Helping Players Cope After Selections

Once a selection process has been completed when selecting a team, then comes the task of informing those players both-

- Non-selected
- Selected.

The players that have been selected, they are obviously far easier to have a conversation with than those non-selected players. At the end of the day the selection process is never easy and I have always found the letting people no of the outcome the hardest part. The selected players are obviously over the moon, and the delighted, but for every selected player there is also going to someone disappointed, and the breaking of that news is never easy.

So how do I do, well I have over the years developed my own unique style in doing this, and approach that in the most part seems to work. I do this in two parts-

1. Phone call: I call each player both selected and non selected to let them know of the outcome, and provide some constructive feed-back in the conversation.

2. Letter: I follow up the phone call with a letter, giving them information on the future going forward, some further constructive feed-back etc.

Now for the most part this approach work, however you will always get someone that is not completely happy, that they missed out and they will often then take this disappointment and point it in your general direction for a while. As a coach I expect that, that is part of the normal cut and thrust of what we do as coaches. Eventually over time and distance from the decision those players gradually see the truth and gradually accept that perhaps what was said was correct at the time, and move forward, and those that don't well in most cases they end up fading into insignificance.

I think the biggest thing as a Coach, you must remember is that you need to as much as possible try to help those who have be unsuccessful to understand why, and also to keep the feet on the ground of those that have been selected, reminding them that, you can quickly go from being in a team to being out of it.

Ric Charlesworth has a great quote which I think sums it up perfectly, " You have to comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable." Thats it in a but shell.