Volunteering with Tottenham Hotspur Foundation

Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th July I volunteered with Tottenham Hotspur Foundation summer camp which took place at Leyton Sixth Form.

We had 3 main coaches, Josh, Cedric and Ryan that were leading the sessions. We had roughly 18 children ages 5 up to 14 and they were separated into two groups, the older and younger ones. 

Monday - We had 3 main sports that each session would focus on and these were tag rugby, football and hockey. This worked out well as each child enjoyed every sport they participated in. The games for the younger children were basic but they were more advanced for the older children. The coaches gave us a choice on whether we wanted to lead a session or not and we did lead a couple, they also got us to participate so that we weren't just sitting about and this helped us engage more with the children who are now used to us and see us in a more authoritative light as well as someone they can talk to on a not so serious level.

Overall today was a good first day and talking to the coaches and children came naturally to me and I felt comfortable whilst doing so, the coaches were friendly and supportive and gave us roles which we were capable of. The children were also friendly towards us and if anything looked to us for support, which made the whole thing worth while. 

Tuesday - Second and final day of the volunteering and it was quite sad knowing that it was the last time spending time coaching with Tottenham hotspurs and the children. Today we focused on football, basketball and some form of cricket. We did the same as Monday when it came to helping encourage the children to participate and you had to be friendly as they were incredibly sensitive and cried a lot. However today was more of a successful day as the children were better behaved which meant that the games worked out much better. We also picked a couple activities we wanted the children to do for example the game 'capture the flag'

I can honestly say it was a pleasure working with the coaches from Tottenham Hotspur and I'm very grateful for the opportunity.

As I've enjoyed working alongside these coaches I decide to pick three more extra days which have turned out to be a good choice as not only is it more experience for myself but gives me more of a chance to utilise my leader skills I learnt during the CSLA week. There is also another coach called Stephen and he is just as friendly as the rest which makes the experience all that more enjoyable. I chose to lead a warm up to get all the children engaged early in the morning this was successful however would have been more effective if the children were less disruptive and better behaved. None the less it has been an enjoyable process and I'm glad I was able to do it.

Nike Elite Coral - Review

As I was aware that I was starting a sports leadership course and I also keep myself involved in a bunch of sport activities I thought it would be more practical if I purchased a pair of Nike elites as they are made for sport and converse not so much. 

I've had these shoes for just over a week and can honestly say I adore everything about them. The fit, the colour and how they make my feet look. They are super comfortable and don't need to be worn in like most shoes when you first purchase them. I think I love them much more because of the bright coral colour as I'm quire adventurous when it comes to footwear and it'll make me enjoy exercising and working out even more. The material of the shoes are very thin so you're feet don't sweat as much as they would especially in the summer. The shoes are also lightweight which means when doing activities your feet aren't heavy so it easier to move about whereas Air Force 1's are incredibly heavy and make it harder to do sports.

CSLA Course

This past week I've been attending a CSLA course which is a smaller course within my sports leadership course. We've been Monday to Thursday to learn different units as there were 7. Each day we would learn something new. This week has actually taught me a lot as a lot of preparation goes into the different aspects of coaching a session.

Monday (Unit 1 & 2) - This was the first day of the CSLA course, today we learnt the basic coaching skills finding out what makes a good and bad coach, we were shown a few warm up games then we went into pairs to plan a warm up, main activity and cool down. In pairs we got the rest of the leadership team to participate in our warm up we then got feedback on how we could improve for future games. 

What the leadership team had chosen for what makes a good and bad leader.

Tuesday (Unit 4 & 5) - Once again we planned a warm up, main activity and cool down however this time we did it in groups and had to plan using a list of equipment that was available to our group. My groups equipment list consisted of bibs, hoops, tennis ball, basketball and cones. Our warm up was called hula bounce (original name) the person would be throwing and  catching the tennis ball whilst hula hopping, the main activity was bench basketball/netball and our cool down was a jog and some stretches. After this we then had to focus on health and safety, we played a pictionary like game where a member of the team  would draw a safety hazard and we would have to guess what it was. We then had to plan an activity where would show a bunch of hazards and another team would have to guess what sort of hazards they were e.g obstruction, wet floor or inappropriate clothing and footwear.

Wednesday (Unit 3) - This unit was all about leading a seesion to improve fitness, we started off in a classroom learning about fitness components and different forms of training. We then had a gym induction where we thoroughly shown how to use the equipment correctly, these were all shown to us with a demonstration as well as brief explanation of what part of the body each machine targeted. Later we had chosen a sport that we wanted to improve on fitness wise that we would then make a circuit for on the machines in the fitness room. My group had chosen tae kwon do as the picture below shows.

Once it was planned we went into the fitness room to put it into action.

       College gym membership band 

 Coleena explaining her fitness circuit to her partner.

Thursday (unit 6 & 7) - Today we were planning and delivering an event one which was a competition and one which was an event. Within an event there are 3 main sections these are team building, co operative and parachute each pair had to make up there own game to one of those. My partner and had done a game for a cooperative event, we had given them 6 mats between 10 people for them to cross from one side of the court to the other. After having played all of these games we split into 3 groups where we would create our own competition the main sections for this is round robin, ladder and knock outs. The group I worked with had decided we would do a round robin knock out in a mini doubles tennis tournament the outcome was very good as each team got to play every other team and in the end we had our winners.

Two of the teams planning their competitions.

My team whilst planning our competition.

Nick and Sai in their one on one basketball game in a round robin competition.

Another team in the background playing squash in a knock out competition.

Overall this week has been a good experience for me as I've managed to become friends with people I hadn't previously known and I've learnt sports activities which are new to me. I've gained better team work skills as well as leadership skills and have become more confident within myself.

Welcome

Hi I'm Jazz, this is a brief introduction to my new blog which will be focused on different sports and the sports leadership course I am involved in. Keep checking up on my blog for new posts.