How Did Your Athletes Get Better Because of You Today?

Reflection is the key to growth.

How do you reflect after games?

Do you take notes during the game? Do you call and debrief with your coaching staff? Do you immediately start planning your practice? Do you dive into GameChanger for the stats? Do you review video? Do you review your team’s charts? Or do you move on to your next life task without thinking about the game again? A coach should spend time thinking about the game or we’ll just nonchalantly go about our day without any thoughts about using the game to help us get better.

One of the best reflection questions is:

How did my athletes get better because of my coaching today?

Individual touchpoints with your athletes should be a goal for every practice, game, and team event. Imagine the missed opportunities that happen when kids don’t have any personal interactions with their coaches. It’s easy to get caught up in the outcome of the game and lose sight of the development that happens through the game.

If you go throughout an entire game and never spend time coaching your individual athletes, you will miss out on the moments that help them grow. While they may get better marginally just by being around the game, we as coaches should desire to maximize their ceilings.

If you can answer the question, “How did ___ get better because of my coaching today?” for every athlete on your roster, then you can feel confident that progress will be made.

There are times when individual coaching may turn into group coaching. Your team needs to be on the same page, and this will help you from having to coach something multiple times.

For example, in a youth game where players are first learning about the dropped third strike rule, you may find yourself wanting to coach one kid in the moment because they are confused about why they can’t run to first base on a dropped third strike. Pulling that athlete to the side to explain that first base was occupied will help them understand the rule. But sharing that coaching point with the group will help build the entire team’s IQ. That one kid still got better because of you, and so did others.

Another example might happen on the bases. Maybe a runner is on second base when a fly ball is hit to left field. The runner immediately goes back to tag when the ball is dropped. Instead of being able to advance to third, they are now stuck. In that moment between innings, a quick conversation about going “halfway” would be best. One short coaching point can help that athlete make a better decision the next time they’re in that situation.

These moments may feel small in the moment, but over the course of a season they add up in a big way.

Bottom line: athletes should walk away from the field with tangible examples of how they got better. They should know what they need to work on heading into the next game, practice, individual lesson, or training session. When this is clear to the athlete, their growth will match their commitment to working on deficiencies.

Coaches should walk away asking the question:

How did my athletes get better because of my coaching today?

And then continue the reflection process to help their team become the best version of themselves by the end of the season.

A Simple Coaching Self-Check

Before you leave the ballpark tonight, ask yourself a few questions:

• Which athlete did I intentionally coach today?

• Who received individual feedback from me during the game?

• What teaching moment did I turn into a learning opportunity for the team?

• Can I name one way each player got better today?

If those questions are hard to answer, tomorrow is another opportunity to be more intentional.