My last day of placement! I was feeling a mix of emotions for this.  I was pleased to have gotten to the end but also sad that I was leaving.  I was talking to them other coaches before sessions started and they were saying that they had forgotten I was only on placement and thought I was working there with them.  This was a really nice feeling.  I am so glad to have made such good relationships with the other guys.  They are all relatively young and at the beginning of their coaching careers but already I can see that there coaching abilities are great with children and they they will continue to do well.
We had 2 new children at the pre school group which was great and we got to do some fun obstacle courses.  The kids really enjoyed this session and were really engaged which was nice.
The next two group also went well and the kids were trying really hard this week.  I always think it is quite amazing the energy they still have coming to these sessions on a Friday after a long week at school.
last session is the day was Dodgeball.  This session was the most challenging it has been.  After the warm up and exercises we split the kids into teams.  I was helping one team when I notice that there were two boys arguing and being quite nasty to each other.  I told them that was enough and they needed to focus on the game and what they were doing.  They weren’t really listening and one of the boys was making hand signals to his dad that he was going to punch the boy.  I spoke to Tony about this and he said they are always like this, although it had been better the last few weeks.  He spoke to them, however throughout the rest of the game the little comments and cheek was exchanged between the two.  It was quite annoying that the parents were up in the cafe area watching and didn’t bother to come and intervene.  I don’t believe it is the role of the coaches to manage the children who basically want to fight.  I understand that there will be disagreements between kids but this is a long standing issue.  It’s a shame that the rest of the team had to suffer and wait around while we were continuously talking to the boys.

At the end of the session Tony thanked me for all my help and asked me if I would be interested in working with them next year.  I was really happy with this as it made me feel very appreciated.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at placement.  It has been a completely different setting from my usual work and I have learned a lot and developed a lot new skills and understanding for coaching.

Christina