in our area, the badminton community is incredibly small, even at regional level. we pretty much know exactly who is good enough and who isn't without even holding trails. unless some international student happens to have been the regional champion in china or malaysia, we will have a good judge on who is in the team or not. that said, we still need to be diplomatic and hold trails to identify any others, mostly juniors so we can nurse them into machines when they are in their senior years. the trails are mainly just getting whoever signed up to have a few hits while the coach and top few players from last year overlook. those with some potential then get selected to play off against previous year members.
Way back when, my school didn't have a good program (they only built a solid program my senior year and the equivalent of the jv squad came in like the top 3 in the nation 2 years after) We had a weak squad my first year. My try outs was me missing ht enotice posting for the team tryouts and practices for a solid 3-4 weeks (don't ask how). Asking the teacher for a shot before the first tie but told to be a sparring partner before the second in a week. Sparring once then walking on to the team for the next tie....
There were no tryouts really at my school . You just showed up - and you're in... As far as who was in the A and who was in the B squad, we students just decided that between ourselves. The teachers never really paid any attention and the only reason we had a team in the first place was because WE had to approach them and let them know the school champs were coming up. There was nothing in the notices at all. One year they tried to organise lunch time practice sessions in the gym hall. Of course the teachers barely ever showed up and it was up to us to get everyone in shape... To be honest it's probably better that way considering none of the P.E. teachers know the first thing about badminton (even when year 13 P.E. students spend a whole term on badminton each year >_> - I'm thankful for that of course). And this is the school that has won the regional school champs every year for the past 5 or more years... >_>. How sad that they can't acknowledge this, and yet other sports get full articles in the school newspaper! Still, it was always fun slaughtering the one school in our region that DID care about getting a team together. They weren't blessed with the best players... But they did well considering, and always came second. Which shows what can be accomplished if schools just pay a little more attention to these kinds of things.
For my school....badminton is relatively high competition so a lot of people try out and only a few make it in. Juniors (grade 9s and 10s) must first pass round one where they are tested for strokes by various veteran seniors, or the coaches. After, they must fight for spots to make the team (MS1, MS2, MD1, MD2, WS1, WS2, WD1, WD2, XD1, XD2). Seniors have less people trying out, but still, you must fight to get into the team, and competition is normally quite stiff (especially in the MS department).
