The Coaching Manual: Phil, you’ve been part of the group of coaches we invited to help us create the digital assistant, how has the process been for you?
Phil Smith: Well, when we started back in January, it was brilliant for me and the team. I’ve been a Coaching Manual user for a while and have used loads of the sessions with my players since they were 6 years old, but I’d never thought to actually get them to watch the session beforehand.
TCM: Was it easy to set up?
PS: Yes, thanks to the help from the team at The Coaching Manual, I just shared a list of my parents email addresses and you did the rest. The parents registered and then I just upgraded their access with the license manager tool. It couldn’t have been easier really.
TCM: Did you have any hiccups?
PS: Only because of Covid. We were really getting into the swing of things when Covid hit, I was sharing sessions each week and the players were watching all the videos. Then Covid started and we lost the end of last season.
TCM: Did you continue to share content during lockdown?
PS: Definitely, there’s so much good information about the game in those sessions. So, I set my players a task to watch a video each week and then write a little report about it, it definitely kept their learning going.
TCM: Did you find your training sessions improved
PS: It was instant! I’m not joking, the players turned up for the first session after watching the video and they were better prepared to train than ever. We had the arrival activity and then started doing a session on switching play by Terry Moore. I spent hardly any time explaining what was happening, because they’d already watched it!
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