Football (Possession): Coaching Reflection UPDATED
Warm Up
The warm up was a steady warm up, with not too much
intensity, but with a few activities as to make it fun and not boring. The warm
up went well, and the participants were highly active within the warm up, which
lead well into the first drill.
The warm up was based on special awareness, ensuring the
participants had space within the square, and when reacting to a whistle task
they were able to complete with enough space and to a sufficient level. All of
the participants took part and were all active throughout and understood the
tasks clearly and there was no confusion involved.
Planning
In terms of the planning, levels of organisation were a lot
higher when planning the possession based session. This is because I had learnt
from the previous session and came to the decision that my organisation and
planning levels needed to exceed those from before. This decision ensured that
my plan was successful and that the entire organisation needed before, during
and after the session was completed. A huge advantage I had going into this
session was the fact I had delivered a similar session previously and this was
to be an improved version, so I knew what I had done wrong previously and what I
needed to improve on.
By ensuring that the plan was fail-proof it allowed me to be
a lot more comfortable with the session overall, knowing I had a solid plan behind
me and I know that every drill lead smoothly into the one that was to follow.
This in turn made the quality of the drills, the session and my delivery a lot more
professional in comparison to the first attempt.
Although there were many positives to take from the planning
of the session there is one improvement I believe could be made. The session
ran smoothly, but it was very close to being too little numbers to work, if
this was the case then the session would not have run at all as well as it did.
Making adjustments for the sizing of the group and maybe having back up drills
is something to look at in the near future.
Communication and Demonstration
As discussed above, the plan I had made myself prior to this
session was excellent. This then needed to be followed up by confident and
decisive coaching. Because we were working on a possession based theme in
football, this meant that everybody was involved majority of the time which
meant I was always directing to the group and giving coaching points to the
group and not focussing on individuals, which could also be a disadvantage that
one to one coaching wasn’t implemented.
My communication levels were good, the participants were
highly active within every drill I had delivered and seemed to understand the
tasks and constraints they were asked to be a part of. One major advantaged I
think I had which wasn’t present during the first session was my whistle. This
meant I was able to stop play and communicate with people straight away and
they would give me their attention and listen to the coaching I was delivering.
The use of the whistle also came in big use during my warm up, using the
whistle instead of shouting I believe was a huge positive, as I believe it
reduced confusion and instruction.
Throughout the coaching session I was also keen to give demonstration,
enabling the participants to see a demonstration of a task they need to perform
I believe is always an advantage for them. This meant that during the session I
was able to use verbal communication, visual communication as well as whistle communication.
I feel because of the delivery, planning and communication were
all successful that the group felt part of a well organised session that
provided clear demonstration and direction. Because they reacted well to the
drills it created a positive vibe around the group which enabled them to be
creative and really try in the session to succeed, no matter what the task in
hand.
Delivery
My delivery throughout the session I believe was very good.
The session went as planned, and it followed the planning as well I could have
hoped for. I believe the drills ran smoothly into one another and the
constraints brought about the behaviours I expected from the participants.
Coaching points to my thoughts were implemented well, and
the participants had a clear understand of the coaching points through verbal
direction, as well as visual demonstration. Both of these are important; as
some participants learn better through being told, whereas some learn better
through visual explanation.
Although my delivery was good and the coaching was solid,
there is always going to be negatives at this level. As well as I feel I
delivered the session on a whole, I believe that I could have intervened more
throughout the session. For example; during the switching play drill, I was
happy to let the play run and for them to keep going through the drill
themselves. Whereas in that drill I could have halted the drill and reinforced
coaching points, or even brought about tactics and strategies that could have
helped either the attackers or the defender. If I can incorporate the coaching
points and strategies midway through a drill and have participants implement
them this will be a huge advantage to my coaching.
Below are two videos of the final drill being implemented by the
participants, I believe these videos show that they were highly involved in the
drill and they understood the task and the constraints fully.
Creativity and Game Realistic
The session I delivered I believe throughout was very game realistic.
Within football a lot of different passes are being made, with short and long
being used. Within my drills we worked on short passes, short passes under
pressure, quick passes, pressured passes and long passes. I believe that all
passes within football were covered within this session which would make the
session game realistic. The most game-like drill would have to be drill three.
With defenders closing you down, you having to make 5 quick passes in a small
space and then switch play I believe is included heavily within a match scenario
within football. This then moved into a game like scenario where defenders,
midfielders and attackers were all separate looking for overloads, which is a
huge thing within the game.
The drills could have been seen as basic, however they were
solid and they extracted the correct behaviours from the participants which
then allowed them to be creative themselves. So in turn, the drills being
delivered as basic, but having the constraints to allow the participants to be
creative was an advantage and it gave them the freedom to try new skills,
whilst prioritising the task at hand. I feel this was a huge bonus to my
session.
The final drill and the game scenario I feel were very
creative, as they both linked into an overload feature that I had not developed
first time around. This meant that defenders were outnumbered and attackers
could also develop strategies and tactics in order to be successful. For this I
think the foundations and instructions were laid out, it then just needed
participants to be creative and use their initiative in order to be successful;
which towards the end we began to see some high level results because of that.
Within coaching there is always going to be room for
improvement. The only thing we can do as coaches, is focus on the positives we
do have, continue to implement them into our sessions, whilst also striving to
remove as many negatives as we can whilst we develop and progress.
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