I have long championed the importance of feedback to the player. Particularly for the junior player in a community club or talent development environment, I have believed that this is crucial to the player getting better.
However let’s not simply assume that the player requires or even wants feedback. Has anyone bothered to first ask them what they want. That is something that I have done recently and the results and findings somewhat surprised me.
Most talented junior players (age 14 to 16) that I have talked to view player review and feedback in a negative way, and they do not really want to engage in the process. They believe they have no ownership on it and that it is all about the coaches agenda. My first thought was that maybe the coaches are not skilled enough to undertake a proper review, and are not capable of giving accurate and relevant feedback. That though is not the case with most coaches having undergone some form of training in this area. Indeed it is a major part of most sports coaching qualifications at Level 3 and above. No, what the youngsters want one player summed up very succinctly. “I don’t want feedBACK, I need feedFORWARD”. Feedforward thats a new concept.
He and other players pointed out that reviews and feedback tend to start from a negative perspective and dwell on what has happened, as opposed to what needs to happen. By starting in the past and being negative this can impact negatively on a players self confidence and will certainly do nothing to improve performance.
It leads me to conclude that we should be doing “Previews” with players that focus in on what needs to be done and how to do it. Following performance let’s have “Feedforward” that will genuinely help the player to move forward.
Now I’m not saying we don’t address the “negative or weak” aspects of training and performance. But let’s look at these areas as “under developed strengths” which simply need to be worked on. That is far more positive and you are much more likely to get the buy in of the young player with this approach.
Now, I can hear some traditionalists amongst the coaches out there who will be thinking “What a load of rubbish, you have got to be brutal and tell it as it is”. Well I don’t disagree, twenty years ago that approach may well have worked and been appropriate. But for “Generation Y” it is absolutely not the right way to go in my view.
Of course if you think different then let’s have the debate.
Haydn
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