It has been a busy week for me at placement this week.
Thursday 24th I was at Dunblane Primary with Tony (my mentor) to deliver the cricket session. It was a good session this week and the pupils were a bit more engaged. We had additional support from two Dunblane high school pupils, which definitely helped to take the pressure off as it was a busy session. I enjoyed working with the younger pupils in the groups on their bowling techniques and encouraging them to get runs in, in mini games.
Next was Dunblane High for the Floorball. I was there for three seasons this week. The S1’s, junior and senior club sessions. They were all good sessions. I was refereeing in the first and felt quite confident in my ability to do so. The only disappointment for me today was that the senior club group didn’t turn up for their session and some of the S1’s had stayed on for this and had been talking about a particular player and his skills. I felt disappointed for them and myself not having gotten the opportunity to train with them and learn from them as some of them have played at international level.
Friday 25th
I was at the Dunblane centre for 3 sessions. The first session was my crowning glory moment of my placement so far. It was a preschool session. 1 of the boys Josh who comes, never wants to participate and always clings to who ever brings him along. Today was no different and all the other coaches tried to get him to engage. Tony asked me to try as they had, had no luck. Josh was trying to cling on to mum and she said you might just have to hold him, while we leave (his nana was there also) I said is that ok and they said yes so I tried to distract him while then went out and after a second or two he was clinging on to me. I chatted with him and tried to put him at ease. I walked him around the room so he could see what was there and I asked him what he thought we would be doing. He was a bit reluctant but stayed with me. Tony started the session and I worked one to one with Josh. If any of the other coaches came and talked to him he would turn and face the corner. At first his didn’t want to do anything but I would start doing it and be very enthusiastic and excited and eventually he wanted to try. He engaged in about half of the session and then he just wanted to run around and play with the ball having me chase him. His mum and nana were so pleased at the end. Tony as well thanked me and said that, that was the most he had ever done in a session. I left really pleased that I had managed to get him involved. His mum asked if I would be there next week and I said yes. They were very happy and kept thanking me for helping Josh.
I think having kids myself and having one of my children in a similar situation when she started swimming lessons helped me to understand what Josh was going through. I knew I needed to make him feel comfortable with me and I needed to make what I was doing look fun and exciting for him to want to try. On reflecting on this session I then realised that I am the only female coach working with Tony at the moment. I feel that this had a big impact on Josh as he relates better to women. I hadn’t really noticed this before but it might be beneficial for Tony to have a mix of coaches at sessions as some children relate better to one or the other.
The last two sessions I did were Halloween game themed and were a lot of fun to be involved in. I look forward to next Friday.
Hi, your placement seems such a variety of age group with children, which is great getting the experience with working with children of different ages. Your placement seems ideal also due to the different thing you are getting to do with giving techniques and referring. It’s nice you got the boy to come out his shell a bit and hopefully he will get more involved in future activities. I think you are correct about having mixed coaches as every child is different on how they respond to male or females as everyone does react differently.
From
Holly Sheil
Great pictures! Your placement seems like a lot of fun love the Halloween themed ideas. That’s great that you managed to get Josh involved and hopefully has boosted his confidence to go back and participate again.
-Rebecca