Part of today's training didn't go very well.

We worked on a passing pattern to mimic goal kicks. A combination of factors led to it going wrong, including some players that weren't able to meet the technical and tactical demands of the exercise, and the large numbers of players involved, combined with the fact that I'm one coach working with 14 U11 players at once.

It represented an over-estimation of my own coaching capacity, and the capacity of the players to execute. To make matters worse, in my training plan, I had an even more complicated progression written down.

To fix my mistake, I first cut down on the time I had planned to spend on the exercise. I realized there wasn't much chance to salvage it at that point. Second, I skipped the progression, and simply ran back through the same pattern. Even though many of the players recognized that the exercise wasn't going well, I had to sort of 'sell' them on the idea of doing it again, without blaming them or lumping the pressure on them. The second repetition went much better, even if it was still a ways from being a part of an ideal session.

Making mistakes is a part of the coaching process. I don't beat myself up about it like I used to, and I try to evaluate it without emotion. Yes, I made a mistake. Yes, certain factors out of my control were at play. All I can do is learn from my mistakes, and focus on the factors I CAN control. These types of mistakes give me valuable insight into the limits of my players, but ESPECIALLY, they show me my own limits and deficiencies as a coach. And those are much easier, and much more important, to correct.