Monday- This was my first day on my placement and I was feeling particularly nervous. I knew what to expect as I used to work with Plymouth Argyle, but it had been a long time since I had coached children of a young age. Throughout the day I was faced with many different tasks. To start the day, I was stood outside the stadium directing parents and children to the meeting point. This wasn’t too big of a deal for me as I am a confident character and I never have an issue with talking to new people. Once the children were all signed in Stew gave them all the breakdown for the day and had a chat with them all about the do’s and don’ts. We then walked them up to Goals (the local football centre) where they would be split into equal groups dependant on age. I was based with the youngest groups which was children between the ages 5-6. My lead coach explained to me that because it was my first day, he wanted me to examine how he dealt with things to try and show me some tips of how to deal with such a difficult age group. However, I have previous experience in coaching children between ages 3-6 so I felt quite comfortable straight away. The morning session was built up of little games which worked on key aspects of football such as controlling the ball and moving with the ball. The morning session went very fast and we then walked the children back to Home Park where the children would sit to eat lunch. This was a difficult hour at times as lots of children finished their food early so, they were bored which started causing silly behaviour and lots of noise. More authoritative figures dealt with these situations and before I knew it, we were back up to goals for the afternoon session. This was full of lots of games, penalty shootouts and tournaments. Overall the day was very enjoyable, and I certainly felt more confident going into the week after this day.

Tuesday- Feeling more confident going into Today I was expecting a very similar day as this was a two-day course so in theory the same children should attend meaning the groups and coaches would stay exactly the same. However today when we walked to goals, I was told I was going to be swapping with another placement student and I was going to be helping to coach the older group. This group consisted of footballers aged between 12-15. Similar to Monday, the coach didn’t know me, so he was confident in allowing me to deliver any sessions I had planned so I was willing to watch and learn. Also, this gave me a chance to compare how coaches work and act when coaching a younger age group to an older age group. The morning session was filled with fast, action packed drills which included lots of shooting which the participants seemed to really enjoy. The afternoon session again was just one big tournament for our age group and the HUGE difference I noticed was how competitive the older group are, and they would do anything to win. This is a good quality to have but alongside this you had children who were getting upset and frustrated when they were losing which is sometimes a hard factor to deal with it. At the end of the day we had to give out 2/3 prizes per group and the coach asked if I was happy to choose a participant to give a prize during the presentation, which I was more than happy to do. All of the parents of the 100 participants parents/carers/guardians arrived so I felt really nervous in talking in front of such a big group of people but once I started talking it came naturally and increased my confidence in public speaking.

Wednesday- On Wednesday Stew made us clear that we were going to be starting to have more responsibility during the days. On this day I was back with the youngest group for a multi-sports day. The timings of the day remained the same but instead of just football we were told to deliver some multi sports sessions. My role in the morning was to deliver a warm up. The warm up I planned involved lots of SAQ (Speed, Agility, Quickness). This involved lots of sections on the pitch full of objects and different obstacles. For example, I used ladders, hula hoops, hurdles and cones. The children had free rain and every so often I would stop them and ask a child to choose another movement (such as side steps, jumping etc). Once the session I had handed the group back to the lead member of staff and during lunch he told me he was very happy with my drill and gave me some feedback, this filled me with confidence and made me feel good about myself as my session was deemed successful. The afternoon was still match based, but we did lots of different sports such as dodgeball, handball, football and football rounders. During the afternoon I was in charge of officiating and as we had younger children there were A LOT of toilet breaks which I had to escort the children to and from.

Thursday and Friday- Thursday was the start of a two-day roadshow so similar to Monday and Tuesday we would have a group for two days and give awards out at the end. I was an assistant for the middle-aged group which were children aged between 7-9. I was looking forward to the two days as throughout the week I had only had the youngest and oldest groups, so it was new challenge for me. Once we had arrived at goals, we split off into our age groups and began our warm ups. I was not leading the warm up today which in some ways knocked my confidence as I wanted to keep delivering to boost my levels of knowledge and experience. The morning session ended so we headed back to home park for lunch and I had a chat with the lead coach from the middle-aged group. I spoke to him and asked if he wanted me to plan any sessions for either the afternoon or the following day. He told me the afternoon was going to be tournament based and that I can plan a warm up and shooting session for Friday which I was buzzing with. The afternoon went really fast as we were just officiating matches and I was amazed with how talented some of these children were. Friday morning soon came around and I had shown the lead coach my session plans and he agreed they were good and once we got to goals; I started my first full morning of coaching which was a great experience. The warm up was a game of tom and jerry. This session is when, in pairs, one person dribbles around the area with a ball and when I shout turn, they would turn and pass the ball back to their teammate and so on. The shooting drill after I was really happy with the outcome as we had two outstanding keepers and some really high talented strikers of the ball. The session was designed on controlled chaos so there would be lots and lots of shooting in short spaces of time as this would enable the keepers to improve their reactions. During lunch time the lead coach spoke to me and gave me some positive feedback and told me the session went really well and I was very confident while delivering. His only constructive criticism was that I need to allow sessions to go wrong sometimes and not try and babysit them to ensure it goes right. I was really happy with my feedback as I was confident within my session. The afternoon consisted of a tournament and mini sided games which was enjoyable for the children and the session went very fast. Once we had got back to home park, we had to deliver our awards from our group, and I had chosen mine for being an outstanding sport and he was extremely helpful and a credit to coach. I didn’t feel nervous delivering my speech as I was on a high and feeling confident, so it didn’t faze me. This was the end of my first week of placement and almost half of my hours were completed.