sessions or events taking place where evaluators and coaches are using technology to record scores, videos, and notes, it will show them that the program is forward-thinking and adaptable to trends.

Show player progress reports

Using athlete evaluation software, you can dynamically track and show player progress over time. This level of data reporting at a tryout or evaluation level is sure to add hype and excitement to your organization and event.

3) Send athlete reports

Sending instant, professional reports is possible with the help of evaluation software. These reports can be used to instantly send the customized scores that were collected in the event.

Include videos of the athletes

Never before have athletes been able to see actual video footage that is tied to a score that they received. By using the SkillShark software, you can upload and attach unlimited videos to athlete reports. If there are certain skills that are lacking, send a link to a video that could be seen as the “perfect” output of the skill, or attach a video for a drill that will help get the athlete where they need to be.

Send customized reports to parents

After scores have been uploaded, select which content you want to share with each individual athlete and their parent(s), and send an emailed link to a PDF report. Imagine the response from a parent who sees such fast results in a professional matter!

4) Check in regularly

Just because the evaluation or event is over doesn’t mean you should stop communicating with your participants. How can you continue regular communication?

Send out links to performance drills or videos

If there is a particular drill or skill that seems to be lacking from the group as a whole, send drills, tips or videos to the group as a whole.

Let them know about upcoming events

Be sure to communicate on a regular basis with current athletes or ones who have attended your events in the past. Be sure they have calendar dates well in advance and that they can plan to show you how they improved since tryouts passed.

Wrapping Up

When it comes to thinking outside the box for a unique tryout or evaluation event, embracing cutting-edge technology is a game-changer. That’s where SkillShark, the ultimate teams’ app and sports evaluation solution, comes into play.