Post Game Meeting Tips?

Game balls have pros and cons. I like rewarding girls for their effort given the varying skill sets.
The con, the last couple of girls to receive a ball may be viewed as the worst players. I give balls to every
girl with a personalized message at the conclusion of the season. The last thing any coach needs is
hurt feelings. Don't let the game ball backfire!

Coach JV said:

Game balls have pros and cons. I like rewarding girls for their effort given the varying skill sets.
The con, the last couple of girls to receive a ball may be viewed as the worst players. I give balls to every
girl with a personalized message at the conclusion of the season. The last thing any coach needs is
hurt feelings. Don't let the game ball backfire!

Click to expand...

Right and girls can be very sensitive and judgmental at times. Plus there are some teams where you'd always be giving the game ball to the same small group of players and that may cause dissension-unless you have other criteria by which to evaluate other than just game performance so that you aren't always just giving the ball to the ones that played the best or got the most hits. If you don't really have a criteria that the players know about they may just end up feeling like you only give the ball to your "favorites."

I always say something before and after each game. If the game goes well and we win I try to use it as a time to talk about something that we can improve on. They are usually happy and will listen more to constructive critisism. If we lose the game I may touch briefly on some of the things that didn't go so well but would make sure to end the talk discussing all the things we did well. NEVER LEAVE A TEAM ON A NEGATIVE NOTE! Always try to have the last things you say be something positive.

As far as the game balls I think it is great but I always end up forgetting who to give it to and then the day that Suzie Strikeout gets a walk and catches a pop up and you feel obligated to give her one because she hasn't had one it kind of cheapens it.

Good Luck!
Sean

A few years ago I heard a college coach speak at a clinic, and he (I think it was a he) had a great philosophy that I then adopted. We always have a postgame talk. If the game went well, meaning the team played well win or lose, I will talk about the good things that happened. If we played badly or lost a game we should've won, I invoke the 24 hour rule -- I won't address it for at least 24 hours. It gives me time to think about what I will say, and as druer posted earlier it allows me to take the emotion out of it. Well, mostly. When my postgame talk consists of "we have practice Tuesday, have a safe drive home" they know I am not happy. But with the 24 hour rule I don't say things I'll regret later, and I can usually see that we didn't play as badly as it seemed during the game.

We also use a sticker system to reward players after a game. Those always get handed out immediately unless we are playing back-to-back games. The criteria for earning one are known: lay down a bunt, slapper successfully slaps, extra base hit, stealing a base (legit steal, not a PB), turning a double play, outfielders throwing out a runner at home (catcher gets one too), catcher throwing out a runner stealing, probably a couple more. I have special skull and crossbones stickers for diving after a ball. There can be coach's discretion stickers too for something that stands out but is not ordinarily covered.

It's funny. I started giving out the stickers around 12U or 14U, not sure which. By the time we reached 16U I wondered if the girls really thought much of them or were just being polite in accepting them. Then one day my daughter and our SS admonished me for giving out a sticker for something they thought was not sticker-worthy. They thought I was totally discrediting the value of the stickers, and told me I shouldn't hand them out like candy. Who knew? From then on I realized they really did mean something, and the girls were proud to receive every single one.

If we played well, win or lose, I have a little routine I use. I have every girl tell the team who they think did well and why. Coming from them it sound much better then coming from me. As far as what they did wrong, that's what practice is for.

Post game talk is a "debriefiing", and serves an important purpose. It is to summarize it, put it in perspective and learn from it, then close it out, get over it, and move on to the next one. Just like projects in the business world.

Keep it short, 3-5 minutes so you dont exceed their attention spans. Hit the highlights. Tell them what the team did well, what the team didnt, and what they will need to work one. OK to highlight a few great plays, etc but dont go overboard, its not a pat-yourself-the-back get together. I disagree with giving MVP awards, etc unless you are trying to make it fun for very young girls. For older, 12 and up, its serious business. Its to help them understand what they need to focus on improving and why, while its still fresh in their mind to have an impact. Tell them what the expectation is.

If you can illustrate how they have improved from past too, thats helpful as well. Progress occurs so slowly sometimes its hard to see until you look back and compare over a few weeks or months. Realizing progress themselves can be very encouraging and cause them to want to work harder.

Dont single out poor performance or critical mistakes by player name, they all already know who did what.

Always include what the coaches did well, and what they didnt too, as they are part of the team. If a basecoach told a girl to go and she was thrown out in critical situation, admit it. They screwed up. Nothing is worse for team morale than coaches that dont accept blame for their own shortcomings or mistakes.

If it was an easy win over a weak team, remind them that game like that does more harm to them than good.

If its a good tournament win, tell them to enjoy it for a day or two, then be ready to come back to practice and work. If it was a tough loss, put it behind them and get ready for the next game.

Nothing wrong with parents listening, but they should stand back a ways, almost out of ear-shot, not be up in the midst. They are integral part of the team too, but this time is really for players and coaches.

I disagree with Sluggers that a post game meeting is a waste of time. Win or lose, I've held one after every game I've coached. It is a coming together in victory or defeat as a team. I'm not one to be negative in these meetings. In fact, I typically will point out a couple of things we need to work on but then get positive real quick. We hand out "burst." So, a player can get a "single burst," a "double burst," or a "triple burst." "Burst" are teammates clapping their hands in unison AS A TEAM to compliment a player. I pick the single and double burst. We ask the team who gets the triple burst or if there is a triple burst. Almost always they want to give at least one. We also hand out "WATERMELONS." "Watermelons" are for funny things that happened during a game. To make a "watermelon," think of the old raz where you stick your tongue out. Players pretend that they are eating a watermelon and then, they give the player the raz. (I hope that makes since since I've never described it before.) We also have the "cockroach." "Cockroaches" are typically for the coaches who have to roll on their backs with their hands and feet in the air and look like a dead cockroach. Players only award coaches "cockroaches."

Listen, this meeting is good for team bonding. I've seen girls cry from getting a triple burst from their teammates. It is a great recognition of how well they did and especially so when a player explains why such and such deserves the triple burst for...

Per the parents, we've never thought about whether the parents were near or far. I think in the scope of what we've tried to do with our meetings, it is good for parents to hear what the other girls think about their daughter. I'd have to say that the teams I've been fortunate enough both in baseball and softball to be around have grown closer because of this practice.

Ken: I also like the 24 hour rule. Negative things that need to be addressed will be talked about, addressed and worked on to improve in the next practice session - like you said, gives everyone an opportunity to look at it from a less emotional perspective. As a player, nothing said after a game, whether it was by a coach or parent, was anything "enlightening" - it had never addressed anything that I hadn't already thought of and thought about myself. I do think it's important as a coach to acknowledge positive things, but sometimes after a game (again speaking from a player perspective) often times things coaches say are already something you know and expect and is almost just something you have to sit through after a game before you go get snacks and "really" spend time/bond with your teammates after a game.

By the same token, every team, like every person is different. I don't think there's any ONE right/exact way to address every team. In Cannonball's case, it seems like the team has found something that works and provides a big benefit for their team. If that's the case, I wouldn't change it just because others decide to keep post-game meetings as brief as possible.

Stacie, we've done this for 24 years in baseball and a few state championship teams. I don't claim to know everything but I do know how to build "team." I'd bet that my players would, indeed, be upset if we didn't hand out bursts. Your point is well taken that negative things need to settle some after a game and I do agree that after a game is not the time to be negative. I've never considered being negative then.

I would never suggest that what works for me will work for everyone. By the same token a bus ride with me is not like any bus ride most players take. Talk about a captive audience. I get a lot of good teaching done on a bus ride.

After reading these posts from Canonball, I think the real thing to do is to be true to who and what you are in these post game talks. If I did what Canonball does, it would be phony, because that is not who I am. If Canonball does what I do, the kids would probably be thinking, "What is wrong with Coach today?" I think everyone agrees that the long "post mortem soliloquy" that some coaches give is a waste of time.

I haven't coach as much as Canonball, but I had two kid play sports all the way through college. For my kids, somewhere about the sophomore of year of HS, the lengthy post game talks became a joke.

I remember my DD sitting on the ground after giving up a HR in the 9th inning at the national championship, thereby eliminating the team, and the coach was giving the "you have to want it" speech. There is nothing the coach could say to make anyone feel better, especially my DD. What did help was for my DD to go out for a couple of beers with her teammates after the game.