Dylan Spencer

SES 335

Dr. Brett Nichols

10/14/2016

Coaching Observation Assignment

1. For my coaching observation I chose to observe a Greeley West High School boys soccer

practice coached by Marty Lordemann. The observed practice took place on Friday,

October 7, 2016 and began around 3:30 p.m. As an assistant coach for the cross country

team at Greeley West, I was already loosely acquainted with coach Lordemann from

prior school wide coach meetings. Coach Lordemann did use a practice plan, though it

only contained one drill. The plan was not in writing and appeared to be printed off of a

soccer coaching resources website. If the coach planned specific times to work on

specific objectives it was not reflected in the practice plan. The time spent on each drill

seemed to be appropriate so he may have mentally worked out how long the team should

spend on each drill beforehand.

2. Coach Lordemann seemed to have only one major objective to accomplish for this

practice session. This objective was to teach the athletes a new tactic and develop their

understanding of why it works and how to use it effectively in a game.

3. I do not believe that any new skills were actually taught in this practice. Instead the focus

was primarily on developing a specific tactic which seemed to be drawing in defenders

using short quick passes to create open space. The tactic was demonstrated as a slow

walkthrough of the next drill and was executed by the players following the step by step

instructions of the coach. After going through the drill once, it was done at a much faster
 speed. The demonstration was done with the players in formation to complete the drill.

This formation was roughly an elongated square shape with one or two players on each

corner and a defender in the middle. The tactic was introduced verbally to the players

through verbal instructions. The strategy itself was not really explained well by the coach

as it seemed more like instruction on how to perform a drill rather than how and when to

use the tactic being taught. The coach also did not express any relation of the tactic to

previous practices. The coach did use relevant cues throughout the practice, but these

cues were not linked to the strategy as it was being explained.

4. Overall I would say that despite not having a written practice plan to reference, the

practice was fairly organized. The transitions between drills were smooth and the next

drill was always set up ahead of time. The athletes were attentive and respectful to coach

Lordemann when he was talking and were also responsive to feedback when given. Aside

from warming up and conditioning, the entire 90 minute practice seemed to be devoted to

learning the one specific tactic mentioned previously. The total time spent on it was

approximately 75 minutes. The tactic was definitely practiced in game like conditions as

the tempo was kept high and each drill could be correlated to a situation in a game. Also

the last drill involved a scoring system to give a competitive nature to the drill. The coach

also utilized freeze replays several times throughout practice which I think really helped

make up for not explaining the tactic at the beginning of the drill. By having these

replays, he was able to show the athletes the relevancy of the tactic in certain situations.

To improve this practice I would take a little bit of time after warming up to clearly

explain the objective for the practice to get the team in the right mindset and focused on

what needs to be accomplished during practice. I would also take time to explain the
tactic being taught and ask critical thinking questions to enlighten the players

understanding of when, where, why and how the tactic could be used and give cues to

assist them in executing the tactic. One last change I would make would be to somehow

relate the tactic to previous practice experiences that utilize similar concepts. Doing this

would allow the athletes to recall what they know about that previous experience and use

it to aid in their learning of the new tactic.