Ultimately, all seasons come to an end.  There is only one winner per sport.  Once the reality sets in for 99% of you that you came up short, it is time to assess how the season went and what you need to work on to be better next season.

How do you go about doing that?

Here’s a checklist of items you can go review.  Answer these questions and look at these statements appropriately to determine what you need to work on this off-season.  These are in no particular order, but take care in looking through this list:

  • Did you have goals this previous season individually and were they accomplished? Everyone should have some goal.  If you didn’t have goals then how are you going to know if the season was a success or not.  Write the goals down as well.  If you can’t look at them daily, these are just dreams.
  • How much fun did you have this season? Do you still enjoy playing this sport?  Do you still want to be as good as possible for this sport?  If not, we can skip this whole list because it won’t matter to you if you make the team or not.  Maybe look at a rec team next season.
  • Did you make the team that you desired?
  • Did you get the playing time that you were looking for?
  • What was your role on the team and did you do it as well as you could have to help your team accomplish the team goal? This shouldn’t be as difficult as it sounds.  If you are a goalie on a team, does improving top end speed really matter?  Analyze, your role and its requirements and how proficient you are for those requirements.
  • What was your personal highlight of the season? Examine what this highlight was and how you can duplicate more times next season.
  • What was your personal low of the season and how could it have been prevented? For this question, the answer must be a reflection of what you could have done better not an external factor that lays blame elsewhere.  E. “if it hadn’t been raining I would have done better” that’s not what we want to see.  How could you have prepared better to perform in the rain?
  • Based on the above answers, what would your goals be for next year? Rank them of importance to you.
  • You play a sport so the ways you are going to get better would be to improve your athleticism and improve your skill at the sport. Rank these in order as what is your more pressing need and how you will achieve these items.
  • How can you put yourself in the best position possible to achieve those goals? By answering the above statement and questions, you should be able to figure out what areas you need to work on, how much time needs to be dedicated to work on this, and re-arranging your priorities to get this done.
  • Now answer, how you will feel if you do NOT accomplish those goals? If you feel you would be completely fine with that, then maybe you need to re-think the goals in the first place.

If there was any whining about playing time or how your season ended up, you need to answer all these questions.  If you don’t do anything between now and next season, you are not allowed to whine anymore.  You have chosen your path so accept it.

Eliminate the excuses.  Form an action plan from the questions above and do what you need to do for to be better next season.