Global Premier Soccer, one of the largest youth soccer organizations in the USA held their annual retreat at Mohegan Sun, CT just before Thanksgiving. The purpose of the retreat was to thank and reward all coaches as well as providing them with access to ongoing professional development.
e.t.c were delighted to be asked to lead a session for almost 200 coaches. Designed to complement the mission of Global Premier Soccer which is to be a 'leader in the development and growth of soccer across North America', Sarah's session explored how to develop coaching excellence. More specifically, it looked at the role of reflective practice in helping coaches achieve that.
The first task challenged coaches to identify their perception of excellent coaching, which had less to do with the soccer or the what-to coach skills and everything to do with how effectively coaches coach or the how-to coach skills.
The rest of the session challenged coaches to consider how they could support player learning and development by designing and integrating how-to coach goals into their session and program planning. Reflective practice models were introduced to help coaches consider how effectively they reflect and identify what they they could do to improve the quality of their own coaching and in turn the quality of athlete experiences and outcomes.
