First experience in teaching footbag

[PoisonTaffy]

In Israel we have a small footbag club with some very dedicated and active members. The latest initiative is to start teaching footbag to kids in school, as a sports class or an after school activity.
Recently they asked me to become an instructor and teach it at a school near my town. I've never taught anything and I'm still struggling to go guiltless, so I have doubts whether or not I can be a good instructor, but being the currently top ranked freestyle player in Israel, I felt like I had a duty to at least attend one of the classes and see what it's like.

So this Sunday I went to co-instruct in a school where this program has been running for almost a month, and the children (7th graders) get to choose between soccer, volleyball and footbag. Even though soccer is a huge sport in Israel, both it and volleyball had a problem filling their quota since everybody wanted footbag when I showed up there some kids were like "hey it's Roy! Can you show us around the world??" they knew who I am and they know names of tricks (later I found out they even knew how many adds atw is)

The kids were wild and getting them to listen to what I had to say was a tough job. However, towards the end of class I did a short tiltless and they all sat down and looked in amazement. Later the school's manager asked us to open more classes because the 8th graders wanted in on the action as well.

Even though I still doubt whether or not I have what it takes to teach something I'm still learning myself, I feel like footbag speaks to kids in a way that conventional sports can't so the potential to have it explode in a year or two of work is incredible, and I want to be a part of that.

That's it, I really felt like sharing.

[EoghanMcDowell]

Thats awesome dude

[Psilocybe]

Good job man. I think I'd enjoy teaching, so long as the people actually cared about it.

[Kimbe.]

The kids were wild and getting them to listen to what I had to say was a tough job. Later the school's manager asked us to open more classes because the 8th graders wanted in on the action as well.

You've got a problem .

No really, that sounds like I good idea and even though you have no experience from teaching I think that will work out fine since the kids seem to be very keen on learning footbag.

[PoisonTaffy]

Thanks for the feedback! This week the class went much better, I had more authority than I gave myself credit for

It's only their 3rd or 4th class, and already there's a huge gap in level. 4 kids are obviously way ahead and the rest haven't improved yet. I feel bad for having to slow down on those 4 kids.

[Zeke]

I would not worry too much about not being guiltless. Teach what you know and focus on basics and building a strong foundation. Having some kind of structure to your lessons but being flexible enough to adapt to different needs and interests might help you to manage your class. For the different skill levels, perhaps you can break them up into 3-4 more manageable groups of similar levels and have them drill appropriate techniques while you jump from group to group checking progress and teaching new skills when you see fit.

Kids may get bored quickly with all the drilling so break it up every now and then and do something fun <cough>4-square<cough>* to change things up and keep it interesting. Hope this helps. Have fun!










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