Coach Player Assessments and Performance Feedback

A Guest Blog by Aubrey McLin

The coach/student-athlete relationship as I've shared in previous articles is, in my opinion, the most important role in sports. Coaches possess the tools and "expertise" needed to assist athletes in achieving success and in keeping their love for their sport. Coach-player feedback, without a doubt is the most effective method to help an athlete achieve success in their athletic journey. I crave coach-player feedback and feel this needs to be consistent and not done once a season or at the end of the year.  The coach-player assessment is a vital tool that allows the athlete an opportunity to make necessary changes to improve their performance. I don't want weeks or months to go by where I'm establishing a bad habit or not tapping into my full potential.  Ideally, in a perfect world, fast intervention, early identification, and continuous at-the-moment player feedback as something arises would be optimal. It would allow no lapse in time between a possible issue(s)/improvement area and then addressing it. In reality, sports programs often have volunteer coaches who hold down full-time employment while having multiple teams. This leaves little time to fully be involved in each player's development despite perhaps their desire to do so. Other coaches may not always feel confident or well-equipped to provide and deliver player feedback, especially depending on the age of a youth athlete.  Hence, the end-of-season or year player performance assessment timeline or even not at all instead of continuous player check-ins and player performance assessment.  But as Ken Blanchard, an American writer and business professional, shares so perfectly, “Feedback is the breakfast of Champions.”  Continuous feedback goes hand-in-hand with constant player performance.  In my experience, most youth and student-athletes have the desire to improve and welcome coach-player performance feedback.

Most recently though, I realized something equally important to the coach's player performance assessment! It is the player's action plan to the coach's feedback and areas of improvement.  We as athletes have the biggest role in how we develop and grow as an athlete, therefore, we need to be actively engaged and be involved in our performance assessment. When there's no accompanying action plan to a coach’s assessment, "the feedback is pointless." And to be honest, I never thought much about this until my sister's coach provided her with her player assessment.  I have only had experience being asked typically twice a year by coaches for me to work on providing them with my player development goals, areas of improvement, and areas of strength. But never have I been asked to develop a plan of action on areas of performance or improvement that a coach has provided me with.  So naturally, I took pause when reading my sister's coach's email to my parents regarding her player assessment.  The coach's email message alone had a lot of food for thought but the assessment itself, and the player responsibility placed on my sister was genius!  The time my sister's coach put in her player assessment and his weekly and monthly player parent newsletters is not only thoughtful but also valued and appreciated.  Seeing this important key component to the coach-player assessment process made me realize what a game changer this is.  Coaches, yes, should provide athletes with tools and their expertise but it is we, the athlete, who is responsible as well as accountable for deciding what we do with this. Of course, this only works if the coach-player feedback and coach are objective and in good faith being supportive and constructive.  My sister’s coach had such a simple and well-thought-out idea.  My hope in sharing this is that athletes and coaches put more time and effort into their player performance assessment and assessment model.  And to thank my sister’s coach, Coach Daniel, for all his enthusiasm for coaching and the partnership he’s establishing with his youth athletes in their skill development and love for soccer.

By Aubrey McLin