Training with a date on the calendar.

A deadline focuses practice

Ask a twelve-year-old to “work on volleyball” and you’ll get a few half-hearted passes against the garage door. Tell them tryouts are in four weeks and they need a serve that goes in, and the practice changes. A specific goal with a specific date is one of the most reliable ways to turn intention into effort — for athletes and for the rest of us.

That’s the idea behind marked moments: instead of asking families for a year-round commitment, we put focused coaching at the points on the calendar that already matter to their athlete.

Tryouts come earlier than most families expect

In Southern California, many fall sports evaluate athletes in the summer, before school starts. Winter sports often hold tryouts in the fall, and spring sports in January and February. If preparation starts the week of tryouts, it’s already late. Our tryout calendar shows the typical timing for each sport — and the dates to confirm with your school’s athletic department.

Why a few weeks before, not the day before

A clinic teaches the right movement and the cue to remember it. The weeks after a clinic are where it sticks — a few short practice sessions at home, using the plan we send athletes home with, until the new technique feels normal. That’s why we schedule tryout intensives a few weeks ahead of each sport’s typical tryout window rather than the weekend before.

Whatever happens at tryouts, the skills stay

No clinic can promise a roster spot, and we never will. What we can promise is that an athlete who learns correct technique keeps it — for the next tryout, the next season, and the next sport. A tryout that doesn’t go their way becomes the next marked moment, not the end of the story.