Magazine

The Boot Room Issue 15
April 2016
34 | 35
Feature
Film
Watching footage of your coaching session is a
hugely valuable tool in the process of reflection. Here,
Ronnie Reason, FA County Coach Developer, provides
a practical guide to filming your coaching sessions
without the use of specialist equipment.
Coaching is an on-going cycle of plan, do, review
in which a coach is expected to help support the
development of the players as well continually
improve as an individual. Reflective practice can
support a coach to develop critical thinking skills and
improve future performance. However, how accurate
is a coach’s memory?
In Issue 14 of The Boot Room, FA Coach Mentor,
Ceri Bowley, highlighted that research suggests that
experienced football coaches have been shown to be
able to recall just 59.2% of the critical events occurring
during 45 minutes of football performance (Laird and
Waters, 2008).
A lack of recall accuracy not only reduces the accuracy
of feedback to players but also may impact the accuracy
of a coach’s belief of their coaching performance.
Sherin and Van Es (2005) found that, through the
use of video, students involved in their research were
able to make more evidence based comments about
their teaching.
Implementation of technology has been established
with coaches undertaking UEFA A and UEFA B coaching
courses. Candidates now have regular opportunities to
see footage of their coaching sessions in order to support
more effective reflection and peer feedback. Coaches are
encouraged to examine their own sessions and engage
with the tutor in a more collaborative review to clarify
learning points.
The Australian Journal of Teacher Education,
Volume 39, Issue 9, Anne M. Coffey (2014), found
that when asked about the value of watching
video footage of their teaching, a cohort of
students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in
Education, considered the ‘overall activity to be
of assistance to their development as a teacher’
with almost half indicating that they strongly
agreed that viewing the video was beneficial.
Similarly, the students reported the activity to
be ‘motivating and simple.’
In light of this, The FA County Coach Developer
Team in the North West set about exploring how
they could support grassroots coaches with
accessible video analysis to help with:
• Improved ability to evaluate coaching, to
support changes made to coaching behaviours
and practices (coaches ownership of their
coaching journey)
• Identify gaps between coaches’ beliefs about
their coaching and actual coaching practice
(Perception meets reality)
• Notice aspects of their coaching that they
may not have noticed
• Assess strengths and weaknesses of
their coaching
• Assess what has been learned within a session
• Have the opportunity to reflect using other
coaches’ sessions