Managing Expectations

It's February, teams are coming together for their stretch run or falling apart at the seams. One of the keys to having a successful stretch run and season is to manage expectations. With message boards, newspapers, sport dedicated websites, the scrutiny goes all the way down to the grammar school level. That accompanied with the usual array of player, parental, and school influences make for an intense cauldron of pressure for modern players. Results of games are broadcast near instantly. Anonymous message boards levy harsh criticism of players (they are still kids right?) which is undue pressure on any teenager. If expectations aren't managed properly it can crush a player or a team.

Teams that are coming together have set realistic expectations and set manageable short term goals and met them throughout the season. Players are confident and happy in their roles and are playing hard and having fun. These teams are "gelling" at the right time and are poised for a good finish.

If you spent your preseason talking to your team how you were going to win conference and you're 3 or 4 games out of it right now, your players are probably going to be tuning you out because you've lost your credibility. At that point you are holding on to a tiger by the tail and hoping to ride out the string. Players aren't content with their roles, team chemistry is a mess, and everyone wants to go home right after practice or a game. If you're coaching at the high school level you probably have your fair share of parents voicing their displeasure about little Johnny's or little Suzy's playing time, lack of awards or newspaper recognition, or scholarship offers.

If a player had the expectation that they would be all-American, all-conference, all-area, or pick up a scholarship offer and those goals haven't been met you need to refocus their goals on the near term. Go out and own the glass, or take care of the ball, or make the hustle plays to help us win can help keep a player who's lost their way stay in the game. If a player is worried about the external things out of their control, they cannot focus on the things that they can control, their performance.

All is not lost! Simply refocus your team and individual goals into short term, attainable goals. We want to win the rest of our home games or we want to sweep the weekend. If faced with a difficult opponent, we want to hold them to 40% shooting and no second chance points, etc. Giving your players something to aim for, and more importantly something they can buy into for the stretch run will ease a "missed" season.

You and your staff can spend the off-season wondering where things went amiss. Stay in the game and refocus your kids to make the last part of your season a success.