Are Your Coaches Learning or Just Delivering Sessions?

Every week, coaches arrive, organise their equipment, deliver a session and then head home. From the outside, everything may appear organised and effective, but how much did the coach actually learn from the experience?

For many clubs, schools and sporting organisations, coach development remains separate from everyday coaching. Coaches attend workshops, complete qualifications or receive a coaching handbook, but are then expected to translate that information into practice on their own.

The issue is rarely a lack of information. Most coaches already have more drills, session plans, videos and coaching content than they could realistically use. The greater challenge is helping them turn that information into behaviours that improve the experience of their players.

Effective coach development should help coaches notice what is happening, adapt when an activity is not working, involve players in the learning process and make better decisions while the session is taking place. It should also encourage them to reflect honestly on the environment they created and identify what they could do differently next time.

That is the difference between simply delivering another session and deliberately developing as a coach.

A completed session is not always a successful session

The cones may be straight, the activities may run on time and the coach may cover everything in the session plan. However, none of this guarantees that meaningful learning has taken place.

A well organised session can still limit player involvement, decision making and enjoyment. Coaches can follow their plans perfectly without noticing that some players have stopped contributing, that the activity is no longer challenging the group or that their interventions are preventing players from solving problems independently.

If we want to understand the quality of a coaching session, we need to look beyond what the coach delivered and consider what the players actually experienced.

A coach could reflect on questions such as:

1. How many meaningful decisions did the players make?
2. Did every player feel involved in the session?
3. Whose voice was heard and who remained silent?
4. Did the coach adapt after noticing what the players needed?
5. What did the players understand, remember or discover?
6. What did the coach learn that could influence the next session?

Great coaching is not simply the ability to reproduce an impressive session plan. It is the ability to understand an imperfect and constantly changing environment, then make purposeful decisions within it.

Why traditional coach education does not always change coaching behaviour

Coaches can leave a workshop inspired, knowledgeable and full of new ideas. However, when Tuesday night arrives, they may face late players, limited space, uneven numbers and an activity that is not working as expected.

Under pressure, many coaches return to familiar habits. They talk more, provide players with the answers, repeatedly stop the activity, focus on the most confident individuals or continue following a plan that no longer meets the needs of the group.

This is why increasing a coach’s knowledge does not automatically change how they behave. A presentation might introduce a useful idea, but lasting development requires coaches to apply that idea, observe its effect and reflect on whether it improved the experience of their players.

Coach development is more likely to influence everyday practice when it is connected to real coaching environments, practical enough to apply immediately and relevant to the needs of the individual coach. It also needs to be followed by reflection and purposeful conversation, then repeated regularly enough to influence future behaviour.

Coach development should not be something that occasionally happens to coaches. It should become part of how they prepare, deliver and reflect every week.

Give coaches something meaningful to notice

Telling a coach to “improve your communication” may sound like useful feedback, but it gives them very little direction.

Communication includes tone, timing, body language, questions, explanations, feedback and listening. Where should the coach begin, and how will they know whether anything has improved?

Broad instructions often create broad intentions rather than observable changes in behaviour. A more effective coaching challenge gives the coach a specific action to test and something meaningful to notice afterwards.

For example, a coach could be challenged to:

1. Ask players for two possible solutions before offering their own.
2. Observe one player they would not normally watch.
3. Include a meaningful choice within an activity.
4. Allow players to lead part of the session review.
5. Change a condition without stopping the game.
6. Notice which players have not contributed to a conversation.
7. Ask a player what they experienced before explaining what happened.

Each challenge creates a small experiment within a real coaching session. Instead of trying to become a better coach in a vague and overwhelming way, the coach can focus on one action, observe how the players respond and decide what they want to retain, adapt or explore further.

That is where meaningful coach learning begins.

Coach development should happen while coaches coach

This principle led us to create Coach Challenge MatchPlay Cards, a deck of 70 practical coach development challenges designed to turn everyday coaching sessions into ongoing professional development.

Created for Head Coaches, Coach Developers, Heads of PE, Directors of Sport and Academy Leads, the cards help organisations move coach development away from occasional events and into the environments where coaching behaviours are actually formed.

The challenges are suitable across different sports and can be applied quickly within modern, player centred and games based coaching environments. They can be used with volunteer coaches, teachers, new practitioners, academy staff and experienced professionals because each challenge can be adapted to the coach and their context.

The cards do not give coaches another collection of drills to deliver. They challenge coaches to reconsider how they communicate, what they notice, how they design learning environments and how much ownership they give to their players.

The 70 challenges are divided into three coach development areas: ENGAGE, CHANGE and REFLECT.

ENGAGE

The ENGAGE challenges help coaches create environments in which players feel involved, valued and motivated to contribute.

They encourage coaches to consider whose voice is being heard, how much ownership players receive and whether the session is one that participants genuinely want to be part of. Coaches are challenged to explore how questions, choices, competition, responsibility and player involvement can increase engagement.

This matters because engagement is not simply about keeping players busy. A player can be physically active while feeling disconnected from the purpose of the session. Meaningful engagement occurs when players are thinking, contributing, solving problems and taking responsibility for their learning.

CHANGE

The CHANGE challenges encourage coaches to experiment with their behaviour, language, session design and interventions.

Rather than suggesting there is one correct way to coach, the cards invite coaches to try a different approach and observe the effect it has on their players. This can help coaches recognise established habits, become more adaptable and develop the confidence to make purposeful changes while a session is taking place.

A coach might change how long they allow an activity to continue, who they involve in a conversation, how they communicate a challenge or how much information they provide before players begin.

The purpose is not to change for the sake of it. The purpose is to help coaches understand the relationship between their behaviour and the experience of their players.

REFLECT

The REFLECT challenges help coaches become more thoughtful and self aware.

They develop the coach’s ability to notice what happened, consider why it happened and use that information to make better decisions in the future. Rather than asking whether a session was simply good or bad, reflection becomes connected to specific behaviours, evidence and player experiences.

Effective reflection should do more than describe what happened. It should help the coach identify what they learned and how that learning will influence their next decision.

The cards provide a practical focus for that process, making reflection easier to begin and more valuable to revisit.

Five ways to use Coach Challenge MatchPlay Cards

Coach Challenge MatchPlay Cards are designed to fit within the coach development processes that clubs, schools and sporting organisations already use. You do not need to introduce another complicated framework or ask coaches to complete a lengthy course before they can begin.

1. Introduce a shared weekly coaching challenge

Choose one challenge that connects to an organisational priority, such as improving player engagement, creating more decision making opportunities or reducing unnecessary coach interventions.

Ask every coach to apply the challenge during the week and bring one observation to the next staff conversation. This creates shared learning across different teams and sports while gradually building a common coaching language.

The value does not only come from completing the challenge. It comes from coaches sharing what they noticed, how their players responded and what they might try next.

2. Add a challenge to coach observations

Formal observations can make coaches feel as though they are being assessed rather than supported. Agreeing on a challenge before the session gives both the coach and the observer a specific area of curiosity.

The observer can collect evidence, notice how players respond and help the coach explore what happened. This shifts the conversation away from personal judgement and towards learning, experimentation and player impact.

Instead of producing a long list of feedback, the observer can help the coach explore one behaviour in greater depth.

3. Use the cards within coaching workshops

During a practical coach development workshop, coaches can select or receive a challenge to test while delivering an activity. Afterwards, the facilitator can structure the discussion around what each coach noticed rather than simply reviewing whether the activity worked.

Useful questions include:

1. What coaching behaviour was the challenge trying to influence?
2. How did the players respond?
3. Which players benefited most?
4. What made the challenge difficult?
5. How could it be adapted for another team or age group?
6. What would you look for next time?

This makes workshops more active and helps coaches experience an idea before discussing how they could use it in their own environment.

4. Give new coaches a manageable focus

New coaches are often given too much information at once. Following an observation, they may receive a long list of strengths and improvements but leave unsure about what they should actually do differently in their next session.

A single, purposeful challenge provides a manageable starting point. It can build confidence, create a reason to notice player responses and help new coaches develop the habit of learning from their own practice.

One challenge applied well is more likely to influence behaviour than ten pieces of feedback that are quickly forgotten.

5. Create productive discomfort for experienced coaches

Experienced coaches may possess considerable knowledge, but experience can also create comfortable routines that are rarely questioned.

Meaningful development should help these coaches examine established habits without disregarding the expertise they have built. Invite experienced coaches to choose a challenge that makes them curious or slightly uncomfortable.

Asking a coach to experiment with different language, surrender some control or observe the session from another perspective can reveal opportunities that familiar routines may have hidden.

Better challenges create better coaching conversations

One of the biggest challenges facing Directors of Sport, Head Coaches and Coach Developers is knowing how to begin a meaningful development conversation.

Asking, “What did you think of the session?” often receives an answer such as, “It was pretty good,” or, “The players enjoyed it.” These responses may be honest, but they provide very little evidence from which to learn.

A specific coaching challenge creates a clearer and more useful starting point. After applying a challenge, a coach can be asked:

1. What did you notice?
2. How did the players respond?
3. Which players benefited most?
4. Who might have needed something different?
5. What surprised you?
6. What would you repeat?
7. What will you change next time?

These questions help coaches make sense of their experiences instead of waiting for somebody else to tell them whether their coaching was good or bad.

Over time, these conversations can create a workforce that is more curious, adaptable and willing to learn from one another. They also give leaders a practical way to connect organisational values with the behaviours players should experience during every session.

Consistency does not mean creating identical coaches

Many Directors of Sport and coaching leaders want to create greater consistency across their workforce. However, consistency should not mean asking every coach to sound the same, deliver identical sessions or follow a rigid script.

It should mean that players consistently experience the behaviours and values your organisation believes are important.

Depending on your environment, that could mean players consistently feel known, valued and included. They may have opportunities to make meaningful decisions, understand the purpose of an activity, experience an appropriate level of choice and challenge, and receive encouragement to communicate and solve problems.

Coaches can create these experiences while retaining their individual personalities, knowledge and coaching styles. The objective is to create alignment around the experience you want every player to receive.

What are your coaches practising?

Coaches regularly ask players to practise the skills and behaviours they want them to develop. However, we rarely ask the same question of the coach.

If coaches only practise organising and delivering sessions, they may become more efficient at organising and delivering sessions. If they regularly practise noticing, adapting, questioning, listening and reflecting, they are more likely to become thoughtful and responsive practitioners.

This does not require another complicated framework, lengthy course or handbook that nobody opens. It requires a meaningful challenge, an opportunity to test it and a conversation that helps the coach learn from what happened.

Your coaches are already coaching every week. The opportunity is to turn those sessions into their most powerful coach development environment.

Turn everyday coaching into ongoing professional development

Coach Challenge MatchPlay Cards contain 70 practical coach development challenges across ENGAGE, CHANGE and REFLECT.

They can help Head Coaches, Coach Developers, Heads of PE, Directors of Sport and Academy Leads facilitate workshops, structure mentoring conversations, improve coach observations, support ongoing coaching development and create a shared language across their organisations.

Stop hoping that coach development will eventually transfer into practice. Put the development directly into the session.

Explore Coach Challenge MatchPlay Cards

Clubs, schools and sporting organisations looking to support a complete coaching workforce can also contact The Coaching Lab to discuss workshops and pricing for orders of 15 or more decks.