Recomendations for after school footbag program

bridbeun · Post by **bridbeun** » 19 Nov 2008 12:31

Greetings all,

I'm starting to put together a syllabus for an after school footbag program for my daughter's school next year. The kids ages will vary (grades 1-5) so I want to get some feed back from the modified community to see what you all recommend. The topics I'd like to cover are:

Brief overview of the sport
equipment
basic kicks
circles
4-square
beginning freestyle.

I also make my own cloth 4 panel footbags which work really well for me and are easy to sew. This works well so I can supply the whole group their own footbags. Plus if any of them are interested in sewing their own, I've almost finished my footbag sewing tutorial. http://b2-productions.com/4panel.pdf

Thanks in advance for your input.

p.s. My skill level is intermediate (rating myself on a freestyle scale).

Footbaggerk · Post by **Footbaggerk** » 19 Nov 2008 15:40

are you a teacher?

bridbeun · Post by **bridbeun** » 19 Nov 2008 17:00

Nope, graphic artist but it's a chance for me to get some young kids into the sport and more people for me to kick with. I started kicking when I was 14 and I'm 40 now. Though I've only really been practicing for around the last 3 years or so in freestyle.

Footbaggerk · Post by **Footbaggerk** » 19 Nov 2008 17:38

cool man, i've been playing for 5 weeks and i think im like intermediate...
im 15, and homeschooled though so i have some time to kick.
make sure you tell them its a FOOTBAG and no hacky sack.

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 19 Nov 2008 23:08

I'd suggest PMing Dan Ednie (username: "ednie"). He does (or did) this a lot for a while. He was talking about getting a national program (or something) going in schools in Australia, where he lives.

You could also e-mail Greg Nelson (GFSmoothie at footbag dot org) because he used to (maybe still does) teach footbag and flying disc stuff at school assemblies as his profession.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 20 Nov 2008 01:19

Sounds like a pretty good plan.
I taught footbag to 7th graders for about 6 months, once a week.

I'd add the following to your plan:

1) Starting class with a little conversation, sort of a pep talk. I found it helped keep the kids less unruly, especially when it was the motivational kind of talk.

2) I had a "smiley system", where I rewarded a smiley for kids who won a contest (i tried to make up a contest for every class), for kids who showed progress, and deducted a smiley for bad behavior. It helped me motivate less talented kids and help them to not compare themselves to the talented ones by awarding them a smiley when they achieve something they thought they couldn't. Through awarding a smiley in a contest, the talented kids got recognition. You could give a prize for anyone reaching 10 smileys (a quality footbag?), and since you control who gets and loses smileys, you can control how quick or slow they reach the goal. I also found out that all kids are little accountants.

3) Net. Kids love it. Set it much lower than regular net ( a tennis court net height is good), and play with a plastic pellet bag, not a net bag.

4) Be creative with the drills. Children get bored quickly by mindless repetitive drilling. Spice it up with challenges, pair ups, etc.

colefieldhouse22 · Post by **colefieldhouse22** » 20 Nov 2008 04:09

InfectedTofu wrote: 2) I had a "smiley system"...

That is a great idea. Kids really respond to reward systems such as that. Use stickers whenever possible. Even high schoolers are really proud when they get a sticker by their name on a chart.

Also, definitely play 4-square with them. I taught sports at a camp over the summer and when we got to footbag, the kids went crazy over 4-square. They played it at recess and lunch everyday from that point on.

Footbaggerk · Post by **Footbaggerk** » 20 Nov 2008 12:47

i haave never played four square how is it played?
just like a circle with 4 ppl?

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 20 Nov 2008 13:37

From the 4 square section of the forum:
http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=12288

shredzilla · Post by **shredzilla** » 20 Nov 2008 13:42

Tell them you'll buy them a steak dinner if they can hit montage by the end of the year. It works for the European kids.

bridbeun · Post by **bridbeun** » 21 Nov 2008 08:01

Thanks for your replies everyone.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 21 Nov 2008 14:37

I taught some footbag high school classes too, and we just ended up playing mostly foursquare. They love it. It will be different for such younger kids (grades 1-5), though I work in a N-9 school now and I can see your age group doing basic kicks and such at least. I also gave out DVDs as prizes, but the qualifications were for best personal improvement.

Reid · Post by **Reid** » 21 Nov 2008 16:39

Making the bags is a great idea. I was a camp counselor and taught some of my campers some basics. One day a camper asked if he could borrow my Mr. Sandbag. I said sure, thinking he was just going to practice with it. I get the bag back and think nothing of it. The next day a third of the camp is playing with four panel bags. Turns out the kid took it to his arts and craft hour, and the lady in charge helped all the kids make their own. All of them just seemed happy to have something tangible that they worked on and could show their friends even if they were not very good at playing footbag.
At that age there will be a wide range of coordination and ability. Making bags is a good way to give those that don't grasp the sport as easily as others a since of accomplishment and allow them to feel they are part of the sport even without the technical aspect. More supervision and aid will definitely be needed for the younger ones, but make sure that they make most of the bag.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 12 Dec 2008 20:31

I do a bit of footbag teaching at schools with Dan Ednie and I feel some of the topics you listed are probably too advanced. While I don't know exactly what 'beginning freestyle' entails if you're going to try and teach them delays at the end I'd recommend against it. Just getting them to be able to string a few kicks together will be pretty hard. However its a really really good idea to put a routine together with music to perform at the end. The kids will love it!

Typically after teaching them the knee kick, toe kick and inside kick we get stuck into some simple games. 4 square is probably a bit difficult to do but if you really want to do it I recommend playing a version where the server kicks it, and the person who its directed at catches it, then kicks it and repeat until someone goes out.

Other games that work really well include 'longest kick', where you just get the kids to boot the footbags in unison and see who can get it the furthest. footbag golf is also good(just using a chair or something as a target). Get them all to kick it at the same time in the same way as with longest kick. Seeing like 30 uncoordinated bags fly through the air is priceless.

Blue_turnip · Post by **Blue_turnip** » 12 Dec 2008 20:35

shredzilla wrote:Tell them you'll buy them a steak dinner if they can hit montage by the end of the year. It works for the European kids.

I loved this