As coaches we spend our time giving our athletes
feedback, skills and tools to improve and grow as players, people and athletes.
We help them with communication and put them in uncomfortable positions to
teach them more about grit and perseverance and competitiveness.
So
what if we turn the tables a bit?
Tis
the middle of the season and with a few tournaments under your belt and a few
more to go, maybe it’s a good time to
take YOUR coaching temperature and survey your parents and athletes
about the job you are doing.
Before
you click away from here, take this into account; how did you get better at
your job? Most of you have reviews or evaluations you have to go through to
earn upward movement in your company. If you can last 60 days with a good
review, you might get a raise. Do extremely well and maybe they’ll make you a
manager.
If you are a student, what are
grades? They are an evaluation of your knowledge of that subject. A low grade
and you will probably have to put in some more work and studying on that
subject. We’ve all been in these situations that measure you with reviews and
evaluations. Why should we hold our profession to any less of a standard?
College
coaches are given reviews of their performances. Some don’t last that review
and are cut loose. Some gain more insight on what the job needs are and work
harder to make gains on what is needed to become a better coach and
administrator of their program.
Are
you ready to have the mirror look back at you?
There
are very few coaching assessments on the web to choose from. Sit down with your
club director and invent what you want to know. Some things to think about
might include:
- Should
athletes be the only ones given these surveys or should parents be included?
- Should
the surveys be anonymous or should you know who they are from?
- Should
they include character based questions or just volleyball based questions?
Athletes
should be the focus of your surveys as that is who you are targeting but
it’s safe to say you won’t get much
feedback from a 12 or 14 year old without some parental influence so it’s
probably okay to include the parents OR put together a survey just for the
parents.
Making
the survey anonymous is a hold ‘em and fold ‘em proposition. It’s good not to
tie someone to a survey if it is not very complimentary of your coaching as
that could spill over into a different demeanor from the coach to that player;
despite the consensus, coaches ARE human! However if there IS some specific
issues to be addressed by a certain player, it’s good to know who’s issues they
are.
Finally,
as coaches, we are judged on several criteria: winning or losing, educating,
being a positive role model, communication, character, etc. Why as a coach
wouldn’t you want to know if you were perceived to be excelling in these areas,
considered average or needing improvement?
There
is, of course, a risk to an athlete or parent survey. You may, and most
probably will hear things you don’t want to hear. As we expect from our athletes,
you need to take the good feedback with the constructive. Reading
As
coaches, we are expected to know all the answers; we don’t. We have to work at
our craft to get better at it, the same thing we tell our athletes. We need
feedback from those we train with, just like our athletes and we should know
how we are perceived from those that observe us, just like our athletes.
Embrace
the opportunity to work on your shortcomings but more importantly shore up your
strengths going forward. Athletes and parents will appreciate a voice in their
season and you, as their coach, will learn from them, as they have learned from
you, and continue the growth process.
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