Getting feedback on your session

We expect our players to accept our feedback for their own improvement.  Have you ever subjected yourself to somebody else's feedback when coaching?

This might sound crazy, but my favourite part of the coaching license process was being assessed and going through the feedback later.  The pressure of the assessor with clipboard forced you to organize the best session of your life.

I was fortunate as I've always had assessors who had constructive attitudes.  Most of my assessments went OK, but I did not pass them all and one was a complete train-wreck.  The feedback was so valuable that I always felt ready for the next progression.  To date, through all my courses I've been through 12 formal coaching assessments and several informal ones as preparation.  As a student in teachers college, I've also had many assessments in delivering classroom lessons. 

If you are at a club that has a licensed technical director or have a connection to one, ask for feedback at a level that you are comfortable with.  The more experience you have, the more confident you should be in having somebody observe one of your sessions and the more you will get out of it.

Here is a suggested process if you have a lot of experience and looking to get into the licensing process:

• Pick a topic
• Review it with your technical director/observer
• Confirm your players' attendance, equipment and location
• Deliver your session
• Review the session with your technical director and record the feedback.  Have an open mind.
• Arrange another time to be observed
• Run a few sessions without an observer, keeping the feedback in mind
• Depending on your experience level, for the next observed session, decide whether you will deliver the same session or a new one.  If you are less experienced, run the same one again.
• Review your plan with your technical director and review what could be improved from last time
• Confirm your players' attendance, equipment and location
• Deliver your session
• Receive second set of feedback.

Your technical director should be able to determine your experience level and set up a process that suits you best. Feedback could simply be asking somebody to review your plan for the night, week, month or season.  You and a peer can compare notes if that is a comfortable place to start.

Everybody can benefit from constructive feedback: player, employee, student.  Yes, even a coach.

The value of running a session as a guest coach

One of the best methods to refine your coaching technique to coach somebody else's team.

I had a good conversation with a coaching friend from Milton and it got me remembering how enjoyable it was to run sessions as a guest coach.  This past season I ran 10 sessions as a guest coach for boys and girls, over a wide age spectrum.

After being with the same group for multiple sessions/weeks/months,  you could start falling in a trap of less specific practice plans, looser themes, sloppier explanations or short cuts because the players know your methods and follow along quicker.   You always work to not get to that point, but you are human and familiarity can set in.

You want to visit a strange team, run a good practice, leave the coach with something to work with and exit the experience a little more refined than how you entered.

Running sessions for younger groups with beginner coaches really tunes you back in to reality and is a great thing for all coaches to do.  The basic of all grass roots soccer, 1 ball per player, demonstrating and teaching things again for the very first time.

Running a session for another group forces you to bring all of your coaching qualities back to square one:

• Personal appearance
• Organization/planning
• Enjoyment for players
• Explanations
• Demonstrations
• Adherence to theme of the session
• Quickly adjusting and thinking on your feet for the unexpected
• Age appropriate topics
• Knowledge of topic
• Establishing a rapport with players, quickly

If running a session makes you nervous, that is your first step in making sure you are ready to deliver the topic.  "Butterflies in your stomach" are good.

Tips to help you succeed as a guest coach:

• Review the topic with the coach and ensure it meshes with what they are doing
• Between you and the coach, confirm the suitability and availability of the field and the equipment
• Find out how many players to expect, and be ready for less or more
• Find out which 3 players can give you the best demos.  Use them first then use the others
• Do not depend on the coach to be 100% ready for you.  In fact, this is rarely the case
• No jargon, slang or inside jokes with the new group.
• Introduce yourself, where you're from, thank them for the invitation, do equipment check, tell them the goal of the session and ensure you know any and all existing injuries 
• Practice your ability to get instant feedback by reading their faces and listening to their questions, and be ready to adjust your session.
• Make and effort to learn their names.
• Have fun!
• Debrief the session, ensure everybody is OK and thank them again for inviting you

Running a guest session takes practice, but it's good therapy.  I've been doing it for 10 years and I am still cautious about all the details in advance. 

How do you become a guest coach?  Do you just "ask" to run somebody's session?  The answer is yes.  I've been asked most of the times but if I am going to a coaching course I like to prepare by being a guest coach.  In those cases, I bluntly ask.

If you are new to coaching, I would not jump into guest coaching just yet.  You have to be comfortable in your skin and trained and experienced in the art of delivering a session.  The fact is that you want to be a better coach, but you have to bring quality to the practice or your reputation as a guest coach will not be good.

Are your relationships with your stakeholders healthy?

The political end of coaching should never be ignored.

Now that it's off season you have to think back and ensure all of the relationships around your program are in order.  Your players are your number one stakeholder and always your primary concern, but reality dictates that there are other people involved who need attention.

If you neglect any of the interested parties, you're asking for trouble.  If you take the attitude that your one and only job is to coach the on-field portion, you're mistaken again.  They can't be allowed to affect your tactical/player decisions, but your actions and conduct need to be at a level that they are comfortable in their continued support of your program, with you as the coach.  On the flip side, you also need to be comfortable with their demands and conduct.

This is not about kissing anybody else's rear end.   This is about everybody making sure they are comfortable with the other parties so the on-field coaching and positive systemic support can continue uninhibited.

Examples of stakeholders other than players:

At the college/university level

• Administration
• Athletic/Recreation manager and/or Director
• Recreation Department staff 
• Athletic Therapy Staff
• Academic Success Advisors
• Players' course instructors/professors
• College academic recruiters
• Student supporters
• Alumni supporters
• Supportive local club coaches
• Media

At the High School level

• School Board
• Principle, Administration
• Athletic director / Phys-Ed Chair
• Financial supporters (parent councils, etc)
• Parents

At the Club Level

• Club Executive
• Program and/or facilities director
• League administration
• Sponsors
• Parents

I've watched good coaches, before my very eyes, implode because they chose to operate in a bubble instead of a community.  Technical and tactical knowledge is good, but it's definitely not enough to succeed.  There is a political side to coaching that is probably the most difficult part to master.

U13 Boys - confusing season with great kids

Reflecting on the past U13 season is very difficult because I still can't figure out what happened.  I've started this reflection at least five times.

This was my third year with this group as a head coach.  The first two years (U11 and U12) we made progress.  This year, not so much, but in a weird way.

If you came to our sessions, things were going well.  Attendance was good, players were ready to work and we were moving forward.  From tryouts until our last practice, things went well at training.  I stand behind the training that was delivered.

When it came time to compete, that was a different story.  Getting the boys to even work through a warm-up was a challenge.  There was no disrespect or discipline problems, there was just this lack of willingness to get into game mode.  Perhaps a new voice would change that.

Most coaches complain that their players do not come to training as focused as they do in the games.  For us, it was the reverse.   If we played as well as we trained, it would have been a different story.  At training shots were driven, chances were taken 1v1, creativity was abound and challenges for loose balls were competitive.

The year was enjoyable and the boys are a great group of guys.  They were friendly and spent time together away from soccer, and that is always one of your goals.  But I still have to look inwards as to why they did not seem interested in competing.  I refuse to just say "They were not a good team" because it was more than the score line.

I had some theories:

• It's my third year and I couldn't motivate them to play.
• What I was selling was not what they were interested in buying.
• At U13, other boys are getting big and they were not ready/willing to challenge bigger opponents.  As a whole, we were the smallest team.
• I was too demanding and they were afraid to play.  I may not be the right coach for this group.
• As a group, they were not interested in playing any higher than district level travel, rather than regional level. (not too far fetched a theory)
• Some boys were no longer interested in playing soccer  (which I found out afterwards, which opens up other questions)
• We had some injury problems, but that would only affect the score, not the enthusiasm at matches.

I am still asking myself questions before laying a final decision if I am returning or not.  My son has asked to switch sports for the last few years but this year declared his intentions in BOLD PRINT with no ambiguity.  It's funny because this was his best year, personally.  I coached before my sons played and will coach after, so my thinking on this team is independent of him.

I have questions to ask myself:

• Do I enjoy coaching this team?  Yes
• Am I the right coach for this group of players? Not so sure
• Did I present the information in a way they were able to learn from me? At training, definitely.  At games, I don't believe I did.
• Did they improve as individuals and as a team?  As individuals, I believe so.  As a team, no.
• Did the players enjoy themselves?  Do they still want to play soccer?  Not sure.  Some are not playing next year.
• Are they motivated to play with me as the head coach? I don't believe they are at games.  At training, yes.
• Is my voice becoming background noise? At games, yes.  At training, no
• Can I run an honest and open tryout after coaching the same group for 3 years?  I am not afraid to make changes after 3 seasons.  I made changes with my last group every year for 8 years.

Even after writing this, I am still unsure of how I would sum the season up.  Many parents say they would like me to come back, but they were not with us during pre-game, warm-up, half-time and post-game.  It was not always fun and I don't blame the boys.  This was my first time in 24 years that I didn't have a team's attention.  If one is distracted, it might be the player.  If 15 are distracted, it's the coach.

Games are part of the equation and I can't consider this a job well done unless the boys wanted to be there for training and competition.

I am still deciding what to do for next summer.

U17 Boys - a specific coaching mission

Working with this age group offers a different kind of fulfillment than the younger age groups. 

Coaching this team was not on my to-do list this summer.  Coach Benny went to Italy for a month, Coach Venanzio took a job in Toronto and Coach Loris has a very young child at home.  When Ben ask if I could fill in during his absence and be involved all year, I figured it would be a good time to do a different kind of coaching and, possibly, a final chance to coach my son Anthony.  Who knows where he's playing next season.

I give Coach Ben credit for running this team.  Running a U17 soccer team is no picnic.  I told Benny I wanted to use this chance to prepare these guys for the transition to men's and University/College level soccer and he was OK with that.  I also used this oppurtunity to get me back in tune and ready to coach the college program.

My sessions all year involved:

• Smart, competitive 1v1 play in different parts of the field
• The importance of shape, attacking and defending
• Playing smart and expending energy intelligently
• The importance of set pieces and restarts

I was flattered that the boys were very receptive to what I wanted to do.  I was a different voice and, at U17, that helps.  In the beginning, I kept referring to how they could implement what we were doing to their high school play to help make it more applicable to them.

We did run into some bumps in the road.  Some boys did not have the technique required to be consistently successful at U17.  For these boys, their athleticism kept them in the game to some degree but once their space was closed down it was a bit of a panic.  We were able to sell to  them that the better the shape, the more time and space you have.

This team had 4 things going for them:

• Parents and players got along great
• The boys were competitive
• The boys were athletic
• The boys were TOUGH

They've all been playing soccer since their were U5-U6.  Two were late-comers , but both of these boys were athletic and very intelligent.

Coach Loris was our most able-bodied coach and able to fully participate and guide play when we worked on positioning and other philosophies of play.  He still plays at the Men's Premier level. 

Some things we worked around this year:

• One of our smarter and more technical players did not play until July as he had a broken wrist and then his father passed away.  His return made the positive work done to that point even better.
• Our goalkeeper had a tender hamstring for most of the year.  He was unable to effectively strike a ball off the ground and that caused us to adjust our shape, keeping a man hanging back.  His commitment to keeping the ball out of our net was unforgettable, but he as unable to have balls played back to him or take goal kicks.  he was also slow coming off his line 1v1.  This made planning and organizing very interesting.
• One of our smarter midfield types had declared very, very early in tryouts that he was giving his hockey dream another shot and played summer hockey instead of soccer.

Training sessions went well.  Attendance varied between 10-16 players, depending on work commitments.  The boys who were present worked hard and listened.  They really enjoyed each others' company.  If training wasn't ultra-enjoyable, they mentally checked out, and I was OK with that.

Difficulties this year:

• Occasional hot heads, but not as bad as expected.
• One brawl.  :)
• Varying, uncertain attendance at training
• Difficult arranging training because of student work schedules
• Preparing team for season while school soccer is in progress
• Opponents short players late in season (twice)

Good things this year:

• Never embarrassed ourselves with a short bench or poor game attendance
• Made sure the one brawl was short.  :)
• Committed coaches
• Nobody quit for any reason.
• Able to attend two tournaments
• Coaches enthusiastically support their interest in school soccer
• Only two players missed one game each to suspensions

I am glad that the situation arose to work with this team.  They were good, able-bodied boys and wanted to learn.  Some needed to let go of old ideas/habits and trust us, and that came with time.

It did get a bit hectic at times while Ben was gone, but nothing that put a halt to anything.  He left the paperwork and reffing fees all sorted out so that made things a bit easier.


If there was one thing I got better at was being on a staff where I was not the head coach.  I think there is a skill-set there that needs to be developed.  When all 4 coaches were present, I stepped back and watched, sometimes from the other side.

Overall it was a positive experience for me.  I thought my son would squash the idea of me coaching but he was good with it.  I've always had good experiences coaching him, but he's U17, with his friends, and it's been a few years since I worked with him.

I am not sure where these guys are with their thinking for next year.  I am hoping that they all continue to play.


Our last duty to perform is to drive to the League Awards presentations to collect our League Championship Medals.