How to end a training session
How you finish a training session is just as important as how you start it.
There’s often lots of discussion about how to start a training session. This includes greeting people, priming them before the session and how to warm up the team.
How you end a session is equally important. I’ve written about my use of cooldown games before.
After a cooldown game when wrapping a session up, I’ll have a number of ways to finish training in a way that is, hopefully, impactful.
I’m always conscious that during a session, depending on the content, players might have heard my voice alot. When closing a session, I will try and ensure the players’ voices are prioritised. (I will try and do this throughout a session, but especially at the end).
These are a few methods you can try at your next session.
During huddles:
Gather players together and before they depart you can set up some reflections and sharing.
Ask players to go round the circle one at a time, everyone says something positive about the person that’s on their left (ideally some feedback about what they did well in the session)
Go round the circle, one person at a time, and people give them some positive feedback.
Invite people to share something positive about their week. This often works best if I prime a few players so they can go first, or if I start sharing.
Ask if players want to share some reflections on the session. This could be started with a question such as: what was your favourite activity and why?
Focus the reflections around a particular topic, this could be about people’s experiences of menopause or confidence about contact. This works best when a player wants to start a discussion.
When tidying up the pitch
The time spent collecting kit can be really valuable. It can be the last few minutes of connection time that players may get.
Ask players to find a partner to collect kit with and share some positive feedback with their teammate.
Get players to race to gather the kit. Whoever collects the most wins. This often ends the session with a smile and to finish with a small competition.
Players who are going through the menopause often require a cooldown or a longer cooldown. Mention this and give players the opportunity to walk around the pitches chatting to a teammate as part of a cooldown.
Ask players to find a partner to collect kit with, get them to share and reflect on some goals together. (This could be setting a goal for next week or reflecting on an ongoing goal)
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