Importance of a Mid-Season Athlete Evaluation
We can all agree that a well-executed athletic performance evaluation sets the tone for the year. As athletes are evaluated across a range of skills, coaches can gather valuable data to assign players to the most appropriate positions and teams. After an evaluation, players can gain a better understanding of their strengths and identify areas that need a little more improvement.
With sports evaluations being such an important piece of the coaching puzzle, mid-season athlete evaluations should not be overlooked. As more evaluations are conducted throughout the season, athletes will continue to grow physically & mentally, coaches will get better at communicating feedback, and parents will be more satisfied since they are routinely updated on their child's progress.
What Are The Benefits of a Mid-Season Athlete Evaluation?
1. Athletes are provided with frequent feedback
The hockey season runs from October–April, the soccer season runs from April–November, and the softball season runs from April–October. The common denominator between these three sports? They all typically last between 6 to 7 months.
Now imagine if an athlete only got evaluated at the beginning of the season and then (maybe) again at the end of the season. This diminishes the opportunity for athletes to receive feedback throughout the season, work on any areas of weakness, and then see improvements.
With performance evaluations being conducted mid-season, this acts as a halfway check-in point. Suppose you are a coach of a soccer team who is giving feedback to a midfielder. You might have asked the athlete at the beginning of the season to work on their passing and possession of the ball. With a mid-season evaluation, you now have a chance to evaluate those skills again and provide the athlete with additional feedback on what they can work on for the rest of the season. This includes tips for how they can improve their footwork for better passing and how they can maximize their use of space for better possession of the ball.
Athlete performance evaluations in SkillShark. Coaches can not only input specific scores during a mid-season evaluation, but they can also add any additional comments to help that player succeed.
2. Athlete-Coach communication is improved
Coaches are focused on setting team goals, ensuring practices run smoothly, and preparing their team for each tournament. What can sometimes get lost in this mix of these important responsibilities is communicating feedback with athletes.
Aside from the brief verbal feedback coaches provide to athletes during practice, such as "keep your eye on the ball while you swing through" or "concentrate on your hard pushes to get more power on the ice," athletes aren't always getting the most comprehensive feedback.
With mid-season evaluations, coaches can take an allotted (and equal) amount of time to provide detailed feedback to each athlete. Single or subjective scores can be provided, comments can be added, and videos can be attached (showing an athlete how they are performing on a skill they are being evaluated on). This mix of scores, comments, and videos on an evaluation report helps coaches improve their level of communication with athletes.
3. Parents can understand their child's progress
It is no secret that parents love feedback. Often, the season gets busy, and coaches do not always have the time to give in-person feedback to each athlete's parent. By assessing each athlete individually and identifying their strengths and weaknesses, coaches will be able to provide parents with a better understanding of their child's development halfway through the season.
Wrapping Up
A mid-season evaluation provides athletes with a chance to get detailed feedback from their coaches halfway through the season, enables coaches to communicate with athletes more frequently, and provides parents with a better understanding of their child's progression.
Customer Testimonials
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Gary Banerd
Head Coach
Andrew Muir
Head Coach - Water Polo Canada
Justin Trout
Event Manager - Hype Nation - Showtime Events - Level 12 Sports
Justin Dee
High Performance Director (Delta Region of USA Volleyball), Head Volleyball Coach (Belhaven University)
Frank Gilford
Owner/Director
Tyler Stahl
Notre Dame Academy
FAQ — Mid-Season Athlete Evaluations
Sports evaluations track an athlete’s progress over time, looking at all areas of their performance. Athletes can develop a solid understanding of what skills they excel at and what areas they need to work on to become a stronger player.
As a sports season progresses, so do an athlete’s capabilities. Therefore, coaches should keep up with an athlete's evolution by providing frequent feedback on their achievements and areas for development.
As many sports seasons typically run between 6-7 months, athletes often only get evaluated at the beginning of the season (and maybe at the end of the season). This large gap between evaluations leaves athletes with a lack of direction, feeling confused on what they excel at or what they should focus on improving.
• Define evaluation criteria. I.e., What skills will you evaluate.
• Collect data through single and subjective scores.
• Add comments alongside a score to highlight areas for growth.
• Provide resources athletes can refer to for improving a skill (such as videos or PDFs) .
Looking for a software that can help you put together a detailed athlete evaluation with ease? SkillShark’s athlete reporting can help!
With evaluations, athletes will go into a season knowing exactly what skills they excel at and what skills they need to work on. This information shapes their focus, attitude, and humility during practices.
Parents are spending a significant amount of money to enroll their child in sports. Therefore, they want to ensure their child is getting the most out of a sports season, which includes prompt and detailed feedback through athlete evaluations.
Using volleyball as an example, an evaluation will measure the following skills:
• Hitting- measured by accuracy, power, and attack.
• Fitness- measured by sprint, endurance, explosiveness, and strength.
• Blocking- measured by footwork, leverage block, and transitions.
• Serving- measured by jump float, jump top, and stand float.
Elanne Krainyk
Elanne is SkillShark’s marketing aficionado who is equal parts passionate about sports, marketing and sports marketing. She can usually be found with a golf ball or three in her purse, and her favorite way to spend downtime is out on the course with friends and family.
