The analysis of a coaching session is vitally important if you wish to progress and improve as a coach. How can we judge if our coaching session was a success, failure or somewhere in between. Without critical analysis we will continue to repeat our mistakes and the players will become bored and jaded and won't improve. The way you analyse and evaluate not only your performance, but the impact you had on the players, will provide a continual development plan for all future training sessions

The first way to analyse and evaluate a coaching session is to be your own most stringent critic.

At the end of every training session, take the time to consider how the session has gone. Consider the planning and organisation of the session, did it prove adequate and suitable for the numbers, age and ability of the players.

Were the training session objectives achieved, for example if the plan was to improve movement and passing, did the training drills work, if not why not.

Good coaches develop a player - centred attitude, where they are open minded and try to develop and improve their own knowledge of coaching for their players benefit.

Personally analyse the following factors:

How did you coach? Did you use a suitable coaching style? How were your communication skills?Were you happy with what happened in the session? Did you have control over the session? Did you think that you effected the players and the way they trained? Did you think the players enjoyed the session? Did you manage to coach and achieve your objectives for the training session? Were the objectives realistic and achievable? Did you personally enjoy the session?

The answers to the questions will assist you in realistically assessing your thoughts on the session and highlight those areas that you think you could improve on.

At the end of the training session, bring your players together and ask them some key questions, such as:

• Did they enjoy the session?
• What did they enjoy the most?
• What did they think they learnt - important to see if the answers match your coaching objectives.