As a coach reflects , be it through a conversation with another coach , a journal or viewing video of their practice , they may start the process of understanding the intricacies of their own coaching beyond that of initial observations of player behavior .
which they coach . As a coach reflects , be it through a conversation with another coach , a journal or viewing video of their practice , they may start the process of understanding the intricacies of their own coaching beyond that of initial observations of player behavior . This is particularly the case in sports such as soccer where coaching takes place in complex , applied , contextualized environments with each coach working with different players , facilities and supporting structures . So , for coach development activities to be effective , they should include elements of introspection ( Lyle & Cushion , 2017 ) and contextualization .
Consequently , the process of self-reflection can allow a coach to think more critically about their practice and not just the practice . As such , it is becoming increasingly common for coach education programs to introduce soccer coaches to the concept of self-reflection . Despite the importance of engaging in reflective practices , it has been highlighted that many activities labelled as reflective practice by coaches are often , in fact , non-critical and non-reflection descriptions ( Cushion & Nelson , 2013 ) of practice and match environments . Often , coaches are masking tasks as reflection when in fact the coaches are simply evaluating if a sessions structure was successful in allowing the players to meet the learning outcome . While asking such questions as “ Was the size of the area I used for the skill section suitable ?” or “ Did I have enough equipment for the shooting drill ?” may offer a coach some insight into the coaching session and may be of value if the session was to be run again , such questions are effectively only offering a coach the chance to superficially reflect .
Subsequently , coaches may perceive that they are engaging in reflection to develop their personal coaching practice and may believe they are effectively using reflection to understand what they do , when in fact they are describing their perception of what happened in a coaching session or match . Even those coaches who are using reflective questions to structure their thoughts ( e . g ., “ In what ways was I effective in communicating to the players ?” or “ How did I embed my coaching philosophy within the training session ?”) may not be carrying out truly successful coach development methods . This is particularly so given that a coach ’ s ability to accurately recall key events within matches and their own coaching behaviors in training sessions is limited ( Partington & Cushion , 2013 ). So , while coaches may , with many a good intention , spend valuable time completing so-called reflective activities and overviewing their practice , coaches keen to develop and improve should perhaps move their gaze away from the isolated activities using pen and paper to review and evaluate what was done in a coaching session . Instead , coaches should look to transition to a more effective method of reflection which can offer real insight into their coaching practice beyond that of their own perspective and memories .
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