Hi all! This is Coach Paul! Let me ask you something…
Show of hands–Who likes to lose…at ANYTHING? I would bet my next two paychecks that no one raised their hand to THAT question. The sheer nature of losing is not part of our DNA. Never has been, never will be.
When you take on the responsibility of coaching a group of young people (in particular) in any sport, whether it be a team or an individual, your first thought will not be “I can’t wait until we lose our first game!”. Now, all of that being said, losing does happen in every aspect of our lives and we must know how to deal with it effectively, when it occurs. I believe that we can all get behind that mindset, right?
But what if your team loses consistently from week-to-week? From season-to-season? What then? Fortunately for us coaches, we can employ several problem-solving methods to address the situation and improve performance and our teams’ W-L %. Here are some effective methods for youth sports coaches to combat consistent losing:
Analyze Performance
As you begin to wrestle with the fact that your team is regularly losing, you should meticulously analyze team performance to identify areas of improvement. Make the determination of whether each player is playing to their teammates’ strengths rather than to their weaknesses.
Additionally, examine each player’s body of work, and make a stern evaluation of their play. Is he/she is not giving 100% on every play? Are they having difficulty understanding their role/position? This can be time-consuming, but this task is vitally important to ascertain the root causes of your losing record. By reviewing game footage, assessing individual and team skills, and analyzing strategy, you should be able to pinpoint specific weaknesses and address them accordingly.
Adjust Practice Plans
As coaches, we can probably all agree with the famous quote of “You play like you practice and practice how you play.”. Your practices are a huge barometer of how effectively your team can compete against the best of the best. If your team is coming up short in every game, then you must identify those individual and team weaknesses. Then, based on the analysis of what you have identified, you can modify your practice plans, in order to get those weaknesses under control. This can include:
* emphasizing specific skills
* implementing new strategies
* incorporating targeted drills
* adding particular exercises to address physical weaknesses
Adjust Tactical Approaches
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous section, and they can easily complement each other. With the new adjustments in your practice plans, you should also re-evaluate your tactical approaches and consider adjusting game plans or strategies. This could involve implementing new formations, varying offensive or defensive tactics, or making tactical adjustments based on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing teams.
The sky is the limit, as to how you can mix and match these various options. Furthermore, you could conceivably implement different strategic plans each game, if desired or if necessary. Once you fully understand what is at your disposal, your stretch of losing could be at its end. Good news indeed!
Enhance Communication
Effective communication is crucial in any team sport. That fact is a given. As a coach, you are the “tip of the spear” in that regard. You should make sure that you are communicating clearly and consistently with your players and providing constructive feedback and setting realistic goals to help improve their skills.
Additionally, encouraging open communication within the team and establishing a supportive and positive team environment can lead to better performance and cohesion. This is crucial, especially when your players are dealing with massive losses. It is important that they understand that “you win as a team, you lose as team.”.
Your players should be provided a constructive path to you, to vent their frustrations and to communicate their thoughts and feelings about what is transpiring. With this approach, weaknesses and any points of contention (with players AND/OR with coaches) can potentially be uncovered and dealt with advantageously. And as always, parents can work with their players at home, to help tackle the issues that they might be faces. As long as both parents and coaches are working together in this plan, things should move along nicely.
Seek External Expertise
Anyone could consider this to be the proverbial “elephant in the room”; an ego buster, if you will. As coaches, we sometimes have to come to the realization that we might be in over our heads, with a particularly bad season. Things can quickly get out of hand and many times, you might feel as if you have lost total control of your team and how they perform.
You need to recognize this as a major problem and ASK FOR HELP. Seeking out the guidance of external entities such as specialized trainers or experienced mentors can provide many fresh perspectives and insights into addressing your team’s losing issues. Listen intently on the nuggets of wisdom that they can offer you. Do not take anything personally, when any critiques are offered up. For their part, they should not act as if their expertise is the be-all and end-all to your situation. They are merely making themselves available, to lend you helpful advice. It is totally up to you, to take it or leave it.
This additional expertise can help you develop new strategies for improving performance and (re)building a winning culture. It also allows you to obtain valuable opinions and guidance, outside of your personal sphere. NOTE: If you have an assistant coach, it would behoove them to be on board with this as well.
In Conclusion: Are YOU tired of losing?
Losing is hard. However, losing all the time, is gut-wrenching for everyone. Plain and simple. Keep in mind, that patience and resilience are the keys when combating consistent losing. It takes time to build a successful team, and you should remain dedicated to continuous improvement and the overall development of your players. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
As we all know, winning isn’t everything, but it sure feels good when you do!!
Please feel free to leave a comment below, about this fascinating topic! If not, then you can simply say “Hi!”. I like it when people say “Hi!”. And as always…thanks for checking out my page!