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A mirror on every session. Not a score.

After every recorded session the coach gets a Debrief: who they reached, how they coached, how the time was spent, and how it went against their plan. Every mark opens the words behind it.

Fifty-one minutes, counted.

Watch Tuesday's practice turn into its Debrief. Every tick is a moment of coaching; the shaded blocks are the coach talking to the whole group. Nothing here is a judgment of the coach. It is a count of what happened.

Tuesday practice · CS FC '10 A · 12 players

Who you reached

11 of 12 players

  • Christopher17
  • Ella14
  • Ava11
  • Leo10
  • Sofia10
  • Mateo9
  • Nia8
  • Owen8
  • Priya8
  • Sam7
  • Theo6
  • Jonah0

1 player heard nothing from you directly: Jonah.

How you coached

Share of coaching moments

  • Instruction41%
  • Correction16%
  • Questioning9%
  • Praise24%
  • Encouragement10%

The plan asked for more questions. About 9% of the coaching acts were.

How the time was spent

25%
talking to the group
75%
ball rolling

Example session with a demo team. Who you reached counts the notes the coach approved; how you coached counts every coaching moment captured.

Checked against your own plan.

Write the plan the way you'd say it, or adopt a session from the curriculum. Coach Sidekick reads it into what it can check: skills, how you coach, who gets your attention. What one session can't measure, it says so instead of inventing a number.

The plan

Written by the coach, Monday night

Switch play early and often. Get them scanning before the ball arrives. I want to ask more than I tell, and make sure Jonah gets involved. Win Saturday.

Switch play early and often. Get them scanning before the ball arrives. I want to ask more than I tell, and make sure Jonah gets involved. Win Saturday.

What Coach Sidekick understood

  • SkillSwitching the Point of Attack
  • SkillPre-Receive Scanning
  • Your coachingQuestioning
  • PlayerAttention: Jonah
  • OutcomeAn outcomenoted, not scored

Against your plan

3 of 4 planned skills, behaviours and players showed up

  1. Showed up: Switching the Point of Attack. In about 31% of tagged moments (21 of 66).
  2. Showed up: Pre-Receive Scanning. In about 58% of tagged moments (38 of 66).
  3. Showed up: Questioning. About 9% of your coaching acts were questions.
  4. Did not show up: Jonah. No direct notes. Jonah heard nothing from you directly.
  5. Not measured: Win Saturday. One planned item we can't measure yet. Noted, not scored.

Your coaching, over the season.

See how your own coaching moves over your sessions, compared only with your own earlier sessions. A trend shows only when it's bigger than your normal session-to-session variation, and it describes what you did, never how good it was.

Your coaching

An illustration, not a real coach

How your own coaching has moved across your processed sessions. A mirror, not a score.

6 sessions through Nov 4 vs the 6 before (through Oct 16)

  • Ball rolling

    Share of the session time

    Now about 68% · before about 60%

    Up
    Ball rolling: Up. Now about 68% · before about 60%

  • Players with an approved note from you

    Share of players present

    Now about 82% · before about 70%

    Up
    Players with an approved note from you: Up. Now about 82% · before about 70%

  • Encouragement

    Share of coaching moments

    Now about 2 in 10 · before about 2 in 10

    Held steady
    Encouragement: Held steady. Now about 2 in 10 · before about 2 in 10

  • Praise

    Share of coaching moments

    Now about 3 in 10 · before about 2 in 10

    With this much session-to-session spread, that gap could be noise.
    Praise: Now about 3 in 10 · before about 2 in 10 With this much session-to-session spread, that gap could be noise.

  • Corrections

    Share of coaching moments

    Now about 3 in 10 · before about 4 in 10

    Down
    Corrections: Down. Now about 3 in 10 · before about 4 in 10

  • Questions

    Share of coaching moments

    Now about 2 in 10 · before about 1 in 10

    Up
    Questions: Up. Now about 2 in 10 · before about 1 in 10

  • Specific coaching

    Share of coaching moments

    The two periods aren't compared this time — different analysis versions.

    Not compared
    Specific coaching: The two periods aren't compared this time — different analysis versions.

An illustration, not a real coach. Trends need a few weeks of recorded sessions: until both periods have enough sessions analysed the same way, a row says Not compared.

Nobody reads it behind the coach's back.

With the Director Suite, each club decides whether its directors can read coaches' Debriefs, and every Debrief says which way it's set, at the top, every time. Directors read; they can't edit, and they can't rank coaches against each other.

Club setting

What the coach sees on every Debrief

Your debrief. A mirror on the session, not a score. Visible to you and your club's directors.

The default at clubs. Directors read each Debrief, read-only, after the session. They never see a plan before it happens.

When an evaluator visits, the report quotes them.

An evaluator watches a coach's session and talks through what they see. Their report is built from their own words: each observation is quoted from the narration and tied to the moment it was said. The evaluator marks the rubric themselves and approves the report before the coach receives it.

We switch evaluation on for your organization, and your admins invite evaluators and add coaches themselves. More on coach evaluation.

Organization

Maximizes active playing and practice time; minimizes standing and waiting

“Second rotation, she has the next group set up before the first one finishes. Nobody's standing in a line.”
Narration 14:32Quoted from the evaluator; the mark is theirs to set.
A row from Coach Sidekick's general observation framework. The quote is an example.

Questions about the Debrief

Is it a score?
No. There is no grade, no ranking against other coaches and no leaderboard, for coaches or for the directors reading their Debriefs. It shows what happened in the session so the coach can decide what to change.
What is it built from?
Who you reached counts only the notes the coach approved. How you coached counts every coaching moment captured in the recording. Labels can be wrong, so every mark opens the comment it came from.
Where do coaches read it?
On the web, after they've reviewed the session's notes. A Debrief can also be printed or shared with the team's other coaches.
When do trends show up?
After a few weeks of recorded sessions. Each period needs enough sessions analysed the same way; until then a row says Not compared, and nothing is guessed.
Can my director see my trends?
Only if your club has the Director Suite and shares Debriefs with directors, and your own tab tells you when they can. Directors see the same view you do, read-only. Nobody sees your trends next to another coach's.
Does it tell me what to do next?
It tells you where the session and your plan parted ways, in plain words. Planning the next session stays with you.
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