3 Questions to ask yourself after a game!

Hey Coach what can I do immediately after a game to feel better about my performance?

Great Question! Here ya go!

We have all been there. Players and coaches go through similar emotions at the end of a game. If the contest went well everyone is excited, happy and on top of the world on their way to get ice cream. If the team suffered a loss then the blame game comes out with sadness, anger, disappointment, regret and thoughts of “I’m just not good enough”. Parents start wondering what their paying for when the team gets creamed but are glad to give pats on the back and shout outs on Facebook if all goes well.

I like to look at things differently and tend to ask myself questions after games and practices. “What could I have done better?” “What did I absolutely knock out of the park?” “Why didn’t the players respond to this drill or that game?” “What am I never going to do again?” I learned a long time ago that training should be challenging and fun so that players will stretch and grow. I also learned that games are an opportunity for a player that has worked hard in practice to test and ENJOY their skills playing the sport they love. And why do they love it you may ask? They LOVE it for the same reason we love anything…feeling. How you feel at the end of a game is the only thing that matters. The game itself passes quickly and there are emotions of joy and heartbreak changing every few minutes. But the FEELINGS after the game are the ones that tend to stick with us and I think its all for a reason, a GOOD reason…the feeling are there for us to learn from!

“Sounds good Coach Sam but whats the point?” Exactly! The point is that we must look at our games just like we look at training……as a chance to grow and become more than who were are. So start looking at your games as just a part of your journey as a player and a person. Take the good with the bad and just roll with it taking from each experience little pieces of wisdom that you can apply to your life and training moving forward. If you are not growing, you are dying. If you are not getting stronger, smarter and more skilled every week, even by just a little, then you are on a crash course for unhappiness. Find joy in the day to day growth not just the destination. Below are my favorite four questions to ask my players after every game. I also ask myself these questions and take notes on the answers so that I can refer to them later and laugh at myself or learn again. If you use these questions instead of beating yourself up or bragging I think you will find that losses will be easier to digest and wins will turn out to be great confidence boosters.

Question#1 What went well?

You gotta pick out the good stuff! Throughout the game no matter what the result there were little wins that racked up and you were a part of them. Now you maybe frustrated because of a loss or overjoyed with the win but a few seconds spent thinking about what went right will do you lot of good. Pick out a couple things you really enjoyed about the game and the way you played, maybe what you have been working on in training is starting to show up in competition. These are probably your strengths and you need to keep improving on them to turn them into super-powers!

Question #2 What didn’t go so well?

Don’t be a Negative Nelly, keep it simple! It is important that you don’t tear your team and yourself up, just bring your attention to a few plays, skills or pieces to your fitness that was not your best. Players, coaches, parents, and even fans have a bad habit of remembering every mistake and bad play. If you spend too much time dwelling on what went wrong you miss the point of the question to yourself. The question is meant to find a couple weaknesses to work on moving forward!

Question #3 What are you going to do about it?

If we are not growing we are dying! Your development as a player is up to YOU! Your parents take you to the games and practices, your coach’s put on the practices and leads the games but its up to you to put in the effort to get better! So lets get to work!

The first two questions exposed some strengths and weaknesses that came up during the game. Now its time to work through what you are going to do in training to strengthen your weaknesses and super power your strengths. I would suggest keeping a notebook on your training and games so that you can write notes about what you learned and what you need more of. This could be one of the most valuable things you do for your growth as an athlete.

Again keep it simple….here’s an example. Lets say your strengths were passing the ball well most of the game, had a couple of good shots and beat a player in a 1v1 challenge. The weaknesses you came up with were getting beat multiple times by dribblers that faked you out and you also got out run a couple of times. Also you had poor touches on balls out of the air that just seemed to go everywhere.

Here’s the plan! Every time you get a chance to train leading up to the next game you will try and work on your strengths and weaknesses as much as possible even if it means you have to get to practice early, stay late or train on an off day. Just chip away a little everyday. The important thing is that you are in a cycle of Train..Play..Assess..Correct..Train..Play repeated over and over everyday. Its a lifestyle!

I hope this article helps! My Mission is to guide you along your way so if you have questions please email me or comment I would love to hear from you!

See you out on the field,

♥Coach Sam

Be Creative Be Fearless Have Fun!