Unfortunately, we have come to the end of my coaching placement at Raploch Primary School. Today, I assisted a lunchtime club, basketball session and a rugby session. For this particular blog, I have chosen to talk about the basketball session.

The aim of the session was to work on dribbling with the ball as I noticed from last week’s session the children were eager to pass but were reluctant to dribble. For the warm-up, every participant had a ball however, there were four catchers. All of the participants who had a ball were encouraged to dribble around the area without getting tug by the catchers. However, if they got tug, they had to hold the ball with two hands and separate their legs. To be freed another participant had to roll their ball under their legs.

Drill one required the participants to dribble in a straight line up to the cone directly in front of them while performing a shot into the basket. Secondly, the participants had to dribble in and out of the cones until they reached the end cone, where they performed another shot. Thirdly, pressure was added upon the participants where they had to dribble into the central area, beat a passive defender and then finish with a shot. This allowed the participants to get used to the movements required in a basketball game, enabling them to gain more confidence in their ability to beat a defender.

Finally, we played a conditioned game where the participants had to try and beat one defender before they could shoot into the basket. During the game, I noticed a lot of the participants were receiving the ball and standing stationary for a long period of time. Therefore, I added a condition that when a player received the ball, they had three seconds to pass it to a teammate if they did not decide to dribble. If a player held on to the ball longer than the allocated timeframe they where penalised and the ball was handed over to the opposition. Once this condition was added I noticed a huge difference as the game flowed continuously without any stoppages.

Overall, my time at Raploch Primary School has been amazing! I have met so many great people and have built strong relationships with both the kids and my mentor. I am very fortunate to have been given this opportunity to boost my skills and knowledge within a variety of sports. Furthermore, it was a privilege to work with such an enthusiastic group of young people and adults – I cannot wait to return next year when my dissertation is complete!