Chesterfield FC coaching session 1.

Me and three other students coached a lesson to Chesterfield under 7's. There was 20 kids and we had an hour and half to coach them.

As a few kids turned up early, i got them in a circle and passed the ball round. When everybody turned up, we got them in a grid (size of two badminton courts) with a ball each dribbling around which that they had to include any skills or turns they had learnt in the previous weeks. Then we introduced 'tiggy scarecrow football'. This consisted of two people being on to begin with, they had to tig the other people while dribbling with the ball. If you got tug, you had to freeze into a scarecrow, to get untug another person had to dribble with the ball under your arms. The next few rounds, three, four and five people were on. This progressed and made it more difficult. Plus, it gave everybody a turn to be on.

While this game was on, a few people was late so i had to introduce them, explain what they was doing and then gave them a ball to let them join in. I also noticed a few peoples shoe laces was undone so i asked them if they wanted me to tie them as i realised quite a few of them couldnt do it.

As it was cold in the sports hall and was the last lesson until after christmas, we organised them into four teams and played mini matches.I was a captain for one team so i had to introduce myself to my team, got to know them and related to them. During the matches, i constantly praised and encouraged both teams which increased their confidence and allowed them to have more fun. For one match, my team had too many players so i dropped out and refereed the match. For this, iused my whistle a lot, and shouted to maintain control while still enouraging the kids. Most of the time i follwed play so i could view and help them better but on occasions i stood around one part of the pitch as they kept tripping over the netting which was dangerous so i warned the kids to be careful around that part.

In the matches, there was quite a lot of incidents where kids were getting hurt. When this happened, i immiediately stopped the play and made sure the kids was okay. In one occasion, a kid got hurt and started crying, i ran over to him and made sure he was okay. He was struggling to run so i got him to come and stand i net with me. After one minute, he was fine and carried on with the game.

In my team, i had a defender who could read the game really well, there was one battler who made all the tackles, one that was quite tall and skillful who took players on, then finally a playmaker who was involved most of the match. We wore orange bibs, so i told the team that we was Blackpool... This got them excited and more eager to win.

I really enjoyed the session and i thought i did a really good job as i related to the kids which made them look up to me. I dealt with different circumstances such as people turning up early and late. Plus, tieing shoelaces and dealing with injured/upest kids.

Delivery of my football circuit.

This morning, i had to set up my football circuit for 10 people in an area, size of a badminton court. It was cold in the sports hall so we needed to keep everbody on their toes so they kept warm. As a warm up we got them running round the area and we shouted instructions out: 1. Touch the floor with your left hand. 2.Touch the floor with your right hand. 3. Head the ball.

After the warm up, i demonstrated the circuit. This consisted of:

1. Dribbling in a circle.
2. Kick-ups.
3. Toe-taps.
4. Shuttle runs.
5. Pass against the wall.
6.Dribbling on the spot.

This circuit mainly aimed to improve ball control, while having a bit of fun and keeping warm. As it was cold in the sports hall, i had to keep on encouraging the particpants to keep up what they were doing. I tried helping and improving them if they wasnt doing it correctly.

The session lated 15 minutes. Each person had 1 minute on a station, then 30 seconds resting time. Everybody had a go on each station.

Abercrombie Visit 3.

Today, our lesson was held inside as the weather permitted us from using the outdoor facilities. Due to the this, we had to change our sessions again.

After the register, i took the group, introduced myself and Kurt, told them that we was doing the warm up and got them to stand up. After that, Kurt explained what the warm up consisted of.

The warm up was basic, the kids had to run round the grid to start off with. Then we introduced one ball, then two, then three which they had to pass round. After two minutes, we realised that it was too crowded and children just ran to the ball screaming. So, we stopped the group and split them into two groups. I had one and Kurt had the other. We had half of a badminton court each. I explained to the children that they had to run into space before recieving the ball.

Eventhough this warm up didn't go to plan, it still was successful as the children enjoyed it, got them thinking, made them aware and got their heart rate increasing.

Then we passed the group onto Dan who then explained the 'Shark Game.' We repeated this game another two times as the kids had a lot of fun and enjoyed it. All the coaches got involved in this game which was a huge possitive as the children liked the competetivness which made them try harder and it got them excited.

After this game, we introduced relays. We also repeated this three times.We split the group into two, the problem with this was that we had kids waiting around in very little space which made in confusing and over crowded.One of the races, Josey started crying as somebody pushed in the queue so i took her to the side and made sure she was okay then i lined her back up and then she carried on with the race straight away.

We then calmed the children down as they had to go back to class.

I thought the session went well. I could of improved my teaching as i didn't get involved as much as i would of liked to but when i was involved, i was loud and clear which enabled the kids to understand what to do. Plus, i encouraged a lot by clapping and saying well done, i got to know them as i spoke to quite a few which allowed everybody to feel comfortable around me.

*The Register*

Football session 1.

Today, we were given a football level 1 activity which we had to deliver to 8 people on a badminton court.

My session was successful as the whole group listened and understood the task. The noise level in the sports hall was high so I did more demonstrations rather than talking through it. I am pleased with the session as we only had 5 minutes to prepare. I used 4 balls and 8 cones.

Athletics Circuit - Jessica Ennis.

As Jessica Ennis was in college, we had to deliver an athletics circuit to 40 children from Abercrombie school and Christ Church school.

A few kids turned up early, as we didn't want them sitting around gettin bored, we gave them brief demonstrations of the circuit to familiarise them with it.

As everybody turned up, we gave a 5 minute warm up. We played Simon says, 3 of us demonstrated it, the rest joined in making the kids feel comfortable. This warm up was successful as the kids enjoyed it, nobody was sat out and it prepared them.

My group delivered hurdles which we had 10 minutes to do. We firstly introduced ourselves and got to know them. We then explained and demonstrated the key techniques and got them to copy us. We then allowed them to practice jumping over cones so they could learn the techniques. After 2 minutes, we teamed them up then introduced them to the practice hurdles. We allowed them to have one practice go. After this we did races, this was successful as the children enjoyed the competetiveness.

We did this 5 other times for the other groups.

As coaches, we was successful as we demonstrated, joined in, introduced ourselves, got to know the children and we did a lot of encouraging and congratulating (e.g. Clapping)  which gave them confidence.

Abercrombie, visit 2.

Today, we had to adapt our training plans due to weather conditions outside.

We had five minutes as a group to develop a training session for 32 children in a small area ( badminton court.) We immediately set up a plan:

- The Warm Up

- A Fun Game.

- Relays.

Dan, Luke and myself delivered the warm up. Straight away we got control of the children as they knew we was in charge. We spoke them through with what we was going to do and gave them some safety instructions. We set up a grid with cones around the badminton court, which we got the children to run around in. The children just ran side to side to start off with so Dan stopped the group and told them to run in different directions. After a minute, Dan told them to do sidesteps and then a minute later, to skip. A minute later, i stopped the group and gave then another instruction which was... " Now, im going to shout out some numbers! If i shout 2, you get in two's, if i shout 3, you get into three's and so on." I asked them if they understood then i got them to start running around the grid again. Luke shouted the numbers out, they got in the numbers, then i got them running again. We did this four times then i stopped the group, told them well done and then passed them onto the next group.
I am happy with my role in the coaching as i was loud and clear with my instructions and i took control of the class.

The next group played a game called "Mountains and Valleys." I helped this group by spreading out the cones, encouraging them and then counting the cones at the end.
After this game, i grouped all the children up and got them to sit down ready for the relays.

I helped the next group by taking charge of a team of 10 for the relays. This group was slighly unorganised as the children were too excited at the time, so i calmed down my team and explained what they had to do. One girl started crying and didnt want to the race as she said she wasnt very good. I spoke to the girl and told her that she did well but she could sit out if she wanted. The girl joined back in with the race.

This was the end of the session. I spoke to a few of the children by crouching down on my knees so i was at the same height as them. I asked what there names was and if they enjoyed the games.

Overall, the session went well as we took control, the children enjoyed it and we was flexible as we changed our session plan within 5 minutes and delivered it well.

Abercrombie, visit 1.

Today we visited Abercrombie Primary School to deliver our Athletics circuit.

I was in charge of the Javelin station which consisted of us using 5 foam javelins and 5 cones. We had 5 students at a time which we made stand on a cone which were spread out in a line. I demonstrated the techniques of a javelin throw:
1. Hold the javelin 3 quarters of the way down.
2. Legs shoulder width apart.
3. Bend your back leg.
4. Opposite arm, point up to the air.
5. Follow through your throw.

We allowed them to have two practice throws which then we turned into a little competition. The first group of people i didn't really connect with them as i didn't ask there names. With the remaining 5 groups, i connected with the students as i introduced myself and asked for their names.

Overall, the coaching went well. To improve it, i could of corrected the kids technique to help them throw further. 

Athletics Circuit

1. Shuttle runs
2. Shot-put using bean bags
3. Javelin using foam javelins
4. Hurdles
5. Long jump

Football Circuit.

1. Kick-ups - This develops ball control.
2. Passing against a wall - This helps you on your passing and reactions.
3. Press-ups on top of the ball - This develops upper body strength and balance.
4. Sit-ups with the ball.
5. Kick-ups (Head only) - This helps on your footwork, balance and heading.
6. Shuttle runs - This increases cardiovascular fitness.
7. Volleys against the wall - This helps your reactions and ables you to deal with complicated passes.
8. Leaps (Heading ball motion) - This helps your heading technique and helps your fitness.
9. Jumping over the ball - This develops balance and footwork.
10. Tip-Taps on ball - This helps footwork and quick feet.
11. Dribbling in the middle round cones (circle) - This develops ball control, both feet and Dribbling.

5-10 minute training session.

My training session had 5 feeders which each had a ball and were spread out in one half of the astro-turf. The rest of the people (15) had to run about and receive the ball off of the feeder and had to volley it back. After 1 minute i stopped the class and told them to swap feeders. The next task they had to do the same but they had to head it back.

This session included you working on technique, it was skill based, everybody was moving, we changed the task to a different skill, we swapped the feeders and we was loud and clear. This was the positive feedback we got! We got told several improvements we could do, such as involve more skills in order from bottom to top (feet, knee, chest, head) Plus we got told to do a demonstration.

In the afternoon, we did this session again. As i explained what they had to do, i also shown them a demonstration of the activity. We did mostly the same but we gave the feeders a bib so they stood out. Instead of doing just volley and a header, we did a simple ground pass, a volley, a knee and a head. We also told the students that they could only receive the ball if they was 5 yards away, which prevented the balls going everywhere.

Overall, the session went well which we improved on a lot in the afternoon. I think i could of been slightly more clear with my instructions which i will improve on next time.

Training Session 1.

This training session took place in a small area as the rest of the sports centre was unavailable. We ended the training session with a game of head tennis.