Providing Student-Athlete Feedback with Player Development Card

People probably remember bringing home progress reports in math, science, social studies and language arts. While these academic progress reports are likely digital now rather than the paper copy sent home in a backpack, their importance remains.

Athletic and activity programs are an extension of the school day. How are we communicating to our student-athletes, parents and/or guardians about this impactful part of the school day and what is education-based athletics?

As athletic administrators, we can use the progress report concept to supply valuable feedback for these programs after the last class bell rings.

The Player Development Card
Student-athletes need feedback from coaches just like teachers provide feedback in their academic classes. If we want our future leaders to have a growth mindset, we must implement the process of the growth mindset as early as possible. Student-athletes want to perform at the highest level but many wonder how to get there.

The Player Development Card gives them a roadmap. The front of the card is divided into two columns: “Strengths” and “Areas for Growth”. The parameters of the card are based on grades, behavior and sport-specific skills. There must be a 2:1 ratio of “Strengths” to “Areas of Growth”. Coaches complete a Player Development Card at the beginning, middle and conclusion of each season for each student-athlete. Coaches then conduct one-on-one meetings with each student-athlete to review their Player Development Cards.

Student-athletes and coaches can celebrate the “Strengths” that have been provided but also have honest, one-on-one conversations on how to improve in some of the areas based on coach’s observations in practice. Discussing “Areas of Growth” may be difficult conversations, but they are important to have with the student- athlete.

We can all grow and improve each day. With Player Development Cards, coaches can be as broad or as specific as needed based on their student-athletes. For example, one coach may suggest working on dribbling with the left hand while on another student-athlete’s card they may suggest to work on helping defense when there is a screen.

After the “Areas of Growth” section has been filled out by the coach, the student-athletes will reflect and write down steps to implement changes to meet their goals for “Areas of Growth” on the back their Player Development Card.

The student-athlete is not the only one who can offer reflections about the Player Development Card; coaches can be reflective as well. After completing the meetings with student-athletes, coaches can determine if a particular trend on the “Areas of Growth” side with student-athletes is consistent and how as a coach they can help the team improve in those sports’ specific deficits. This reflection may determine a team’s needs based on the feedback that has been provided. A coach may need to re-teach sport skills or work with some groups with drills to improve performance.

After the one-on-one meetings with the student-athletes and their coach have occurred, the students should share their Player Development Cards with their parents/guardians. By doing so, each family/support system will be better educated on how to support their student-athlete to grow in those “Areas of Growth”. This process for parents/guardians provides honest feedback on how someone views their student-athlete and how they can best identify ways to support them in their growth.

Most often, education-based athletic practices are closed to parents/guardians. With this Player Development Card, the partnership between the student-athlete, coach, and parent/guardians cites an individualized assessment for each student-athlete just like and individualized academic assessment over a particular content.

The Player Development Card can impact our student-athletes ability in their sport and in the classroom. Seeing a student’s grades and behavior improve because a coach sat down to have a one-on-one conversation about their skills and development shows the student-athlete that they care about their sense of well-being, belonging and engagement. The Player Development Card can instill confidence in the areas of the student-athletes’ strengths and prepares them on how to effectively handle constructive feedback about their performance from a leader of an organization.

These conversations serve as a valuable learning tool to help them develop skills they can apply not just in the classroom, but also in everyday life as they will likely receive feedback from coaches, educators and future employers fostering their ability to identify areas of future growth and receive constructive feedback in a positive way. As Billy Graham once said, “A coach will impact more people in one year than the average person will in an entire lifetime.” The Player Development Card is a tool to deepen that impact!

Patrick Miller, CMAA, is the assistant athletic director of Northeast Middle School in Clarksville, Tennessee.