Reflective Practice: A simple weekly routine for continuous improvement

Goal: A 5-10 minute reflection template with prompts

Article Structure

• Why it matters

• 10 minute routine

• Making habits stick

Why it matters

The learning cycle is simple:

Plan → Do → Review → Reflect

There are 3 clear benefits of reflection, awareness, progress and perspective.

Many top coaches use different ways of reflection, scribbles, journals, voice notes or like myself, a good daydream in the drive home. If we aren't reflecting then we could be stuck in a loop of negative, stunted coaching that doesn't help the players, coach or environment.

So in short, if we aren't willing to review and reflect, how are we supposed to improve?

10 minute routine

"10 minute routine" sounds catchy but realistically this could be 4 or 40 minutes.

Lets break it down into 4 sections.

1) Review

What actually happened this week? (Keep it fact based)

Ignore the obvious score line, look for other clues. Corners scored/won, circle entries for and against, big chances created. What happened?

2) Recognise

What went well? There is always something, even if its small, there always is. Find it and reinforce it.

3) Reframe

What didn't go to plan and what can we learn from it? This one will probably take the longest as you start to unpick the issues and dive deeper into the real reasons why? Was it psychological? Technical? Tactical?

4) What Next?

Once you've found it, how do you change it? For example, there is too many cards given for fouls. Do you address it publicly with the group or quietly with the individuals? Pros and Cons for both sides. This may depend on where the team and individuals are at in the present moment.

Bonus: Ask yourself these two prompts.

A) What surprised me this week?

B) What one behaviour will I repeat?

Make it a habit

I am a believer in reflections post game or post training sessions are best the day after. On the day, there can often be too much emotion or clouded judgement. The day before games can often be a good time to reflect on how well the week went in terms or training and preparation for the weekend.

Coaching can get lonely and often we are left with these thoughts running through our head, not truly knowing if we're on the right path or not. Short reflections can help benefit mental wellbeing and clarity on what message you want to deliver to your team or athletes.

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Try this for 2 weeks and share your insights with the Agora Community: https://theagoraspace.slack.com/archives/C09PU6PCQF6