So I am hunkering down in front of my computer for one of my “days off”. Problem is I have athletes playing in the Midwest, Mexico, and High School Nationals. I also have athletes preparing for some big tournaments coming up. So a day off means scouting, and watching matches. So I could not help but notice how well-meaning coaches mess up matches.
1. Athletes were trained to defeat local competition, not National. This is a huge mistake-athletes should not be winning every game in practice but working on shots that will help them win big tournaments.
2. Athletes were not prepared for whatever reason. (I am not immune to this one no matter how hard I try!) For example: All the athlete has to do is a certain serve but they could not or would not execute that serve. They did not prepare properly.
3. “Feel” of the match. Recently I had an athlete get blown out first game. They were down 3-0 in the second when they got the serve. I rarely do this so early in a game but I signaled a timeout. Athlete called a timeout-I gave them some simple things to focus on, and the match was turned around and defeat was turned into victory! Same thing happened to another athlete in same tournament and match was turned around but we lost a squeaker. In both cases the athletes had the opportunity to win. That is all a coach can do! I saw that same score and same situation this weekend but coaches missed the opportunity to turn the matches around.
4. Coaching what shot to hit, not how to hit it. I saw several comments in social media on what the athletes should have done. Problem is, no way they could have done it due to flaws in their mechanics or footwork. All of this has to be done before the tournament by a coach who knows what they are doing.
5. Over-coaching in time outs–no need to do a ton of strategy. It won’t work. The athlete needs something simple, not complicated. “You need to hit the ball better cross court.” Okay–but the “how” of that has not been worked on, that instruction will mess up even more because that cross court is coming off the back wall for sure! Something like, “Get your hips low and let’er go! Rip it cross court and don’t think!”
Some empathy for the players here! It looks easy from the outside. Everyone is an expert. Not so easy in the arena!