Coaches’ Corner- End of Season Player Feedback

About ten years into my varsity coaching career, I was given advice that had tremendous impact on my coaching and our program. 

Gary O’Malley was my FS Coach and Varsity Assistant. Gary was in the process of getting his PhD from the University of Iowa in Education. He had extensive background in classroom methods, techniques that helped improved teaching methods. 

Toward the end of one season, Gary advised me that he thought it would be very helpful for me to give the players surveys at the end of the season that gave them a chance not only for self-reflection but also allowed them to evaluate my approaches to practice, my strategy, and my use of players. The idea was to give the players a chance to tell me what they thought about themselves and what they thought about the basketball program. 

My initial reaction was that I didn’t want to give the players a chance to “rip me.” Gary convinced me that I did indeed want some kids to have a chance to “rip me.” I could consider the source, reflect on the criticism, and use it as a chance to grow. Gary’s advice, “You don’t want the players to feel that way and not know it, things will only get worse.”

I created a survey to give the players. I used the same basic survey for the next 30 years- adding and subtracting questions. I had the players sign their name to the sheet- I wanted them to “own” what they had to say. There were generally four parts to the survey…

Part 1- Self-Evaluation

Part 2- Analysis of the program, practices, strategy, and coach

It was time consuming, but I found it best to have them take the time to do this survey at the end of our “End of the Season Meeting.” For some players it might take them 45 minutes. I felt I was more apt to be getting their thoughts vs their parents if they took it home. In later years, I shortened the survey and let them do it at home and bring it back. 

Part 1 and Part 2 became important basis for an individual meeting that I would schedule later in the Spring with each potential varsity player. 

I am not suggesting you use all the questions that I have put together, rather pick, choose, and re-phrase to meet your needs. 

The more I respected a group, the more opportunities I gave them to be candid. Perhaps some of the groups that I needed to hear from, I tended to not give them as many opportunities. 

A trends that I found with many of my best players… 

1- They thought I needed to be more demanding in practice.

2- They thought I needed to be more emotional in games. 

While I was comfortable with both our approach to practices and my approach on the sideline- they were valuable reminders that the best players wanted an intense approach. 

I am not saying that the feedback immediately caused me to say, “Oh, I have to change this.” The feedback was often just good to know where some of the players were at. 

I found feedback about practices and drills particularly valuable. 

Ultimately I felt the surveys helped the players have more of a sense of ownership in the program, and it was a great resource to develop meaningful one on one conversations later. 

Here are some of the questions that I used…

1- Right now, what are your greatest strengths as a basketball player?

2- Rank yourself in each of the following categories- 4- Great, 3- Good, 2- Average, 1- Need Improvement. 

Ballhandling 

Shooting

Defense

Rebounding

Conditioning

Teammate

Coachability

Leadership

3- What are your greatest weaknesses as a player? 

4- What are your personal goals as a player for next year? (It could be to do with your role, your stats, your achievements)

5- Would there be a role on next year’s team that you could not accept, and would rather be cut?

6- Either good or bad, what are things we should learn from this year’s team?

7- What should be our team goals for next year?

8- Did you feel the coaches over-evaluated any players this year? Players who played more than they should have? Who?

9- Did you feel the coaches under-evaluated any players this year? Players who should have played more? Who?

10- What were things we did in terms of practices that were really good?

11- What were things we did in terms of practice that you did not feel were good? How could we improve our practices?

12- What are the three best drills we do in practice?

13- Was the coach either too demanding or not demanding enough in practice? Were practices either too hard or too easy?

14- Offensively, what were the best things we did?

15- Offensively, what were the things that were ineffective?

16- Defensively, what were the best things we did?

17- Defensively, what were things you would have wanted to see us do more or less?

18- In games, did you feel the coach(es)- often lost emotional control, had right level of emotion, need to become more emotional

19- Coaches should know the following about me…

20- What changes need to made in our team’s culture and approach to basketball if we are going to reach our full potential as a team?

21- What improvements in your attitude and approach to basketball would allow you to reach your full potential as a player?