Don’t Forget Those Evaluations
Although it can be tough to hear criticism, it can lead to a greater level of visibility, and new improvements in your programs.
At the end of each season, especially if you coach a two-season sport like golf, getting to the finish line of your last tournament, meet, or game feels like crossing the finish line of a marathon. It’s easy to allow yourself time to rest and recover and to let the little things slip, but the little things are some of the most important regarding team and individual improvement.
One of those things that might slip through the cracks are evaluations and feedback. This can be from each athlete about themselves, their teammates, and their coaches, but can also be from coaches as more of an introspective evaluation of themselves, their program, and their athletes. Evaluations can be a little scary for coaches because taking criticism can feel overwhelming because you’ve just finished putting your heart and soul into a season and your athletes are concerned about things that you might not be aware of or did not like something that you thought went well. However, this feedback and communication between coach and athlete can assist in achieving a higher level of performance and a faster learning curve (Magill, 1994).
Also, coach-athlete compatibility and coaching behavior adjustments can be affected by these evaluations because they can illuminate what athletes are missing from their coaches and coaches are given the opportunity to adjust how they operate (Kenow & Williams, 1999). Evaluations can help you understand your athletes better and although you won’t make every adjustment to satisfy each athlete because that would be virtually impossible and frankly unnecessary, they can help you tailor your program to what works best for you and your athletes and produces the best results.
One tip to make sure these happen is to plan early. Go ahead and design your evaluations, work with your coaching staff if available, do your research and decide what you need to know or want to find out. Give yourself the proper time to develop these evaluations each year, block the time on your calendar and stick to it.
How do you develop your evaluations? What resources do you use? What questions do you ask? Comment below!
References
Kenow, L., & Williams, J. M. (1999). Coach-athlete compatibility and athlete's perception of coaching behaviors. Journal of Sport Behaviour, 22, 251-259.
Magill, R. A. (1994). The influence of augmented feedback on skill learning depends on characteristics of the skill and the learner. Quest, 46(3), 314-327.