So for my Equity project, I decided to do something that I know
I’d enjoy doing. So I volunteered for a
girl’s soccer team in Newark. The girls are about 10 and 11, so they are
5th and 6th graders, except for one girl, she is in second grade,
but she keeps up well. Anyway, for my
first day I was extremely nervous, I really wanted the girls to like me. I got out of the car and they all asked who I
was, I told them my name. Then Mark,
their coach called me and all of the girls over into a big circle. Mark told them to raise their hand and say
their name, I had to try and remember them all.
They’re young and think everything is funny so if I’d mix up a name that would make them
laugh and make fun of me. It was cute
though, they were having fun.
Next thing we jumped into for the first day was warm ups,
they all got a partner and lined up and did one touch passes to each
other. Some of the girls aren’t very
experienced so I was there to help guide them with what ever task they had to
do, and teach them the correct way. Some
of the girls were very stubborn, for example; one girl showed up late and
started walking over, all the girls told me, “Watch out for her”. I asked, “Why”, and they told me, “We call
her Sassy, you’ll see why soon”. And I soon figured out why they call her Sassy. She had no partner so I had to be partnered
up with her, she wasn’t too bad, but if I told her to do something or not do
something she would say “okay”, but wouldn’t listen to me. I’m not going to lie, it made me frustrated
and just wants to kick the ball at her face, but I got over it and acted as if I
wasn’t annoyed. Patience was very
important for my first day with the girls.
For day one, I realized that you have to be patient with
younger kids; they think they can just rebel against someone like me and think its
okay. I love kids though, and usually
really patient with them, but I’ve never really had to help teach a sport. It is more difficult than people think,
especially the younger the group of kids are.
You tell them one thing and next thing you know, it’s in one ear and out
the other. Overall though, Id says it
was a pretty successful first day, and I can’t wait to go back. They enjoyed themselves, and I did too.
Here is a picture of the passing drill that they did for warm ups.
2 comments:
Is sounds like you had a great time giving this team some of your soccer skills and helping them be better players. Its great that you are helping out your community and you can enjoy it even more because its a sport you love. I have also learned though my community service that you have to be patient with everybody, especially kids. With time and effort hopefully patients wil be worth it and this team will be better and have more fun. You did a great job.
It looks like you did a good job with the kids. It seems like you had a good time teaching a sport you love to kid's that one day could be the next star their sport. You really do have to be patient with the younger kid's, but it's worth the stress knowing their improving and will learn what you're trying to teach them eventually. This is well put, and it really does show what coaching kids is like. Good job Maddie!
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