The Mental Performance Corner: How to Help Your Athletes with Post Game Evaluations

Since the majority of you (us), have started back up with the season and tournament play, I thought it would be beneficial to post some tips for parents on how to assist their athletes with their post-game evaluations. 

First off, every athlete should be performing a post-game routine. I don’t mean stretching and chocolate milk - although that is important too - I mean from a performance review standpoint. This is beyond important for their overall growth, development, and confidence both in and out of sport. One of THE foundations of mental toughness is being able to properly self-reflect. This is a skill that the athlete needs to learn. It’s not innate. And it’s definitely not easy. If your athlete isn’t currently doing this, and you would like some information on it, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

From a parental assistance standpoint, the best thing you can do for your child after their game is listen, ask questions, and listen.

If you get in the car after the game and instantly go into a long rant about what they did wrong, not only is that going to crush their spirit (believe it or not, athletes are WELL aware of the things they did wrong - they don’t need you to rehash that for them), it’s also doing them a huge disservice because they aren’t able to develop the skill of proper self-reflection. I’ll say that again, instantly getting in the car and going off on all the mistakes they made is only going to hurt them, especially since the majority of them are trying really hard to make you proud. 

If this sounds like something you currently do, read on.

Being able to properly self-reflect means being able to identify areas for improvement AND areas of success - the latter of which is the hard part for them. It takes time, consistency, and proper guidance. This is something I spend months working on with athletes.

What can you do to help? When you get in the car, ask your athlete what they thought of their performance.

Then listen.

After they're finished, you can ask them if they’d like to hear your thoughts. If they say no, please respect that and zip it. Chances are they just need a little time and will come back to you later on to discuss. If they say yes, focus on the positives. (Chances are they just pointed out all the negatives to you, and most likely have heard them from their coach as well. Ask them questions about what they’d do to improve upon those mistakes for next time).

Ask open ended questions to guide them toward positive self-discovery. This is huge. 

If you do go into detail on some of the negatives, go easy. Mistakes are how we learn and grow - athletes shouldn’t be afraid to make them or feel ashamed if they do, yet this is something that becomes ingrained early on. Help them reframe the way they view mistakes and you will have a completely different athlete.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes. 

Want more info on the self-reflection work I do with athletes? Please reach out! You can reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also follow me on IG at Danielle_PeakPerformance or on FB under Peak Performance Training