We’ve been doing post-season player reviews in recent weeks.
And a discussion with one player sticks out in my mind.
This player was initially a training partner for the team, and having not come through the same training environments and pathways that other players had, she just didn’t have the same level of understanding of structures and team strategy as her teammates did.
And that’s absolutely OK. But when circumstances meant that she was required to step into the team and therefore needed to know those structures and strategies more urgently, it did mean that there were times that she was receiving a LOT of feedback at training from both coaches and other players.
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Now, we all know players who react poorly to receiving feedback, no matter how positively it’s conveyed. While this didn’t appear to be the case with this particular player, in our post-season review we asked her how they’d felt during those sessions.
Her response was so good I had to share it.
“I loved it,” she said.
“If people are giving me feedback then it means they must care about my netball and think I’m actually capable of doing it.”
“I figure that if I’m not getting feedback then it means they don’t think I’m up to it, and so they wouldn’t bother.”
Could not have said it better. What an outstanding way to approach your netball, your interactions with coaches and their feedback.
Now of course it’s on the coach to build that rapport with players to enable (sometimes tough) feedback to be given, but all being equal, at the end of the day it’s on the player to decide how receptive they are to feedback, and how they then put it into practice.
In this case, the player improved enormously across the season, and is well-placed to earn a permanent role next year.
Happy coaching everyone 🙂
