Reflective Coaching

How To Review Your Own Session

Ten honest minutes after training that will improve you faster than any course.

4 min read Developing coach All ages
Reflection
Self Awareness
Session Flow

Why this matters

Experience only improves you when you examine it. Ten sessions reviewed beat fifty delivered on autopilot.

The common problem

Coaches finish, pack the cones away and think 'that went alright'. The same three problems repeat all season because nobody ever named them.

Try this instead

  • Review in the car, before you get home, while it's fresh.
  • Answer three questions only: what worked, what didn't, what changes next week.
  • Judge against your session objective, not against how much fun it looked.
  • Note one player you helped and one you missed.
  • Write it down somewhere you'll actually read it again.

On the pitch

Objective: 'players receive on the half turn.' Review: 'happened often in the rondo, disappeared in the game — the pitch was too tight to turn into. Next week, wider game.'

Questions to ask

  • Did the session achieve its objective?
  • What would I change first if I ran it again?
  • Who did I miss tonight?

Your coaching challenge

Review three consecutive sessions in writing and look for a repeating theme.

Reflect afterwards

What pattern did you notice in your own coaching across those three sessions?

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