Session 2: Creating A Group Based Target Game (11/10/12)

Session 2: Creating a group target game that wasn't sport specific (11/10/12)

The aim of the session today was to plan and deliver a target game that was not based on a sport. For example the game we came up with was keep ball with a handball with the aim of the game to take the bails of the stumps resulting in a point. It would of been a lot easier for us to play basketball with the target being the hoop but that didn't show any creativity.

In our plan we outlined the following:-

• Equipment - cricket stumps, two handballs, cones,  bibs and a tennis ball.
• Skills focused on - co-ordination, spacial awareness, balance, communication, team work and agility.
• Progressions - ball under head height, could not step in passes, made the ball smaller.

The game itself was a good success and everyone that participated enjoyed it as it was active and fun but at the same time competitive like an invasion based game should be. The game started off simple as we just had the two teams play keep ball without any objective or ways to score points just so they got active, warmed up and got use to the size of the ball and playing area they were in. We then added the stumps (goal) which the teams had to attack to score a point and this changed the speed of the game, and the way the teams played it so we introduced more handicaps such as ball couldn't go overhead and we made the ball smaller.

We concluded the session after about 10-15 minutes, got the group in and asked them a couple of questions such as "was it enjoyable?" and "what do you think the game was aiming to look at?" in which the answers were very positive and were what we were hoping for.

On a personal note, I believe that the planning, execution and conclusion of the session was very successful. For me the planning of the session showed me what I need to consider when coming up with a session and where I should start in my plan. For example, it is easier to plan out a session when you know what you want the session to do for the participants, rather than thinking up a drill and then trying to work out what it does. As for the game and the feedback, I thought it all worked really well and everyone was getting involved both during and post activity so it was great to hear positive things from the group.

The session on the whole helped me learn how to plan a session properly within a group, but seeing how different people think and plan can only help me develop the best way to plan a session on my own. Using other peoples ideas is a part of developing yourself as a coach and a session like this was perfect in seeing how people thought things through and how they tried to link aspects of the game to the aspects they wanted the game to target. This session was definitely an encouraging one for my weaknesses I outlined in the first blog post and I hope these sessions will continue to allow me to get an insight into coaching and help me develop a way that suits me.