After a pretty awful finish to a game a week ago, I decided I was done with the post-game speeches. I've never found they have much value, and without them, everybody gets to go home sooner. I actually talked with my high school girls about it, and I think they agree that the speeches aren't very useful (maybe I'm just bad at them).
If we lost, the players know why we lost. Do I need to immediately point out that we made a bunch of errors? If we won, maybe a little bit more of a chat to point out some good games/good plays, but do we really need to sit there for 15 minutes to go over a random regular season win?
This isn't football. This is a sport where we play a lot of games, sometimes many days in a row, and even good teams have bad games. I made a point this year (during the HS season) of trying to reduce the importance of each individual game. Every game is not all or nothing. Losing a game on some random Tuesday afternoon isn't going to alter the entire course of our season, so why act like it will? A post-game speech just makes everything feel so heavy, and while there are certain moments where they might need an immediate team meeting, for most games? I just don't see how it's necessary. I'll make notes about the game after the fact and bring those thoughts to the next practice, you know, the place where we can actually do something to improve.
For the past couple games (one win, one loss), it's been pretty great. A quick couple lines, reminders about the next practice/game, letting the previous belt holder pass it on to the next person, and we're out.
Someone convince me the post-game speech is actually important.
If we lost, the players know why we lost. Do I need to immediately point out that we made a bunch of errors? If we won, maybe a little bit more of a chat to point out some good games/good plays, but do we really need to sit there for 15 minutes to go over a random regular season win?
This isn't football. This is a sport where we play a lot of games, sometimes many days in a row, and even good teams have bad games. I made a point this year (during the HS season) of trying to reduce the importance of each individual game. Every game is not all or nothing. Losing a game on some random Tuesday afternoon isn't going to alter the entire course of our season, so why act like it will? A post-game speech just makes everything feel so heavy, and while there are certain moments where they might need an immediate team meeting, for most games? I just don't see how it's necessary. I'll make notes about the game after the fact and bring those thoughts to the next practice, you know, the place where we can actually do something to improve.
For the past couple games (one win, one loss), it's been pretty great. A quick couple lines, reminders about the next practice/game, letting the previous belt holder pass it on to the next person, and we're out.
Someone convince me the post-game speech is actually important.