Olivia Seddon

Coaching Observation
October 16th, 2017
SES335

1.
 List the date, time, coach, team and school you have selected to observe. What is
your relationship with this team or coach? Did the high school coach utilize a
practice plan for the observed session? Was it in writing?
 Did he/she use specific times for specific objectives?

I observed coach Garry Guyan at 5 pm on Monday the 16th of October. He is the

coach for the local club soccer team, Bootleggers. The team I chose to observe was

the U14 girls team. I don’t know Gary personally but a couple of my teammates help

coach for him during the season so they introduced me. I was told he is new to the

club in the past year or two but I couldn’t tell. He is very professional and seems to

really enjoy his position. The girls seem to really listen and want to get better. I knew

a couple of the girls on the team due to them being siblings of some of my friends and

the progress they have made with Gary is amazing. Gary utilizes a written practice

plan for every practice. At the beginning of practice, he explains the purpose or

objective to the girls so they know what to expect from the session but he doesn’t

include specific time tables for his drills and activities on his practice plan. From

talking with him he said he is there to develop his players. If a drill needs more time

than he anticipated for the girls to fully understand then he will spend more time on it.

He isn’t as focused on getting through the whole plan and making sure he hit ever

drill as much as he is that the girls are getting the most out of the drills. If he can’t get

to every drill in the allotted practice time then he moves that activity to next session.

He writes out a general time of an hour and a half.

 2. Did your coach use or outline any practice objectives for the observed session? If yes,
what were they? And if no, what practice objectives might he/she have used?

There were four objectives Gary stated but weren’t on his practice plan. They include:

1. Working on first touch

2. Finding accuracy in your passes to your teammates

3. Tactical side of keeping calm and learning patience on the ball in order to

possess the ball

4. Decision making when under pressure

3.
 Describe any skills that were presented or represented skill correction during the
observed practice.
 Describe the demonstration.
 What arrangement/formation was used?
 Was there an introduction, and what was it?
 Was there an explanation of the skill, and what was it?
 Did the coach relate the skill to any transfer of learning/previous learning?
 Did the coach identify any relevant cues?
 Who demonstrated the skill?

The prime focus of the practice I observed was working on accuracy in your passes and

first touch. Also, learning the tactical side of how to stay patient on the ball in order to possess

the ball by incorporating skill into their play. One skill that Gary stressed was how to cushion the

ball when the girls receive the ball in order to gain a good first touch. He demonstrated by having

one of his players hit a fast pass toward him to where he would have to control it. After going

through the motions, he broke up the example into quick steps. For example, where on your foot

you should let the ball hit you and your leg position and movement in order to cradle the pass.

He made a reference to catching an egg, whereas you wouldn’t let the egg just fall into your

hands because then it would crack, but softly cradling it. There was no specific formation due to
the fact they didn’t play a game. They played two possession games but in drills like that

everyone is constantly moving off the ball, so there is no set positions or formation. Gary started

off by greeting everyone and listing off the objectives and a brief explanation as to why they

were working on those specific things. Gary was very thorough when explaining drills or skills

he wanted performed but ultimately left it up to the players to problem solve. After allowing

them to run the drill for a few minutes he would stop and make corrections. Due to the fact that

the girls were 14, he didn’t have to teach whole new skills which saved him a lot of time. He did

spend some time relating back to the basics skills of trapping the ball and using your body to

shield from competitors. He did some brief demonstrations on how to position your body to keep

the ball away from the other team that the girls could then incorporate into the possession game.

He decided to demonstrate this skill by being in an athletic stance hovering over the ball then he

asked one of his players to try and see if they could get the ball. It showed how strong you have

to be and the girls enjoyed the challenge of trying to get the ball from him.

4. Summarize with an evaluation of the practice session.

 Was it organized?
 Did the coach use a written plan?
 Were the athletes attentive?
 How much time was spent on learning new skills?
 How much time was allotted for practice?
 Were skills practiced under conditions similar to game or competition conditions?
 How and what would you change to improve on this practice session?

Overall, this session was very well organized. I was impressed with how focused the girls

were and how fluidly they flowed from one drill to the next with no confusion. Gary did use a

written practice plan to help guide his practice but strayed away from it a few times when certain

drills and skills needed more attention. The girls were very attentive. Gary did a good job of
implementing fun into his drills so the girls stayed involved and engaged. There wasn’t a lot of

time spent on learning new skills. He spent some time referring to old skills so the girls could

incorporate those into the drills. The bootleggers club is an elite club so most girls on the team

already knew the basics. Gary just focused on furthering their abilities and improving them. For

some of his players who seemed to be top level players he would modify the drill challenging

them to advance their ability. The girls seemed to react well and enjoy the challenge. The time

allotted for practice was an hour and a half. He implemented the skills they worked on into a lot

of different possession games. Toward the end of the possession drills once the girls became

good at it, he would change the touch limit to allow the girls to make good decisions and force

them to have a good first touch to set them up for their next pass knowing they only had two

touches maximum. If I were to make some changes I would have had teams picked out ahead of

time that way he didn’t have to spend time dividing the girls up. Also, I liked the fact that he

changed the touch limit in the possession game to challenge their decisions but I would have

saved that drill for more of the practice instead of the end because it got worse before it got

better. When he changed the touch limit, players were just kicking it and made for a very

unproductive couple of minutes. He did corral them back in and explained how they need to

move off the ball and think two steps ahead but it took them a while to finally get the skills

down. It just wasted some time.