Posting team and individual game stats for the players to review

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May 7, 2008
58
6
I am having a debate about team/individual stats and whether they should be available for the players to see after every contest, whether it be preseason, fall season, or during the season. Is this a valuable tool, or negative coaching? Is it motivation or condemnation? Is it acknowledgement of success, or embarassment for failure. Please let me know your thoughts.
 

TMD

Feb 18, 2016
433
43
We struggled with this as a coaching staff for the past several years. In the end, we decided not to share full team stats with the whole team. We felt that the potential negatives would outweigh any positives. Each girl is given their own individual game-by-game and cumulative stats at various points during the season along with feedback/goals. However, we've always tried to make it all about "the team". We win and lose as a team and don't feel we are well served by publicly shining a spotlight on individual performances and struggles via naked stats that lack context. There is enough of that in the single game iScore or GameChanger stats.
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Not no but HELL NO!!! Unless your coaching decisions are 100% data driven this will cause many problems and add very little value. Do you want your players focusing on improving their stats or their skills? Are you prepared for the inevitable conversations with players and parents about why Sally is starting and Susie is sitting when Susie clearly has better stats? How do you plan to normalize the stats with respect to level of completion and possibly multiple score keepers? Having a daughter who just finished her college career in the SEC I can tell you that stats are a very small part of the equation with respect to coaching decisions. Used only when all other factors are equal. In other words it is the tiebreaker.
 
Last edited:
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
Since this was posted in the College Softball section, I would assume that all game stats are posted on the team's website anyway. What's to prevent the players from checking the stats?
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Since this was posted in the College Softball section, I would assume that all game stats are posted on the team's website anyway. What's to prevent the players from checking the stats?

Nothing to prevent them from seeing the stats. However, using them as tool for Mom and Dad to nag the coach about more playing time is pretty much non-existent.
 
Feb 15, 2016
273
18
I am having a debate about team/individual stats and whether they should be available for the players to see after every contest, whether it be preseason, fall season, or during the season. Is this a valuable tool, or negative coaching? Is it motivation or condemnation? Is it acknowledgement of success, or embarassment for failure. Please let me know your thoughts.

I don't really think it matters either way once you get to a certain age level but we have never published the stats on the TB teams I coached. If a specific player wanted to know how she was doing we would let her know. Many high schools and most colleges have stats available online. Someone will likely be hitting .450 and someone else will be hitting .150 and it is neither valuable tool, negative coaching, motivation, condemnation, acknowledgement of success, nor embarrassment for failure. It is the statistics based on the book, which may or may not be accurate, and statistics mean what statistics mean. If parents want to use the stats to question a coach so be it although most kids who wanted to talk statistics were wondering why they weren't batting where they thought they should be or playing more. It is part of the job to deal with parents. If parents think that it is an embarrassment for their daughter to have her stats available to anyone, well they better not want to play in high school or college because those stats are out there for anyone to see.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
After each game this year, I would post game highlights on the team Facebook page, even when we lost. Sometimes it was easy and 6 or 7 girls would get a shout out. Other days it would be "Player X made some nice plays in the field" or "Pitcher battled through some defensive mistakes." I gave everybody a little credit throughout the season, too, so nobody would feel like their contributions weren't appreciated. Not posting stats, exactly, but still doing some game-by-game "Player Y went 3-for-4 with two singles and a double" type stuff.

Once we were done for the year, I posted that I would send stats for the whole year to any girls who wanted them. The ones who reached out to me got a customized file with just their numbers. Around half the team took advantage of that.

Their offensive stats can be accessed on MaxPreps (we did a poor job tracking defensive stats), though I haven't gone out of my way to let the players or parents know they're there.
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
I don't see any good reason to make them available to all. While I love MaxPreps for the purpose of looking at stats as a fan, I don't think it helps the team to make them public.

I would think most players realize who's doing what without keeping or knowing stats.

I'm not so sure. Depends on how balanced the team is. Frankly, I haven't found players to be especially insightful when it comes to rating other players' production and talents unless it's pretty clear-cut. Even as a coach, stats sometimes show surprises. That's one reason to keep them, to ensure that perception approaches reality.
 

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