What is reflective practice in coaching?

By Michael, grassroots coach and founder of Reflective Lens

What reflective practice actually means

Coaching is a stream of small decisions: the drill you chose, the moment you stopped it, who you spoke to, what you said when it fell apart. Reflective practice is the deliberate act of going over those decisions after the session, with some evidence, and settling on one thing to change.

Three things make it a practice rather than just thinking about the day:

• It happens regularly: after every session, not only after a bad one.
• It starts from evidence: what you saw and heard, rather than how the session felt on the whole.
• It ends in an action: something small you will try next week, and then notice whether it worked.

Reflection is not a review, and it is not worrying

A review asks whether the session met a standard. Reflection asks what happened and what you make of it. A review ends in a grade; reflection ends in an understanding. Both have their place, but only one of them tells you what to do on Thursday.

The other failure mode is quieter: replaying a mistake in the car with no structure. That is rumination, and it feels like hard work while teaching nothing. Reflection is rumination with a question attached. The moment you ask “what would I do differently, and how would I know it had worked?”, the loop stops being a worry and starts being practice.

Where the idea comes from

You do not need to name any of these to use them. They are here because they explain why the advice always sounds a bit circular, and what each one actually adds.

• Donald Schön separated thinking on your feet while you coach from the look-back afterwards. Most of what coaches mean by reflection is the second one.
• Gibbs’ reflective cycle runs six steps: what happened; what you thought and felt; what was good and bad; what sense you make of it; what else you could have done; and what you will do next time. The fifth step is the one unstructured reflection almost always skips.
• Driscoll’s “What? So what? Now what?” is the shortest structure that still works, and it is small enough to run in your head on the walk to the car.
• Kolb’s learning cycle makes the same point differently: have the experience, watch it, make sense of it, then test something new. Which is why a reflection that never reaches a next session is unfinished.

Pick one short structure and use it every week. The model matters far less than the repetition.

Why grassroots coaches struggle with it

• The session ends and the rest of the day starts immediately: work, the school run, Saturday's fixture.
• Nobody is watching. No tutor, no analyst, no colleague who saw your session, so there is nobody to ask.
• The usual instruction, “reflect on your session”, has no shape to it. People try twice, find it vague, and stop.
• The detail is freshest in the first hour and largely gone by bedtime. Notes you did not take are notes you cannot rewrite.

A structure that works after one session

Four questions, in this order:

1. 1What did I hope to see? Say it plainly: “I wanted players to look up before they received.” If you cannot answer, the session had no focus to reflect on. That is the first thing to fix, and it is not a criticism.
2. 2What actually happened? Describe what you saw and heard: “two of the four groups went straight to the goalkeeper.” Not what it means yet.
3. 3Where was the gap, and why? In the design, in the timing, in what you said, or in something you cannot control. Most gaps are design, and most coaches blame themselves for the wrong thing.
4. 4What will I do next time? One change, small enough to try at the next training session.

Then the question nearly everyone skips: what did I do as the coach? Where I stood, when I spoke, who I spoke to, how I reacted when it went wrong. That is the part that develops over years, and it is the part nobody else will write down for you.

How to make it stick

• Do it soon after the session, while the detail is still there. Speaking it on the walk to the car usually beats typing something later.
• Keep it short. Two or three honest sentences are worth more than a page of generalities.
• Say it out loud if writing feels like homework. Speaking tends to pull out more detail, and it is easier to be honest.
• Keep the notes somewhere you will actually look again. A reflection you cannot find next month has taught you nothing.
• Look for patterns every few weeks. The question that matters is “what keeps coming back?” A theme across five sessions is a real coaching issue; a bad night is a bad night.
• Keep it private. Honest reflection needs a place where you can admit you lost the plot without it becoming anyone's evidence.
• Finish with something testable. “Improve communication” will not survive to next week. “Stop the drill as soon as the third group starts queueing” will.

What it looks like over a season

After a month or two of short, regular notes, patterns start showing themselves: that you plan too much standing still, that you never let a game run long enough, that you talk most to the four loudest players. These are the things nobody tells you, because nobody sees your sessions. For most grassroots coaches, reflection is the only feedback loop there is, so it is worth building properly, early in the season, while there is still time to act on it.

Common pitfalls

• Reflecting only after losses or bad sessions.
• Writing a verdict (“that was poor”) instead of an observation (“the drill had four players in a queue”).
• Blaming players for what was a design problem.
• Actions so vague they cannot be tried.
• Keeping it all in your head, where nothing can be compared month to month.
• Trying to do it properly every time. Short and regular beats long and occasional.

If you are on a coaching course

Many courses ask for evidence that you plan, deliver and review your own coaching. A short note after every session, kept in one place, becomes that evidence without extra work later, and it reads far better than something written the week before a deadline.

Where the app fits

Reflective Lens is built for the version of reflective practice you would actually keep doing. You record a voice note or type a few lines straight after the session. No session record is needed first, and you can attach it to one later. The app tidies your note into your own words, then asks up to three questions about what you hoped to see and what happened. Each session ends with a short report written in your voice, and weekly, monthly and season reports group together what keeps coming back. Nothing is scored or graded, and the app is for coaches only.

Free for your first month, no card needed. Then £3.99 a month or £35.90 a year.

Questions people ask

What is reflective practice in coaching?

A regular, structured look-back at your own coaching: what you intended, what happened, and what you will change. It is a habit rather than a document, and it works best in short, honest bursts after every session.

How often should a coach reflect?

After every session, briefly, and then once more across a longer stretch, weekly or monthly, to look for patterns. Long reflections rarely happen; short ones every week are what change coaching.

What is the difference between reflection and evaluation?

Evaluation measures your session against a standard. Reflection asks what happened and what you make of it. Evaluation gives you a mark; reflection gives you a next step.

Do I need to write a lot?

No. Two or three honest sentences on what you hoped to see, what happened and what you will change is enough. Saying them out loud works as well as writing them down.

How do I know my reflective practice is working?

When your notes start repeating. If the same theme keeps appearing and your next-session actions keep addressing it, you are reflecting properly. If six weeks of notes all say the same vague thing, you are keeping a mood diary rather than a practice.

First published 2026-10-24.