Reflect on your year of coaching

As coaches, we are encouraged to reflect regularly.

After each session we run, we should think about how it went – both in terms of what worked and what could have gone better. 

It is a chance to think not only about our players but also about ourselves and our coaching.

Rarely, though, do we get the opportunity to reflect on a grander scale, unless we carve out deliberate time to do so. And who has time to do that amid a busy schedule?

Over the course of a year, there are perhaps two times when it is easier to forge the space to properly reflect: the first is the off-season, when things have calmed down a little; and the second is now, the Christmas and new-year break.

So, if you are taking this time to reflect, here are some questions you might want to ask yourself. 

And remember - they are not about your players or your team, they are about you and your coaching.

Your motivations

1.  Why did you get into coaching in the first place?

2.  Why are you still in coaching now? Do these reasons differ from your original reasons?

3.  Do you still enjoy coaching?

4.  What is your favourite thing about coaching?

5.  What do you find most challenging about coaching?

You as a coach

1.  How would you describe yourself as a coach?

2.  What is your coaching style?

3.  What are your coaching values?

4.  What do you think you are good at?

5.  What areas of your coaching do you think you need to improve on?

The past year

1.  How do you think the past year has gone in terms of your coaching?

2.  How does the coach you are now differ from the coach you were at the start of the year?

3.  What have you learned this year?

4.  What has been your coaching highlight of the year?

5.  What was your most difficult coaching moment of the year?

Your future

1.  What do you want the next year of coaching to look like?

2.  What do you want the next five years of coaching to look like?

3.  What is your ultimate coaching goal?

4.  What do you think you need to keep doing to achieve your goals?

5.  What support do you need to achieve your goals?