Coaching in the Community
July 2011
Students at Right to Dream (RtD) have been reversing the roles: devoting their polished skills from the classroom and the pitch to coaching the local football-hungry boys at Old Akrade Primary School. The new initiative is part of Form 3’s P.E. coaching module but its benefits clearly go beyond the classroom.
The Form 3 students have been learning how to plan appropriate training sessions, around specific topics, and to both evaluate and review the weekly sessions providing them with a practical vocational skill set. The structure of the programme also provides RtD students excellent opportunities to enhance their leadership skills and to act as role models for the local community, demonstrating how discipline, hard work and practice are necessary elements to succeed and inspiring others to aim high in life.
Student, Evans, remarked that ‘Giving back is not always to do with money and it is just as important to give your time and help others develop their skills. I encourage the boys to practice and often tell them that I have to work hard to improve my football and that my skill wasn’t just given to me’.
Coach James commented, ‘It is great to see the boys demonstrating independence in the classroom and designing training sessions on their own; skills which will be of great use to them in their futures. They are applying the knowledge that they have learnt and are clearly becoming good young leaders. The boys in the community respond well to the sessions and are eager to learn as much as possible from the RtD boys, whom they admire a great deal’.