As part of my Gaisce award this year, I decided to train kids aged between 4 and 8 how to play football. This counted as my community service challenge which was supposed to only be 13 weeks but I ended up doing more than expected as I enjoyed it so much and the Club asked me to stay on. I am in fact still doing it now until the season ends.
Every Saturday morning I would meet with the other coaches in Cabinteely Park at 10.30am. We would set up the drills and get everything ready for the 60 odd kids that turned up at 11.00am. Our head coach would then allocate groups of children depending on their age to each one of us. For the first few weeks I was an assistant coach but as the weeks passed, and I got more experience, I was then given my own group to train.
Each training session involved stretches first, then some form of shooting and foot drills followed by a match. It was quite difficult managing such a young age group as they often lost interest and you would have to get them concentrating again. One of the funniest incidents was when a dog ran loose on one of the pitches and started collecting all the footballs. The children thought it was a great game and they started running after the dog. There was complete chaos until the owner appeared and managed to get his dog back under control. One child got quite a fright and burst into tears.
During the winter months the training session moved indoors to Loughlinstown Community Centre. We have only just started back outside in the park again which is a lot handier for me as I can walk there in 5 minutes.
Overall it has been my favourite Gaisce challenge as I have met some really great people.