Athletes are used to being evaluated during tryouts. After all, that is usually the proverbial start to the new year as it relates to sports. The formation of teams couldn’t be complete without an official tryout evaluation run by coaches, volunteers, and sometimes even parents.
However, not dissimilar to school report cards for kids, or professional reviews for adults at their job – it is important to be evaluating players throughout the entirety of the season to ensure they are on a path to improving and becoming the best player they can be.
Here are some reasons why doing in-season evaluations can be beneficial for your organization.
1. To Improve Player Development
Players are used to getting a report card from school to let them and their parents know how they’re progressing with the curriculum, why should it be any different with their sports? Having a standard ongoing evaluation and feedback process allows for tangible feedback that an athlete can act on to improve their game
2. Set Yourself Apart From Competing Clubs
Many clubs do not have processes in place to easily do ongoing evaluations, which can limit participation from the coaching staff. Your club can separate itself from local competition by providing a better playing experience to players and parents.
3. Improve Player Retention
Players will keep coming back to a club where they feel they are supported in their development. By having a standard ongoing feedback process in place, you can shorten communication lines between coaches and families, and it provides a level of continuity when players transition to a new coach
4. Help With Future Team Placement
Tryouts do not always reflect a player’s best performance. You can supplement tryout scores with past evaluations to make more accurate team placements. A coach who has seen a player for a whole season will have a better idea of where that player fits. But, if that information is not recorded it may not be readily available when it comes to team placement time.
5. To Track Goals
Many clubs ask their players to set goals at the start of the season but fall short in regularly revisiting them throughout the season. A simple framework with scheduled ongoing evaluations/feedback goes a long way toward improving communication from coach to player and staying atop goals.
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With only upside for the players and parents when having ongoing evaluations – they should be a no-brainer for your club.
Check out this sample in-season evaluation report from TeamGenius to get an idea of how this feedback can be formatted.
Happy evaluating!