Friday 20th September
I arranged to meet Tony my mentor after the seminar at the Dunblane Centre. I was excited about this, a bit nervous and worried as I always seem to have a hundred things going through my head. What will my mentor be like? What am I going to be doing? Will he like me? Will the kids like me? What if they don’t? and the usual nerves of being a little bit out of my comfort zone. I know in myself that I get this way when starting something new. I teach a lot if exercise classes and still get these same sorts of feelings when taking on a new class or covering for another instructor. I believe it is natural to have these feelings. I have over the years learned to put my “game face” on in these situations. Where I might be quietly freaking out inside, on the outside I look calm and collected. Deep breaths are always a good way to achieve this.
When I met Tony, I was almost instantly put at ease. He was really friendly and easy to talk to. He told me a bit about himself and how he came to be running this business and I shared my working background with him. He showed me an app they have for learning the games which I thought was a great idea. It is a relatively new thing and they have it as 1 of his coaches is a visual learner so this makes things easier for him learning his sessions. He talked through the sessions he currently runs days and times and the sports they use and play. He talked about Floor ball which I had never heard of so he showed me a video of it and I said it was definitely something I would be interested in learning more about. I explained my home situation to Tony, and he was very understanding. Which again put my mind a bit more at ease. However, I felt that I didn’t want to let him down and not be committed as he had been kind enough to offer a place in the first place. We arranged that I would give him a least a weeks’ notice of what days and times I was able to come along, and I agreed to start the following Friday 27th September. I left feeling pleased with how the meeting had went and confident that this placement was going to be a good experience and a lot of fun.