Effective Evaluation Methods for Coaches




  • Sit down at the end of each practice or game and write out notes about what worked well and didn't. These notes become invaluable both in planning future practices and handling specific game situations, and can be used at the conclusion of the season to look for specific patterns that repeat themselves and may have led to your team over or under performing.

  • Check your season goals and time schedule against your practice schedule to see if you are "growing" according to your expectations or not making the kind of progress desired. 

  • When evaluating your practices, check to see if the areas you are spending a considerable amount of time are showing up in terms of  improved game performances. Do not just look at the last game, but look at say 2 or 3 week blocks of time. Are you improving the things you have been spending more time on.  The reason this is important is because if you are spending time in practice and not seeing results, you may seriously need to re-evaluate what or how you are teaching specific skills.

  • Use game and practice films to evaluate your coaching performance. For example how do you and your staff handle time-out situations, substitutions, etc.  If there is chaos you need to look at which members of your staff are assigned what pre-game and game responsibilities.  If  you are constantly running behind schedule in practices filming practice might help you pin-point where you are wasting time, or being ineffective with drills, or time between drills.

  • Don't be fooled strictly by won-loss record.  There are times when a  team is going so well a coach can be lulled into a sense of doing everything right and effort begins to fall off. If things aren't going well be careful to continue to coach and teach and not let issues which may be impeding your team's progress be the main focus of your efforts. 

  • Finally, you as a coach must know you own strengths and weaknesses. You are never as bad a coach as your losses or as good a coach as your wins. Part of maintaining good objectivity includes having a staff that is both honest and fair in providing you feedback on a constant basis. Whether or not you accept all the input is less relevant than you listen and pick out things that you may be blind to seeing about your performance. Perspective is what helps give us the proper angle to make educated decisions and a better chance at achieving success as a  coach.       



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