Eval – Debriefing

This from Kate Armstrong…: in thinking about the results of a game most of them fall into one of 4 categories.  1) Won and played well.  2) Won but played poorly.  3) Lost and played well.  4) Lost and played poorly.  Given the above four conditions, is there a constructive method when de-briefing a team so players will utilize the just-ended contest as a learning experience?

In our collective experience we find that after a few days of reflection it is valuable to revisit the race(s) now that the raw emotion is somewhat tempered by time. Perhaps we offer each swimmer the opportunity to rate their previous swim(s) as follows:

Give yourself a:

1 if you swam fast and constructed your race properly

2 if you swam slower than anticipated but still constructed your race correctly

3 if you swam fast but didn’t construct the swim properly

4 if you swam slower than wanted and put the race together incorrectly

The lower your score the more positive your performance. We think this achieves two important objectives.

First it takes the “higher the score the better the swim” factor out of the mix. And secondly it takes the “I didn’t do a best time” syndrome and eliminates it.

Face it, the more honest the evaluation BY THE ATHLETE the more valuable it is. This process also reinforces the “good race” versus the “fast race” notion. After all, the closer you get to your own personal zero the more unlikely it is that you will record a best time. Yet you can still have an enormously successful race.

We trade success for best times regularly…really simple: we are in the success business.