It’s all fine and well when you’re training in a group class with an instructor, or you have a coach or instructor with you during a training session giving you advice and offering you counsel. But what about the times when you’re not in a class or don’t have a coach guiding you; when you’re either training by yourself or with a training partner?
An important element your personal growth and development is learning how to be your own coach when you need to; learning how to evaluate yourself and assess your training, sometimes during but primarily following a workout. When you use self-evaluation, you can assess various aspects of yourself during the training such as physical (fitness levels, etc.), technical (skill in technique, coordination, etc.), mental (attitude), emotional (nervousness, etc.)
Self-evaluating your training session is about giving yourself feedback. And the key to self-evaluation is asking good questions to yourself. These questions (and their answers) can help guide your learning and reveal what has been learned and what is left to be learned. They can also help you better understand the Why - What – and How of your training and practice.
The following are examples of some post-training questions you can pose to yourself at the conclusion of a training session:
Did you fulfill the intention of the training session?
Were you fully present and focused during the training session?
What did you learn in this training session?
How was it for you today? How did the workout feel to you?
What experience do you want to remember from today’s session?
What did you like/enjoy about the training session? What, if anything, did you not enjoy?
Did you accomplish your goal(s) in the training session?
Have you increased your competence or abilities in some way?
Do you feel that you did that the best you could do in the workout session?
Are there things you think you could have done better?
Self-evaluation is an essential and integral tool in personal growth. It can help you become aware of your various strengths and weaknesses and help educate you to recognize and correct your own faults. At the conclusion of the training session, research the experience. Critique what you did during the workout. Ask questions and be honest with your answers, because if you’re not the only person you will end up fooling will be yourself. Self-evaluate your training session without passing judgment upon yourself and use the information to help spur you on and move you forward to higher levels of performance.