End of year reflection:

During the past academic year, I have had to coach not only as an individual but also as part of a group both of which allow the fruition of various skills and traits essential to good coaching.

Throughout the academic year, I feel I have learned to adapt my weaknesses to my advantage whilst I feel I have eradicated a few weaknesses, through my gained knowledge and confidence gained from attending the vast majority of practices; this was achieved by coaching a diverse selection of activities from football to lacrosse. I feel my experiences in America during the summer gave me a massive boost in confidence, ingenuity and creativity yet, these skills where further enhanced during the practical sessions mainly due to new coaching styles and methods learned.

Improved Strengths and new strengths:

 I feel I have gained the confidence to coach any session in any sport as I’ve learned that even if you are inexperienced in a certain sport you can coach to a good level as you have no pre-conceived notions of the sport so this has provided me great confidence. Whilst I have also learned about various interventions and how to maximise the equipment and space no matter how small, limited or basic it may seem; you have to utilise the equipment and environment given to you. I have also learned how to adapt activities for participants with disabilities and coached a passing session for participants who were disabled with lost limbs.

Through the academic year, I have learned lots of things from, learning and coaching styles, intervention techniques, new games and activities and lots of personal traits and characteristics, and have certainly improved as a coach.

 Weaknesses:

At the start of the academic year I thought I was quite a good coach but over the duration of the year I have learned so much including, that my coaching philosophies where quite one dimensional and was only really comfortable coaching my favoured sport football.

My weaknesses, from the start of the academic year.

•I can often become over exuberant and become over talkative.

•I often allow judgements and perceptions to cloud my judgement of character and situations.

•Whilst I feel I could become more organised by planning in advance.

•I find it hard to accept criticism and negative feedback.

 

Evaluation of my weaknesses:

Throughout the year, I feel as though I have improved my weaknesses through attending the vast majority of practical sessions.

I feel that my first weakness I claimed at the beginning of the academic year that,

•I can often become over exuberant and become over talkative.

Is not really a weakness I have learned that my exuberance can be motivating especially for younger participants and that it is actually a strength of my coaching as my passion and enjoyment is evident and thus rubs off on the participants, whilst I have realised being too talkative is also a strength as I have the opportunity to communicate and learn more about my participants and ask their opinions and how they are finding the sessions which I also feels motivates the participants further.

My second weakness I mentioned at the beginning of the academic year:

•I often allow judgements and perceptions to cloud my judgement of character and situations.

I feel that I am becoming more understanding and tolerant of people and thus my opinions and judgements are less prevalent, yet they still do exist and is something I still need to focus on in the future.

The next weakness I highlighted at the beginning of the academic year was:

• I could become more organised by planning in advance.

 I feel I have improved this weakness as I was permitted to plan sessions every night in America for the next day’s activities, and also prior to practical sessions during the course. Yet feel this is a major weakness as I tend to feel that planning provides too much structure and can inhibit coaching due to time constrains placed on activities, so I feel I need to find a way to plan that is not too formal.

The last weakness I mentioned was that:

•I find it hard to accept criticism and negative feedback.

This is still something that’s an on-going process, as I still find it hard to accept and need to be told more positives than negatives, yet it keeps me motivated to improve as a coach and subsequently reduce criticism.

Yet overall I feel, it’s been a very constructive year, in which I have developed as a coach and as a person; through improved knowledge, experiences and opportunities, yet realise I still need to strive to improve.