“Life after your PGCE year… My Journey…” Part 2

What will you see…

For the next part of the presentation I gave them a look into what they will see in the future… and some of the experiences that I have experienced over the last 15 years teaching and coaching around the world…

Obesity…

Obesity is reaching pandemic levels all around the world… It is one of today’s most blatantly visible public health problems… BUT what are we going to do about it…?!

Physical Education teachers have one of the most influential responsibilities in a child’s life and can lay the foundations for a very happy and prosperous life. They can either turn on a pupil to a life of long-term exercise or they can turn off a pupil from doing any form of exercise in the future. Physical Education teachers have the potential to be great role models, lead by example and empower the students to take ownership of their lives so that once they have left the 4 walls of the school boundary they know where they are heading… how they are going to get there… and what to eat… when to exercise… and why they need to drink water…

Modern Day kids…

The world has changed… This is a typical sight of a Modern Day Kid during break times and lunchtimes… when there’s plenty of space outside to play in…

Therefore, in your Physical Education lessons how are you going to make up for the lack of ‘free play’ that we used to do when we were younger…?

The local community…

Going outside of your “comfort zone” to visit local communities will create very rewarding and gratifying experiences… They will help you to appreciate the finer things in life… They will help you to share your knowledge and experience with people that really appreciate the time and effort you give up to them… It will challenge your communication of coaching and your language of the sport…

Overhead Squats…

These boys are the same age… in the same class… in the same house/colour… but one can squat and the other can’t squat.

How are you going to differentiate activities/exercises for these 2 pupils in your lessons…?!

Parents…

The types of parents that you see creeping inside the field of play… The ones that are screaming from the sideline… The ones complaining about the referee… are quite often the ones that will be on your case when it comes to complaining about why their son and/or daughter got poor grades at parents’ evenings.

Player Development…

You will experience opportunities to mentor… develop… train… teach… coach… people to help them achieve their goals… and fulfil their potential…

Mixed ability groups…

How are you going to construct your Practice Design to cater for the range of abilities that are within you groups…? What are you going to do to include rather than exclude people…? Every pupil deserves the same experience… the same amount of attention… the same amount of encouragement… the same opportunities… How are you going to utilise the “better” players to help the “weaker” players…?

Snow on astro/field…

With the varying effects of the random weather that we experience in the UK… what will you do when the fields are waterlogged or the astro is frozen…?!

Will you do what everyone else usually does and just put on a movie for the pupils to watch…?! If you have to take your players to a classroom at least put on something related to the sport that you are coaching. How could you make it a learning experience…? How could you help improve their Games Understanding…? What about developing their understanding of what each position in the team does in Attack and in Defence…?

Why not create a timetable to maximise the use of the Sports Hall for different groups…? Why not find a space outside where you can do some Fundamental Movement Skills with your players…? If a classroom is your only space then clear all the desks and chairs to the side to create a space to do some Athletic Development in…

Travel the world…

If you are fortunate enough to be part of tours or to organise them… You have amazing opportunities to travel to places around the world that you might not necessarily visit in your life… and share life changing experiences with your players…

Frosby Flop at 8 years old…

You will see pupils that CAN DO things that you have never taught them before… so what are you going to do to develop this pupil at this age…?!

Federer serve at 5 years old…

You will see pupils that CAN DO things that you would never have imagined… so how are you going to nurture this pupil throughout his school years…?!

Visiting other schools…

You will have opportunities where you will be able to visit other schools…

I was very fortunate when the Director of Sport at Brisbane GS invited me over to Australia while I was in Chile to do some work for them observing their Rugby programme…

At the same time I took it upon myself to create opportunities for myself to learn from different sports and coaches… I woke up mega early one morning to observe Emily Seebohm (WR holder in the 100m Backstroke) train at 5:30am with her coach in the pool 4 weeks before the Rio Olympics… Her coach, David Lush, then invited me to breakfast where I asked him what he did to create the culture within the Swimming Club… I arranged a visit to the Brisbane Broncos (a professional Rugby League team in the NRL) to watch them train… I set up a meeting with the Head of Gymnastics and Australia’s most successful Olympic gymnast to pick their brains about how they develop the culture within their Gymnastics club having witnessed it first hand on the gym floor on different days in the morning at 6am and in the evening at 6pm…

PHV…

Many people may well view the Peak Height Velocity graphs as just a theory… something that  you read in textbooks… and that they will not come across this… I can assure you it is very well alive and kicking…

The two boys in the photo are born 4 weeks apart in Chronological Age… but in reality they are 4 years apart in Biological Age… So how are you going to cater for these differences in your lessons and sessions…?!

Develop relationships…

You will develop, to varying degrees, relationships, at different rates, with your students within lessons… and around school… Investing in these relationships are one of the many rewards of being a teacher. Some relationships will continue to grow once they have left school…

PCA…

You will find kids can’t do a push up… Kids can’t land… Kids can’t do Handstands… Kids aren’t able to do lots of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS)…

The severe lack of FMS and Athletic Development is well and truly visible in Modern Day Kids… So what you are going to do to redress the issues of the effects of modern society’s obsession with Social Media and kids being glued to their phones…?! Kids staying indoors all the time playing on their PlayStations…?! The lack of free play in parks, playgrounds and fields…?! If the kids aren’t going to learn implicitly these FMS… then we need to bring FMS to them… on a daily… weekly… monthly… yearly basis… as they are the foundations of a active, healthy life…

Identical Twins…

Before I arrived in Chile the Labowitz identical twins didn’t look at all like the photos above… They were very obese and when I first arrived they were nicknamed Fabowitz… and that was by one of the teachers! You can probably guess what the F stands for… FAT. I made it my goal to get to learn their 1st names! At the beginning I took every opportunity to work out the visual differences between them so that I could call them by their 1st names, rather than Labowitz, whenever I was teaching or coaching the boys. As I started to get to know the boys better I asked them what they would like to achieve…? They both said they wanted to play for the 1st XV by the time their leave school. I told them I would do everything I could to help them achieve their goal on one condition that they would give it everything. They agreed they would.

The rest as they say is history! 3 years later their goal was achieved when Matias played for the 1st XV during the school season and then Pablo played for the 1st XV against Kirkham GS while on tour in the UK. What’s even more gratifying is that they have grown as men and the relationship that we have developed over the years, and continues to do so since they have left school, is one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. The evening before I left Chile we had dinner together and reminisced about the good times we had together. 2 years after leaving school both boys have played for the Old Boys 1st XV. Here’s a quote from Matias when I asked if I could use their story in my presentation…

“From being a sub in the 4th team of Intermedia (U15D) to being in the 1st team for Old Boys (1st Division), plus starter all 4th Media (U18) on the 1st team.”

If I hadn’t made the effort to work on the Human Element and treat them as human beings and as individuals… would Matias and Pablo be in the position they are now where they are able to continue playing Rugby with their mates on a Saturday afternoon…?! Very unlikely!

Added to this major factor, if I hadn’t created a Player-centred Coaching Culture would they have developed an increase in intrinsic motivation…?! If I hadn’t used ‘Teaching Games for Understanding’ would they have improved their Games Understanding of HOW to play Rugby…?! If I hadn’t applied the principles of Tactical Periodisation would they have increased their physical fitness and conditioning for rugby…?! If I hadn’t spent the time educating and training them in the gym would they have improved their training habits…?! If I hadn’t created and developed the relationship with Matias and Pablo on a daily basis would we have gone for dinner together the evening before I left Chile…?!

If I hadn’t worked on the things I did with Matias and Pablo… would they be in the position they are now in… Physically, Tactically, Technically and more importantly Psychologically…?! Probably not.

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