As a part of my CAS experience, I taught football to two domestic helpers who work at my house. I conducted this activity in the lawn at my house. The helpers aged 20yrs and 25yrs used to watch me and my younger brother play football in the evenings. I often asked them to join us for the game but they declined to say that they did not know how to play. I noticed them watching us closely in order to probably learn the game. I then took them under my wings and started coaching them on alternate evenings. Football is my favorite sport and this CAS experience led me to spend more time playing it and even passing on skills to people who otherwise had no access to formal football training.
The learning outcomes that I achieved are:
LO 2
Teaching how to play football to my domestic helpers was quite challenging as they were new to this sport. I had to teach them all the football terminology so that they could understand when I taught them rules and techniques. As both of them were elder to me, I had to address them respectfully and not just like my friends who I was used to playing with. I faced a lot of challenges while teaching them shooting and passing. They were not able to pass the ball with accuracy and power. I know that it was difficult for them as they were new to the game but then I realized that playing and teaching is totally different.I used to get frustrated at times. This was not it. The most challenging part was teaching them ball control. Ball control is one of the most important aspects of the sport. If you are not good with it then it will be quite difficult for you the stop the ball and you will end up losing the ball to the opponent. In order to overcome this challenge, I created slow-motion videos of me doing the same things that they were supposed to do. This helped them a little bit but they were still facing difficulties. Initially, I had decided to teach them ball control for two days but then I decided to skip some of the dribbling drills and taught them ball control for 4 days. It was important for me to overcome this challenge.
LO 3
I had decided to create a training plan so that I can work in an organized way. I do the same for my academics as well. The plan helped me teach them in a systematic manner. It was not very difficult for me to plan this activity because I have been playing football since childhood and I had an idea about how to carry out this CAS experience. I included the following things in my plan: stretching or warm up, rules, beginners drills, shooting, passing, dribbling, and matches.
I think that initiating the experience was much more difficult than planning the experience. It was difficult for me to teach them a few things as they were beginners and it also consumed a lot of time and effort. One thing that I realized was that you need to have patience while teaching someone. I used to get frustrated when they were not able to perform even after teaching the same thing many times. It is important to know how to plan and initiate activities to get a complete and comprehensive CAS experience.
LO 5
At times, my younger brother who is also an avid footballer helped me in teaching our domestic helpers. We focused on teaching one each and got great results. Working in a team made the task easier for me. Four of us played practice matches in mixed teams and this is where teamwork was required. We had to understand each other strengths and weaknesses and play accordingly. Leading this small but challenging activity did wonders for my confidence. When I see both of them playing so well, I feel proud to have achieved something special.
