During the season, it’s easy to focus on wins and losses. But Doungchak said teams that suffer a lot of losses can be improving, while teams who win a lot might not be getting any better. He says that winning is a metric, but it is only a small piece in the overall goal of player development.
“A lot of times, what happens is during the course of the season we get caught up in, ‘What’s our record? Have we lost a lot of games or won a lot of games?’ And that might derail us in what our player development goals are,” Doungchak said. “Winning is a component, no doubt, but just to remind coaches that winning or losing is just a component of the player development process and that we should refer back to.”
When assessing your team at the midway point, ask yourself ‘What are we supposed to be doing?’ developmentally. If there are gaps in your team’s development, you can set goals to improve them in the second half of the year. Setting goals can also galvanize players and coaches and keep things fresh.
“It helps keep coaches and players motivated, to know that we have defined something and we have something we want to achieve and we’re going to continue to work on,” Doungchak said. “Versus saying we want to be good at everything.”
For those teams that are struggling, setting goals for the second half of the season is a good way to keep players interested and working in games and practices. It allows players and coaches to have goals to win throughout the rest of the season. Setting something as simple as shots on net or scoring chances can invigorate kids. Maybe set the goal playing small-area games in practice where shots on net count for points and see it translate into games.
“Even if you lose 6-1, we as a team can say this is what we are trying to do. And they become these mini games that keeps kids fresh and motivated to go to games even when the macro issue is, man, we’re losing a lot of games,” Doungchak said.
And when you start to achieve these goals, don’t be surprised if other positive outcomes follow.
“The funny thing is, if you are achieving these mini goals along the way, these mini games, you might find yourself winning some big games you might not have thought you’d win,” Doungchak said.
