For most of you, the season has come to a conclusion (if you’re still playing, congrats and bring home that title).
If you’re like me, the second your season ends you are ready to get a jump on the upcoming season (maybe even during the bus ride home) and how to get your team to the next level - whatever that level may be.
In a few, I’m going to provide you with an in-depth document that can help you walk through both processing your prior season AND preparing for the off-season and upcoming season.
A few notes:
be brutally honest; don’t BS yourself
This might require allowing someone outside of your program to really take a look at it. Heck, your spouse, kids, parents, etc. probably have some outside insight into your program
Find someone who you know will tell you the truth
you must be willing to change
it’s easy to talk about making changes; it’s not so easy to follow through
even if something is going well, there is potential to optimize
Be thoughtful. You’re only wasting your time if you don’t honestly and truthfully and constructively think about things. Take your time. Do right way.
Also, you can’t tell your players to get better over the off-season if you aren’t willing to do some yourself. That’s BS.
Step 1: Take some time off.
It’s been a grind. Don’t dive into evaluating your season/planning your next season the day after your season has come to a close. You have time. Do what you need to do to re-center and recalibrate into non 24-7 coaching. Hang with your family. Take a trip. Go fishing. Read a book (not about basketball). Take 24 hours off from your phone. Do what you need to do.
Step 2: Visualize where you want your program to be in comparison to where it currently stands.
This is going to be different for every team/program.
If your team hasn’t had a winning season in 25 years, you probably need to hold off on the regional title aspirations.
If your team has been knocking on the door to the state tournament, that might be where you focus.
If you consistently win championships, how do you maintain your culture of excellence?
Step 3: Brain Dump
list any and everything you can think of about the season - the good, the bad, the ugly
get it all out on paper, clear out your mind of the clutter of the season, and prepare for Step 4
Step 4: Fill out this Program/Coaching Evaluation and Forward Plan.
I guarantee that, if you take the time to genuinely and thoughtfully fill out this document, you will come up with some ideas that will help your team and program improve.
This is not your typical, generic, over-simplified “How to Evaluate Your Team This Offseason” blog post. This goes much deeper than that.
Set aside at least an hour to thoughtfully think about this and answer honestly - better yet, do it WITH your staff
There are a lot of different ways you can use this document.
I’d recommend:
filling this out on your own
giving it to your assistants
having a few players you trust fill it out
giving it to someone who supports you from afar
allowing a coach whose criticism you trust to fill it out.
But if it’s just you, that works too.
In case you missed it, here’s that link again.
Best of luck!
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