You’ve made it to finals! For those of us who have been around netball for a long time, we all know how elusive finals victories can be. Congratulations and what an exciting time it is for a coach.
Coaching players – regardless of their age – through finals is as challenging as it is rewarding. What makes finals coaching so challenging ?
Realistically, the difference a coach can make on the outcome of a final once the game starts is minimal. You might make decisions based on what is unfolding in the games, but the reality is your players are in the box seat and as much as we coaches want to – we can’t play the game for them.
This is why preparing you, your team and your parents (yes they absolutely have a role) for finals is THE MOST important thing you can do.
So, let’s talk about why your preparation needs to start early.
The pressure! Playing and coaching finals immediately brings an atmosphere of pressure to your playing group and you as a coach. Some of it is generated from outside influences (parents, friends, stuff you might read online) and some of it comes from your players or your own beliefs.
We have coached seasoned players who have crumbled under the weight and expectation of winning finals games. Players who have stood up for you all season on the court suddenly can’t touch the ball without making a mistake or looking like a shadow of themselves. Shooters who have shot with 90%+ accuracy all season get a case of the ‘yips’ and start sending air balls over the ring. They have over thought the game to within an inch of its life and they are in the trenches, unable to dig themselves out.
Equally we have seen coaches who fold to the pressure of getting a grand final win. We’ve been there too. You get so focused on the outcome that when things don’t go the way you expected on the court, you enter a vortex of decision freeze. You’ve probably seen it. As a coach, you may have felt it. It feels a bit like an out of body experience where you can see what is happening but you can’t seem to find the right decision to make.
Finals excitement and all the noise that comes with it. Finals fever is a real affliction. The excitement of playing in finals builds and can often spill over on the day. Players get to the courts early. They are hyped. They have friends and family around them who hype them further. And whilst that generates an amazing vibe, it also burns a lot of energy. Sometimes, it burns so much energy that players can then be exhausted before they even take the court.
And then there is the parent noise. Yep…we said it. Parent. Noise. Both figurative noise and literal. Parents are excited. They get to watch their kid play a grand final. Quite possibly they never got to play one themselves. So not only are you dealing with your nerves and expectations, and your players nerves and expectations, you have the weight of your parent expectations on your shoulders too. And that can feel very heavy and very loud!
Add to that the actual noise. We have coached grand finals where the court has been lined with parents, family and friends yelling instructions and not always constructive feedback to players. The noise from the crowds during finals can become so disruptive that players can’t hear the umpires or their own team mates. And when you have a group of players who are in a hole and struggling, that noise – especially the instructions or feedback from a parent – can be the thing that buries them.
That covers the why. It can be a lot. But there is a way to navigate yourself, your players and your parents successfully through it.
At Netball Revolution, we break our preparation into four key areas:
1. Physical preparation
2. Psychological preparation
3. Preparing your parents
4. Coach preparation
Physical prep
A common mistake coaches make is starting their finals preparation after their final round game. They have one week – most likely one training session – to prepare their teams. Good finals preparation needs to start early. At Netball Revolution we don’t like to use the term ‘practice makes perfect’. Instead, we use the term ‘performance practice’. We want our athletes to train with the intensity they need to bring in the big games. You can’t teach that over one training session. Ideally, every time you are training, you should be instilling that mindset but at the very least, it needs to start now when you have 4-5 weeks of round games left.
So what does that actually look like ?
Disciplined training – focus. We often see coaches who let their teams run wild. Those players are having a ball in their training sessions but are they training with a performance mindset or indeed learning anything ? Don’t get us wrong, we love to bring the vibe in our training sessions, however we do it in a way that doesn’t detract from why we are there.
Reinforce roles. One of the things that makes a team successful is when every player on the team knows and understands their role in the team. Preparing for finals is a great time to reinforce to each and every player what their role is and how/when they need to carry out that role. A player who walks onto the court with a strong understanding of the role they need to play is one who walks on the court with the confidence to excel.
Find strong competition to train against. Leading into finals is the time to start to stretch your team. Work within your club or within your netball community to find a team that is stronger – in a higher division or slightly older – to give your players a chance to extend their skills.
Rehearse your warm up routine. Your team warm up sets the tone for how your team is going to take the court. You want your warm up to be 10/10 so your players take the court with the mindset they are ready. To do this, you need to train your warm up routine. There are lots of different ways to do this but the simplest is to use your game warm up routine as your training warm up. Your players will be so confident in their warm up they will be able to execute it seamlessly. Don’t underestimate the calming effect that can have on a nervous player.
Set plays and court structures. If you haven’t already started, its getting a bit close to the wire. You want your players to go into finals feeling 100% confident in their set plays and structure of play down the court. These are the things that can help to focus a team in the heat of the moment. If you have your established set plays, reinforce them during the lead up to finals.
The badged umpire effect. We have seen lots of teams go into finals feeling confident only to be brought undone by a high penalty and infringement rate. A lot of associations have mixed experience umpires during round games and this can sometimes mean not all infringements are identified. Then, come finals when all umpires are badged and experienced, those players are then highly penalised. As a coach, you can help your players adjust to this by making sure your players are corrected for any and all infringements. If they step, help them to understand how and why they stepped and what to do to rectify. If they are heavily contacting or obstructing, teach your players to understand how and why, and what they can do to change that.
Psychological preparation
Two types of players usually stand out during finals. One is the player who can’t overcome the nerves or the negative self talk and they cannot rise to the occasion. The other are the ones who have a clutch mindset. They are the players who thrive in a big game. Nothing phases them and they are usually the players who change the game for you.
Some coaches will tell you that you can’t train a clutch player. That may be true in some cases – but with the right approach, a coach can create an environment where every player can find that mindset.
Strong preparation. Reinforcing to your team that they are prepared and ready is an essential part of building a strong mindset for finals. Be vocal with them (and their parents) on why they are ready.
Help your players to understand their circle of control. Every coach should spend some time reinforcing to their players what they can and cant control in a game. The circle of control in the diagram below is a good way to represent this to your players. The circle of control is split into three layers.
1. A very small inner circle of the things we can control. In reality, we can control very little on the court except for how we act, what we think and how we respond.
2. A slightly larger circle of things we can influence. There are a few more things an player can influence but it is important for you to guide your players in their understanding what this means. For example, a player may be able to influence an umpires decision by making sure they stay disciplined in their play, however they have no actual control over the final decision.
3. The biggest circle with all of the things your player has no control over. This is where most things sit. Teaching your players not to focus on the things they have no control over is an important step in preparing them for finals.
Don’t focus on the errors. It is easy as a coach to fall into the trap of talking to your players on the court or during breaks about the mistakes they made. Players also develop the habit of remunerating over a bad pass or an infringement. Every single person on the court (and you as the coach) will make at least one mistake during your games. Players who develop a clutch mindset are the players who don’t focus on the mistake, rather they focus quickly on the job they have to do. As the coach, you can help them do this by reinforcing before games that mistakes don’t matter – what matters is how they respond as a player, and how they show up as a team mate to build confidence when a mistake has been made. To bring it back to the circle of control – they can control how they respond to a mistake and choosing to brush it off and move on quickly is what sets those big game players apart from the rest.
Positive Self talk. This is not everyone’s bag; however being able to navigate the type of self talk your players engage in is an important part of the picture in making sure your players are mentally prepared. Most players – especially teenagers – have moments where negative self talk takes over. You have probably experienced it yourself. It might sound a bit like ‘I’m not good enough’…. ‘I’m the weak link on the team’….. ‘ I can’t beat my GD, she is too good’…… and even ‘we can’t win this game’. The negative self talk will creep in when their confidence is low and without strategies in place to overcome it, it can become the thing that ruins a players game.
When your player is in that negative self talk spiral, help them to reframe their thoughts with a positive reflection. If they are thinking ‘I’m not good enough’, help them to reframe that thought into something like ‘I have done all my preparation, I know my role and I am ready’. If their thought is ‘I don’t think we can win’, reframe this with ‘we will only focus on the things we can control and do those things to the best of our ability’.
Team spirit. Will your players show up for each other? Will they pick each other up when things go wrong ? Lean into your team developing that relationship where they play for each other. If your team stands together before they take the court to focus themselves on each other – they have the winning formula. Whether the end result is a win or not, a team that shows up for each other regardless of the result is the team you want to coach.
Parent preparation
Preparing your parents for finals is probably the part that most coaches overlook; however given the influence your parent can have on how your players turn up for their final (physically and mentally) is significant, it is a very important part of your preparation puzzle.
Communicate early with your parents so there is no opportunity for confusion in the heat of the moment. Things you need to be clear on:
· Finals court time. This will be determined by your club or association policies but make sure parents know what this looks like.
· Set the parameters you want to see for sideline support.
· Guide them on how you want them to help their players prepare. Think about things like
o Sleep and diet the day/night before
o Keeping them calm on game day
o Regulating the sugar intake to when they need it the most
o The types of things you want your parents to offer in terms of encouragement – help them to lean in to the positive and reinforce they should not be coaching from the sideline.
Talk to your parents about sideline noise and how distracting it can become to the players. Parents who know their role and have a job to do (in this case keeping the sideline noise positive) will be in your corner.
That being said, choose your scorers and timekeepers wisely. Whilst you may have had parents fill this role throughout the season, sometimes the stress and tension of a final can distract them from the task at hand. If you have the ability, find a scorer and/or time keeper who may not be directly connected to your team. AND especially find someone who knows and is confident with the finals process. We have seen teams who have lost finals because scorers or timekeepers have been distracted by the game.
Coach preparation
So whilst you spend time on preparing your players and parents, it is easy to forget the preparation you need to do in order to make sure you feel as prepared as you can be. Every coaches list will be different, but the things below are those that we know from experience are the ones you need to nail.
Know your opposition. Plan and/or research for the opposition you are playing. What do you know about them as a team ? What are their team tactics and likely combinations ? And who plays best against each player ? As the coach, you need to have a deep understanding of what you may come up against so you can plan your training sessions and your game plan accordingly.
Know your options before finals. By now, you should know what combinations work in different scenarios. Be clear in your head what combinations or changes you may need to make under those scenarios. For example – what happens if one of your shooters gets the yips ? If your mid court is not firing, what changes can you make ? If your opposition changes from a holding shooter to a moving shooter, what changes do you need to make in your defence end.
Take the risk. One of the biggest errors a coach can make during finals is to play it safe. If something isn’t working, you need to be ready to take a few risks. Trust yourself. You know your team and your players best. If your changes don’t work – that’s ok. It is, after all, just a game.
Consider the weather. For those playing outdoor finals, weather can be a massive factor. Of the last three outdoor finals we have coached, one was in torrential rain (coming in sideways) and the other was in summer-like hot conditions. Do you know how your team might need to adjust in wet conditions ? It can become a completely different game. Players who rely on their speed to lose their opposition can struggle. Goals can skim over a wet ring and balls that would have been easily caught are dropped regularly. And then what if it isn’t raining but it is extremely hot ? Player hydration and aerobic fitness can come into play. Heat coming off the court can cause blisters. You may need to rotate your players more readily to keep legs fresh on the court. In one extremely hot grand final recently, we had parents bring an esky with small bags of ice for players to use to cool down when they were on the bench or during breaks. Whilst we couldn’t change the actual temperature, we could help the players to cope with the hot conditions.
The journey to finals for each of you will be defined by the thoroughness of preparation. Coaches must blend strategic planning with motivational leadership and exceptional preparation to help guide their teams effectively. It is a complex web but with the right approach to planning can turn potential into performance and finals aspirations from dreams to reality.
Good luck to each of you and we can’t wait to hear how you all went.
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