Developing reflective players

Hello again,

I want to write a post about how to encourage players to be reflective and different ways of doing it, that are relevant to young players.

Firstly, my reason for doing this is, as I mentioned in the previous post, I have recently read a book on learning and how to become better learners. The book also talks about reflection and how it can have huge benefits on learning and retention of knowledge. This is not the first time I have come across this concept, it was discussed and encouraged in my first year of study with The Open University. Also, on the FA Youth Award Module coaching courses in England, they make reflection or an 'action review process' as they call it, an active part of a coaching session, so I have also learned about reflection there and how to incorporate it into sessions. I have not used it as much as I should have and reading this recent book has now reignited the spark to try and think of ways to get players to become more reflective.

I don't want players to just be passive learners and to just turn up and train, and then forget about the session throughout the week, until they come back to training again the next time. The best players in the world will be thinking what they do well and, more importantly, what they need to do to improve. I want to help players with this process.

How many coaches do you really see ask a player what they are good at and get them involved in the process and discussions? Or, what they think they need to improve? Because I have not come across many that do. These questions could potentially spark good discussion between players and coaches, and might even help you in the coaching process. For example, what you - the coach - feel a player needs work on, might be different than what the player thinks they need work on. Little things like this might help work on players developing confidence in aspects that you may overlook.

Anyways, this is what I have come up with:

1. I have printed off a few sheets of paper listing questions that relate to sessions that I have already planned. Before, during, and after sessions the group will discuss the questions in different ways. Ways of doing this are:
1. Putting players in pairs and asking them to choose a question to discuss between themselves for a few minutes. Some players could then share their answers to the group.
2. I could get players together at the end of the session and ask a question to different players and try to spark discussion between the group.
3. The questions are very simple and can include, for example, for a 1vs1 attacking session, what moves did you practice today? Or, what strengths do you have that will help you beat a defender in a 1vs1? Or, what do you think you need to work on to help you beat a defender? The first question is a simple retrieval question, but the last two help players delve a bit deeper into their performance, hopefully, helping them improve performance in the future.
2. Another way to help develop reflection during games is to stop games for half-time team talks. These can be led by the coach or by the players depending on how much ownership you want to give to the players. As a coach, you can obviously, always be there to help and give advice. But setting practices up this, help players to develop the ability to think for themselves, and not be coach reliant all the time. Sometimes, you may also be pleasantly surprised at what the players come up with - I know I have.
1. To help guide this process, you could give players a topic to think about during the game, for example, how good were they at finding space out wide? Then, during half-time, you ask players to focus their half-time team talk based on this topic and how well they were doing at it during the game. You could then ask players what they could do better and any changes they can make to improve?
3. Lastly, I have written up a sheet that I will give to the players at the start of the season which just asks players to write three things they think they are good at and three things they think they need to improve. It also, asks what the players can do to help them work on their weaknesses.

These are three ideas that I have come up with. They are by no means solely my own ideas. I have found things on the net and tried to modify them to work in a coaching environment. 

Anyways, if anyone else has any ideas of how to develop reflective practice within a coaching environment, then please comment. I would love to hear new ideas.

Rickie