The post-game speech

[Orange Socks]

We are told as parents to tell them "I love to watch you play" on the ride home. Most of the parents don't realize the coach already gave the team THE speech...they don't need to hear it again. But dang, I can't help myself! Now, my after game conversations are with DD on the bus back to her school.

 

[flash277]

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.

You are indeed the Coach of the Year!

 

[Lobster Birch]

I once informed DD's coach that we had to leave immediately after the game as I had to pick up my other DD. Other DD managed to get a ride meaning I didn't have to pick her up after all. We still left right after the game.

 

[bmakj]

You are indeed the Coach of the Year!

DEcade, possibly century!

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

The six speeches:

• Great work, keep doing what you’re doing
• You were complacent, and lucky that you turned it around
• Keep your heads up, you played your hearts out, but sometimes it doesn’t work out
• We beat ourselves
• I can’t make you want it
• That was a crapshow

 

[22Lefty]

Thread of the year! Just look at the 1000 yard stare the kids have after 5 minutes. What do you think you're going to fix in that timeframe that couldn't be addressed next practice?

 

[HunterMO]

Some of the coaches do it out of good intentions but there are some coaches out there that do it to make sure that everybody knows that the reason they lost was not due to them...

DD's HC from the team we just left was a quiet guy. Not a great speaker overall. A lot of um's and long pauses. Easy to lose a group of 10 to 13 year old kids after a game. So it often fell to me. I liked to keep talks (it was far from a speech) short and sweet. After a win it was to congratulate the team effort and call out some great plays. Then let them go. After a loss it was to emphasize that it wasn't just one mistake or person for the reason of the loss. Nothing specific would be highlighted. More of a "Hey, we lost. That sucks. Life moves on. Use it for fuel and lets hit it hard next time. Go home and rest. So on and so forth." The last thing I wanted was an individual player going home and brooding over her mistake or even thinking she lost the game for the team.

 

[Orange Socks]

May or May not have been the best thing to do, but after getting knocked out of a tourney I told the girls to have your own meeting and figure it out. Do you want this to be a social team or do you want to compete? They they won or placed the next 3 tourneys.

 

[John 800]

I quit talking about the game with my own kids on the way home. Once I started coaching I rarely give post game speeches at all unless its a specific play or situation that I think we can learn from, even then I usually say,”remember this play we will talk about it at practice”

 

[Towny9]

when I coached HS baseball I used an offensive checklist called BASE2. I didn’t come up with it but used it so long I can’t remember where I got it to give the credit.
B=Big Inning (3 or more runs in 1 inning)
A=Answer back (score the half inning after they score)
S=Score first
E=Extend the lead when we get it
2=did we score any runs with 2 outs

In 15 years of coaching high school baseball we only lost 2 games where we accomplished 3 out of those 5 things. Going over that was out post game speech. When we fell short of 3 out of 5 we knew why we lost. Kept the focus simple and made it about the team.