jordanwsc-blog

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Coaching at USA

Arena coaching day

I was introduced to other members of the team I was working with for the day and the team was given a briefing and information about how the day would run. The Children from the School were split in to smaller groups and had half an hour session doing different activities. I was allocated to the problem-solving sessions that involved the Children working as a team to achieve a goal competitively against the other half of the group. I allowed the Children from each group to work independently to solve the problem, only stepping in and giving advice if their progress had been slow for a while. I Learned that letting the children work on their own allowed them to bond and work as a team with a natural leader standing out and co-ordinating the group. I adapted some sessions to make them more complicated for the older students by giving them less equipment to use during tasks and therefore making it harder. I found this different from then days at Ulverston leisure centre because I was only doing one session and found that I became better at leading that session because I could do it consistently throughout the day and identify what some groups did well and what some struggled with. I can use this while running other sessions and found some of the exercises useful for ice breaker warm ups before other sports sessions.

I have since used these activities as ice breaker activities during my NCS assessment day for the group I was leading. I can now adapt these activities by using what I have learned during my time at Ulverston leisure centre to make more challenging for the young adults I will be working with during the NCS programme. I will also be able to adapt it for people with learning difficulties. However, I think working with people with disabilities would help me to gain experience and knowledge in this field and therefore, it would be something to aim for in the future.

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Ulverston Leisure Centre

Day 3,4,7 and 8 Multi sports

During the multi sports sessions I could use much more equipment and environment to create a greater variety of sports sessions. The sessions had more children then the Football sessions and a much bigger gap in ages. The first half hour of the day, we let the children decide what session they wanted to take part in, they had the choice of rounders, football and cricket. I took the Football session that involved ball control and passing and then played dodge ball before we had lunch. After lunch all the children took part in a tennis session ran by an instructor external to the company. I then took a tag rugby session outside till the end of the day.

The football session I took in the morning had both boys and girls and I found it hard to get some of the girls involved in the session because they had brought their own equipment and wanted to play with that rather than take part in my session. The dodgeball session was hard to create drills for although the children did not get bored of playing it. I found it hard to involve myself in the tennis session because I was not leading it and instead supporting Children as they played and gave them advice although I have not coached much tennis. I refereed the tag rugby session and introduced the rules to those who had not played much before.

I managed to create a session for the girls that they would enjoy and allowed them to play without the boys, so they could become more involved and were less intimidated.  The Children enjoyed playing dodgeball, so no drills were needed for them to become engaged in the session. However, I did manage to give advice to those who needed it. I learned that I need to further experience and research more about coaching tennis to give better advice, by finding out more about errors and how to improve performance aspects such as serving technique and back hand swings.

[jordanwsc-blog]

Ulverston Leisure Centre

Day 1,2,5 and 6- Football camp

The first day of the placement was warm and sunny, I met who I would be working with for the day. We were then able to take 26 children outside on a 3G pitch, most were over 8 years old and most were male. We all played small sided games for the first half an hour while everyone arrived and got signed in. I then took the older half of the group to an AstroTurf pitch and played a drill that included ball control and shooting, rotating round so each player could have a go at each aspect. After lunch we swapped groups and did the drills with the new group and then had a large game to finish the day.

It was interesting to coach both groups and see the differences between them in terms of skill and age. I found it much more difficult to coach the afternoon group because they were younger and harder to communicate with and they found it harder to understand the rules and follow instructions.

I found this a challenge and had to adapt my session by regressing the drill and making it easier for the younger Children to understand and play. I also had to make it more fast paced to keep them interested and involved. I can use this in the future to adapt my sessions straight away by starting with an easier session and progressing it to make it harder rather than the other way around.