It’s important to meet with each of your players at the beginning of the season to develop a personal plan for each player, based on their strengths, weaknesses and desired goals.
One way to begin this dialogue is to have your players fill out a self-evaluation form which allows each player to identify his or her strengths and weaknesses in such areas as stroke skills, mental toughness, conditioning, tactics, etc.
These self-evaluations are especially helpful when a coach is working with a new player, but can also be eye-opening for a coach who has worked with a player for several years, who may discover from a player’s self-evaluation that the coach and player have widely differing views on various aspects of the player’s game.
On the following page is an example of a player self-evaluation form you can use (or modify) and administer to your players at the start of each season.
Based on the player’s self-evaluation, the coach and player can then discuss:
- what style of play the player will be; what strategies and tactics the player will need to play that style of game
- what shots and shot combinations the player will need to successfully execute those tactics
- what strokes the player will need to work on to make those shots and shots combinations
No matter how you choose to have players self-evaluate, it’s important, even for a command-style coach, to bring a player into the formation of a personal development plan.
This will ensure a more complete understanding by the player of the goals you have set for them, leading to increased willingness and desire to follow a personal plan and ultimately, a higher chance for maximum success.
Make copies of the Personal Evaluation Form on the next page of this workbook and distribute them to your players.
Have them fill them out, then review them, one-on-one, with each player and their parents and/or private coaches.