1. Pinpoint
Identify what actually matters now, from the athlete's goals, context, curriculum and what you've observed.
LEARNING Method
Seven steps.
One season.
PERFORM is SHOT's season-long method for helping a coach and an athlete build, deliver, review and continue a development plan together. It is a coaching method first. Software just makes it easier to run consistently, across a whole squad, across a whole season.
The process
What PERFORM
stands for.
2. Evaluate
Bring the athlete's own view together with your observation and any other useful evidence before drawing a conclusion.
3. Refine
Turn a broad ambition or worry into something specific enough to actually coach and practise.
4. Focus
Agree what you'll both work on, why it matters, and what useful progress would actually look like.
5. Optimise
Adapt the task, the practice, the support or the environment so the conditions suit this athlete and this outcome.
6. Report
Make what's changed, the evidence and the next action clear, to the athlete and, where relevant, other coaches or a parent.
7. Maintain
Revisit the priority as context changes, protect what's been gained, and carry the plan into the next block or season.
These aren't seven steps you tick off in order once. A coach returns to Pinpoint or Refine whenever the context changes. Maintain is what keeps a plan useful after the first improvement, rather than letting it go stale.
The scope
Five pillars.
Every block.
Each four-week block carries one focus from every pillar, so a plan never narrows to skill alone. These are SHOT's practical synthesis for coaching, built to organise recurring development needs consistently across sport. They aren't a universal scientific model, and they aren't five isolated scores to hit.
- Technical
- Psychological
- Social
- Physical
- Personal
- Technical. Skill, tactical execution and decision-making under relevant conditions.
- Psychological. Confidence, attention, resilience and how the athlete responds under pressure.
- Social. Communication, teamwork, belonging and the relationships around the athlete.
- Physical. Movement, fitness, conditioning, recovery and body control.
- Personal. Habits, preparation, responsibility and ownership of their own development.
The structure
13 blocks.
52 weeks.
The block is the planning unit: long enough to introduce a focus, practise it, observe it in relevant conditions, and decide what happens next. Full-season coverage doesn't mean a form after every session. Coaching judgement decides when a conversation will actually add development value.
13
four-week blocks
52
weeks of curriculum
5
focus areas in every block, one per pillar
The development rhythm
Prepare.
Reflect. Feedback.
Prepare
Before a useful moment, clarify the athlete's intention, readiness and confidence. It gives them a voice and tells you what to watch for.
Reflect
Afterwards, help the athlete make sense of what happened: the decisions, the feelings, the evidence, not just whether the result was good or bad.
Feedback
You add a specific observation, check the athlete's interpretation against it, and help turn the evidence into a next step.
There's no fixed 48-hour window and no rule to run this around every event. Use it at moments that can actually move the plan forward: the start or review of a block, a new challenge, a recurring pattern, a big performance, a return after time away, a handover to another coach.
The output
A next step
you can actually observe.
The next step is the bridge between reflection and practice. It responds to this athlete's context, connects to the current block, describes an action either of you can take, and says what evidence would show progress. "Be more confident" isn't a development action yet.
A specific next step
"Before receiving under pressure, scan once for the nearest option in three representative practices, then review what changed."
What this is, honestly
The five pillars are SHOT's own synthesis, not a scientific taxonomy. Whole-person, stage-sensitive athlete development is well supported by youth-sport research, including the IOC's consensus statement on youth athletic development and the FA's Plan, Do, Review model. Comparing an athlete's confidence with observed performance is a coaching lens SHOT built to guide the next conversation, not a formula. A development plan gives you a consistent way to focus practice, review evidence and choose the next step. It doesn't guarantee improvement on its own.