Have you set your coaching goals for this ODP year? Have you asked your players to set their goals? Do you know what your player’s goals are? If your answer to any of these questions is no, now is the time to start your goal setting.
In setting goals there are a number of things you should keep in mind. Goals should be realistic, controllable and measurable.
“I want all my players to make the regional pool”, is an unrealistic goal. It is a goal set too high, that you have limited control over.
“I want all the players who made it on the regional pool last year to make it again this year”. This too may be unrealistic if the numbers kept on this year’s team are lower than the previous year. So a more realistic goal may be, “My state, at this age group, makes up 15% of the ODP players in Region 1, therefore I am going to try to develop my players to form 15% of the regional pool. Now you can’t control the selection process but you can control the training environment. Therefore the best way to get your players to the level of regional pool players may be to make the top ones practice with the age group above, at the state level. Good quality technical training will make a difference, as all the players at the regional level are excellent athletes. This goal is easily measurable, by seeing what percentage of the regional pool is from your team.
But there is more to ODP than making the regional pool. The purpose of ODP is to develop all the players who participate in it. This is certainly the object of regional camp.
Therefore another goal could be to make the camp experience the best it can be for your players. How can you control this? By giving them the best possible preparation. Make sure your players are fit enough to train and play every day for a week. It will be a miserable experience if a player pulls a muscle on day one and has to be a spectator for the rest of the week Give them time to recover from injury before they attend camp. If the players are mixed up for training and games at camp, maybe you can prepare them for this by mixing your team with another from your state at practice. If you have a number of players who have never been away from home without their parents, perhaps you could arrange an overnight trip, without parents, to play another team to prepare them for the experience. You can measure the results of this by observing your players performance at camp, by their camp evaluations and by their own testimony of the camp experience.
Maybe your goal is to get as many of your players to tryout next year as possible. You have some control over this by the standard of your training sessions. Are you offering a level of expertise, stimulation and fun that they don’t get elsewhere? How many attend tryouts next year is a measure of you success.
Finally ask your players what they hope to achieve from their ODP experience, and help them to set their own goals. You will be surprised at the responses you get. If you can help the players set and achieve their own goals, they will see the experience as a very positive one and not only will they return to ODP but they might bring a friend or two.