Game Evaluation

One way to quickly evaluate your game is to look at your possessions - did they result in a shot on goal? A successful pass to a teammate?

If you lost the ball most of the time you gained possession, take a look at your foot skills. Are you creating time and space for yourself? How about your passing? Are your passes off-target from your teammates? Or perhaps your field vision is lacking and you can't find your teammates?

This is a limited way of looking at your game since it doesn't take into consideration your support of the ball and other important factors, but it may point our some basic deficiencies in your game.

The Four Legs

Imagine a chair with four legs. When all four legs are the same length the chair is solid and stable. Shorten any leg and the chair becomes weaker. This analogy is similar to the four characteristics that we use to evaluate soccer players, a weakness in one area results in a weaker player. Ideally you want to be strong and equal in all four areas of evaluation; technical, tactical, physical and psychological.

These four areas of evaluation are not exclusive to LKSC. Most high school, college and professional coaches use this same criteria. It's important that you understand each of these four areas of evaluation.

Technical: These are usually skills with the ball such as passing, dribbling, shooting, heading, foot skills, and goal keeper skills.

Tactical: These are skills with and without the ball. Field vision, support, penetrating runs, finding open space, and marking are just a few of the skills to consider.

Physical: Think about your speed and quickness. Speed is how fast you can sprint, quickness is how fast you react. Agility and strength are also considerations.

Psychological: Are you aggressive enough? Too much? Do you want to come to practice? Do you want to learn more about the game? Can you control your emotions on the field? Do you have a positive attitude and confidence in your abilities?

Here is a sample form completed by a coach for a player. Note that under each topic only two to five items are listed...any more and it can cause confusion and gives you too many things to focus on.

Keep in mind that even professional players have things to work on. Also, don't forget to list your strengths as well. Sometimes a weakness may fall under two categories, such as weak foot skills but the player lacks the motivation to work on them (technical and psychological).

If you would like an evaluation by your coach make sure that you complete a blank evaluation form on yourself first. Players that go through a self-evaluation and then sit down with a coach to discuss their evaluation usually show significant improvement. Ideally these evaluations are done during the indoor season when your coach is not as busy and there is a place to sit down and discuss it - but if you feel the need an evaluation can be done at any time. On occassion, a coach may want to sit down with every member of the team or just certain members and go through an evaluation. If you are picked for an evaluation but other teammates are not - don't freak out! It may be that your coach recognizes an area where you show a lot more potential and he/she wants to help you improve.

Watching a game

An interesting way of evaluating a "team" is to look at any loss of possession to see if it is due to a technical reason or a tactical reason.

Technical reasons for losing possession may be poor passing or shooting and weak footskills.

Tactical loss of possession may be the result of a player not running into an open area where a pass was made. It could also be lack of support for the player with the ball.

Don't be fooled, sometimes what appears to be technical may be tactical. For example, when a player dribbles into two or three opponents and loses the ball it may appear to be a "technical" weakness, but taking on two or three players may be considered a tactical error when there were better choices for the player to make.