Today I was back at South Devon College in Paignton for another day of Easter holiday soccer school holiday club.

Today, I was in charge of the warm up, so I played a game with them all which involved footballs, bibs and lots of running! I then threw in some actions; star jumps, floor touches, jumps, change direction, etc.

After the warm up the group was split into two, one group came with me and the other group went with the other coach. I was a little nervous and excited at the same time as I enjoy teaching the children something knew! I was given a task to focus on their dribbling with the football, so I create some fun relay games of weaving in and out of the cones, sprinting with the football. We then played a defending and attacking game also, then switched groups.

After lunch we then played mini tournaments and penalty shootouts to get winners for the certificate ceremony at the end.

Today went really well, the children learnt something knew, especially when asked at the end if they had learnt something and what they enjoyed the most, we got great feedback!

There were only minor injuries today. General first aid to a child’s hand due to falling and scraping their hands on the floor, so I cleaned it up and applied plasters. Another child from the older age group got a bleeding nose from the ball hitting him in the face so I ensured that he wasn’t concussed by asking him if he was feeling sick or dizzy whilst cleaning his nose and asking him to pinch his nose. I made sure he took it easy for the rest of the day as didn’t want him to become extra tired and start to feel faint.

I was confident with these injuries as these are quite common and I’ve dealt with these on numerous occasions.

Next time, I want to make sure that all of the kids are doing a cool down at the end rather then sitting them down for a recap of the day and then sent on their way with their parents.