Teaching Football

 “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” ― Phil Collins

Activity Started – 23 September 2014

Activity Ended – 07 October 2014

Approximate Time - 8 hours

Criteria of CAS – Action

As I and my fellow classmate Jaidev Pahade learned football from our coach Mr. Joy Jackson in grade 9 and 10, I thought I should share my knowledge with my juniors and the future of this world. Who knows one of them has talent to become the next Cristiano Ronaldo.

Planning:

When we introduced this activity to our CAS coordinator miss Vijaylaxmi Kanate, she told us to make a proper plan of this activity example which classes would participate and which periods we will take. So we decided that we will take students from Grade 1 to 5 and we will teach them two days a week Tuesday (3 period) and Thursday (3 period). The other issue was volunteers because I and jaidev wouldn’t be able to handle these many kids. Our classmates Kaustubh Murmare and Rucha Verma volunteered, they both had knowledge of football as they also learned it in their respective schools.

I suggested that we should divide them into groups. So it would be easy to handle them.

So we divided students and us into groups –

Group 1 – Shafqat Syed

Group 2 – Jaidev Pahade

Group 3 – Kaustubh Murmare and Rucha Verma

Our main aim was to teach them skills of football like passing, dribbling, ball control and shooting. To make this more interesting we decided that in the last class of the session we will have a match, the ideas was to divide all the students into three teams and have a matches which they would enjoy.

Day 1 (1 hour)

Now everything was decided and now it was time to get the equipment. I and Jaidev Pahade went to get 6 footballs and some cones. Teaching football to kids was a great and new challenge because to manage these so small children is very difficult, it would have been turned into a disaster but by luck and god’s grace it didn’t happened. We worked collaboratively to divide the children into lines and taking them to the ground. It was a tough job because they were running everywhere. This activity was about increasing awareness about their own strength. Playing football will be very beneficial for the children because they will learn new activity and this will also maintain their physical fitness.

On ground we did some stretching and started training. Today I taught them passing, passing the ball is the key part in playing football. There are two types of passing one is short pass and the other one is long pass. In short pass you have to use inside part of your foot, this increases your accuracy and in passing accuracy is very important because sometime your player might be taking turn or moving forward. In long pass you hit the ball with more power and keep the ball in 30 degrees and swing your foot, you can use arms for balance. 

Day 2 (1 hour)

Now I was familiar to all my students and I know their understanding level and capability. Today also we did some stretching and warm up. I took practice of what I taught them in last class as this was the plan first teach them then practice it for one more class.

Day 3 (1 hour)

Today also we started with some stretching and warm up and then started training. Today I taught them dribbling, it is about speed and agility. In dribbling you push the ball with the lace part of your shoe. It was very difficult to make them understand that they have to push the ball with the lace part not the toe. Hitting the ball with toe is very dangerous because their bones are not that tough. I placed 2 cones with some distance and taught them to dribble from one side to the other. Children from the higher grades understood easily but the tiny tots (little children) took time but I never left my spirit, I think it is my love for football which keeps me going.

Day 4 (1 hour)

Today started with warm up then I took their practice of dribbling in different situations. I also taught them sprint running. In that process I thought that was the best time to teach them dogging and tackle. Slide tackle would have been very difficult and dangerous for them so I taught them standing tackle.

Day 5 (1 hour)

Our P. E. teacher suggested that we should teach them some exercises also which will help them become a better athlete and increase their stamina. So we arrangements then did all those activities. My students got so tired after that I didn’t want to teach them I wanted them to relax but what I saw was amazing those little kids still had hunger for knowledge, that moment I realized football is now made its place in their hearts like it did in me. I taught them ball control as it is easy to learn and takes less time, in this you have to use different parts of your body e.g. chest, thigh, calf etc and control the ball.

Day 6 (1 hour)

Today I taught them shooting which is very important thing because after all the thing which matters is goals. They understood easily how to give directions but power was their problem and as being their teacher it was my responsibility to make master at this.

Day 7 (1 hour)

As the match was near I wanted my players to be ready. So I taught them things about match like foals, offside, cards, throw-ins and corners. They listened to everything carefully, asked questions and understood everything well.

Day 8 (1 hour)

Today was the last day, we had some problems some things were out of the plan. Some students were absent and some didn’t carried their sport shoes. So we decided we will divide them in to 2 equal teams. As Jaidev, Kaustubh and Rucha didn’t knew much about the rules and regulations of the match I became the referee and I made Jaidev and Kaustubh managers of both the teams. I gave them 5 minutes to discuss strategy and positions. We started the match it was fun and competitive. Jaidev’s team won with 2-1. I was very happy that the players whom I taught perform excellently.

I enjoyed this activity and learned many things from it. I increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth.