The Mid-Season Evaluation

Evaluation is always an important part to the success of a program.  Your team will miss out on opportunities to improve down the line if you don't learn to evaluate successes and mistakes each season.  This is true for any sport, not just cross country and track and field.  See what workouts worked, what motivation techniques got the kids excited, and what you might think would be a more efficient use of time.  Here is a short list of items to consider when evaluating the season:

1) Are you on the path to meet your goals?  Compared to where you want to be in a month, are you close to being in a position to reach them, or have you already reached some of your goals and need to establish new ones?

2) Is there a workout or day of the week where your team struggles to accomplish the necessary training?  Can you shift that day to another one in the week, or change how you implement a workout to make it more effective?

3) Is the team buying into the season plan or are you struggling with connecting the training and the vision of the team?  Is there a way to get the athletes to better understand the connection between their effort and their goals?

4) Have you received the support you were expecting or do you need to challenge your parents/coaches to make a bigger impact on the team?

These are all items that you can work on correcting within the course of a season, even if they are a bit difficult.  These are the "half-time" adjustments of a season and be important to getting back on track or staying the course.

Remember the SMART goals!