Friday 8th 2016 was my third day volunteering to coach soccer to the girls at Eastside Elementary School. I did the usual signing myself in and talking to the teacher first like I usually do. We then walked outside to the field with all the students because it was a beautiful day. There was a decent amount of girls this week which was good for me because I had a schedule set up already for them. I let the girls know that we would be working on everything we had been working on in the past three weeks. It is important that they know how to pass, dribble and shoot in soccer. I wanted to do all of these drills together to see if they had remembered everything I had taught them. Also we plan on having a tournament next Friday to finish off.

Firstly, we started off with the usual warm-up game. We played a game called Simon says. I would command the kids to do something and they would have to do it. For example, I would say ‘Simon says run around’ and they would have to run around until I said a different command. However, if I said ‘run around’ and they ran around this means they would be out of the game. When they were out of the game they would have to go to the side and do star jumps or run on the spot depending on what I told them to do. This game was good to get their brains thinking and their bodies moving. Once they had warmed up we started playing this game for passing called the square drill. This drill involved the girls to line up evenly on each cone of the square. One girl would start with the ball then simply pass it around the square clockwise with both feet. Once they got the hang of this I told them to only pass it with the right foot and after they got the hang of this they moved onto just using the left foot. Once we did this passing drill we moved onto the dribbling technique again. This drill for dribbling is called a relay race which involved competition and a bit of fun also. The girls were split into two groups and they would have to dribble the ball from one cone to the next then stop at the second cone and run to the next cone do star jumps then run back to get the ball and dribble back for the next girl to go. Once you had gone you would have to sit down and wait until your whole group was done. Whoever finished first would win the race. The drill would change but as long as it was to do with dribbling. The next drill was aimed on shooting. All I did was add to the relay race. Once they had dribbled to the first cone and jog to the next to do an exercise they would turn and get a pass from me then shoot. If they missed they would go get the ball and give it to the next person.

Overall I think my fourth day was successful. The girls remembered all the things I have taught them over the past few weeks. They got better and better as the session went on and hopefully their success shows in the tournament we play next week.

Friday 8th April 2016

2 hours

Eastside Elementary School