Any post game speech (or any speech, for that matter) that takes longer than 3 minutes is worthless. Players are only thinking about going home, eating, or whatever, and are not paying attention. If there is anything worth saying, it's best to leave it for practice. Long post game speeches might be the least important thing for a coach to do.
The post-game speech
- Thread starter CoachJD
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Any coach that doesn't want parents to know everything he/she tells the players is a bad coach. A good coach is confident that what is being said and done is in the best interests of the players and should want the parents to know everything so they can reinforce what the coach is saying, or so they can ask questions and understand the coach's methods (or go elsewhere when they can't agree).
The problem with too many coaches is that they don't know what is useful and what is not, so they talk about everything under the sun. If your list of useful items is longer than 3 items, it's too long. If you talk about any of those items for more than 2 minutes, you are taking too long. Post game speeches have little value beyond, as you said, throwing out a few compliments, and telling the players the time and place of the next game/practice.
- May 17, 2012
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My post game speech is all about the next game. "We are on Diamond X at 4:00 PM. Be back at 3:00 PM to get loose. Sally is starting pitcher and Suzy is starting catcher." Break it down with team chant.
Done in less than 2 minutes and I never talk about the previous game win or lose.
I remember DD's first year at 12u playing against thier local rivalry team and promising the girls I'd buy them all shakes at the end of the day if they won. They won but lost the second game. After the second game the coach went on a tirade and said he was having open tryouts next week because six of the girls weren't playing well enough and would be cut. I asked my wife so which six girls get shakes and which six girls don't?
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Pre-game talks are also worthless if they take more than a minute or two. At most, after giving the lineup, remind them of a couple of things that have been worked on in practice. If you are trying to teach in pre or post game speeches, you are wasting everyone's time. And motivational speeches last about as long as it takes for the players to take their positions on the field, regardless of what you see in the movies. I've sat through the speeches of high priced motivational speakers in my work and sports career and their messages, while entertaining, don't last much longer than that for 99% of the audience. No reason to think that a youth sports coach can do any better.
That makes sense. If you are incapable of coaching your team, try to recruit your way to mediocrity. All 12 girls should find a new place to play if that is the way it's going to work.
Ed Serdar used to say, "Why have a post-game speech? The whole teams knows what happened. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. Too bad, too bad. Tell them you'll see them next game/practice/season, and then leave."
I remember when my DD first year in college. My DD had pitched (and lost) the final game at the NJCAA world series. I walked up to the outfield fence. Her coaches were giving long winded post-game speech. My DD had her head down looking at the grass. She saw me walk over. She raised her head, grinned, winked at me, and then went back to staring at the grass.
I remember when my DD first year in college. My DD had pitched (and lost) the final game at the NJCAA world series. I walked up to the outfield fence. Her coaches were giving long winded post-game speech. My DD had her head down looking at the grass. She saw me walk over. She raised her head, grinned, winked at me, and then went back to staring at the grass.
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