This series is a combination of posts that I have used in the past, but they are time relevant with the season ending for most programs. Even though they have been posted before they are updated with new thoughts and quotes.
The first part deals with year-end evaluations and how to handle them. Later in the week I’ll talk about how to build your own workouts and address areas from your evaluation.
With the end of the season right around the corner for many high school teams I thought I should touch on the subject of player evaluations. When I was coaching we used to do them at the beginning and end of each season with individual player meetings throughout the year. If your coach doesn’t provide you with an evaluation, ask him or her for one.*
When I played one thing I always looked forward to was being evaluated at the end of the season or at a camp. I think the reason why can be summed up in two sentences I picked up from a book, Winning, by Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE – I haven’t asked him why yet, but for some reason Alan was not too thrilled about this book J – I thought it was great!
“Maybe some information is hard to swallow at first and yes, “bad” news often hurts, but soon enough, like all knowledge-it’s power-in fact, it’s liberating. When you know where you stand you can control your own destiny, and what is more fair than that?”
So the question is, “What are you going to do now?” Are you going to sit around and feel sorry for yourself because the coach said you needed to work on your jumper or get in the weight room? Or are you going to form your organized plan of attack and get to work?
In order for you reach your goals you need to define your VISION. You need learn and in order to learn you need to seek wisdom of those who came before you. Search for the truth. Great players want the TRUTH. Kobe wants the truth – Kevin Garnett wants the truth. Michael Jordan wanted the truth.
Without the truth you really don’t know where you stand or where you can improve. Bill Parcells said the first thing you need to do in order to start winning is to figure out why you are losing. Figure out what is wrong with your game in order to improve it.
*click here to view a sample evaluation form that I have used in the past. Be sure that your players know what you are basing their evaluation on. We used a scale of 1-5. “1” being a low skill level and “5” being close to, or at the level of, the best in country for their age level. That’s what our kids strived for so that’s what we compared them to.