Anonymous[b wrote:]I always turned the question around - "how do YOU think you played?"[/b] Through the conversation, I encourage player to identify things he did well, and things to work on. If there's something I really want to say, I try to work it into the child's discussion often by getting him to identify it - what about X? or Tell me what was happening leading up to X, I couldn't see well. Or, X seemed like a tough situation - if you could do it over again, what would you do differently. At first, my son resisted this approach and said he wanted to know what I think. I'd always push back and say I can't always see what's going on on the field, don't know as much about X position. Also, when he was younger, I'd try to say something really generic that was positive to encourage him to speak - "I had a great time watching you. What do you think about the game/how you played?" After a couple of years, my son usually initiates this conversation now by starting with identifying the good or bad, but sometimes he starts with a particular situation.
+1 to all of this, I was going to reply with the bolded exactly.