MAD 2013-2014

I started coaching in the beginning of the year. Started out I honestly believed I would knock it out of the park coaching kids. Little did I know coaching 4/5th grade girls and sometimes boys is very tough. Just getting the kids focused is already hard. Imagine trying to teach kids who just want to run around the gym.

 Instructions to kids

Checking if the kids are properly running a fast break

On the first day I remember warming up with Mr Hardy's recommended drill by running up and down the court with the basketball for 5 minutes. Afterwards we, Daniel Li, Chris Lau, Joseph Lo and I were on our own. We decided to do 4 stations. Joseph will lead the shooting station, Chris leading the ball handling station, Daniel led the passing station and I led a rebounding/boxing out station. All these stations went on for 5 minutes before the kids rotated stations. In the shooting station, we set out some colored plastic thing on the floor close to the kids basket and Jo attempted to teach them the right forms and techniques. In the ball handling station Chris taught the kids how to train to become and great ball handler by just doing different simple drills like pounding the ball with your right arm, then switching to left arm after. In the passing station Daniel demonstrated the chest pass and bounce pass.

mad 2013/2014

Working on lesson plan.

So during one of MAD meetings, Cresswell our supervisor gave us many great points on improving and making our lessons more fun and organized. When we first started teaching we would just think about what to do on the spot. That is not a good thing when trying to teach elementary kids a sport. So Cresswell said that we SHOULD have a plan and that we should start writing plans for the lessons ahead of time. After writing down lesson plans, I noticed that we had more time during lessons because we weren't stopping and thinking what we should do. Being organized is very important.

MAD 2013/2014

Our second lesson we continued with the 4 stations class. Again we warmed up with the running up and down the court with a ball for 5 minutes. Then split off into 4 different stations. Joseph ran the shooting station again but this time we worked on lay ups and getting the foot steps right. We put down colored plastics things to show where to step and when to take up for the lay ups. Daniel continued working on the passing, getting the kids to use not just their arms to pass but their hips as well. I was working on a defensive station so I set out cones and taught the kids to slide properly and to stay low. At the end of my station I could tell that the kids did not like doing defensive drills. Chris again worked on ball handling except this time he added something else, he added running to his drill. Running to cones then switch arms the run to next cone and switch again. Chris told me after everyone got through the 4 stations that he already saw improvements in some of the kids dribbling skills.

MAD 2011-2012

Reaching out to children in Taiwan.

Fun activity we did with the kids. We told them to draw their favorite animals.

Boy that loves dogs

another cute boy showing his drawing.

The 2 guys are the people i worked with during the service.
This shot is a picture of all the kids we worked with.

So around October, I went to taiwan for some soccer games. During that time, we set aside time to visit kids at different local schools and just read, play and spend time with them. Man, was i excited for this opportunity! I really enjoy playing with kids and i thought this was the perfect service trip for me. Our plan at first was to just read books and play musical chairs. Things went out of a control, in a good way. The kids really wanted us to stay longer and play more games they said in chinese. So we asked our coaches if it was fine and they said yes. We stayed another hour or so, drawing with the kids and just talking to them and playing soccer with them. 

Overall, i REALLY enjoyed the service i did in Taiwan. The moment we stepped in the classroom, all the kids were jumping and screaming. They were as excited as i was when seeing them. The kids never showed signs of sadness. They were always smiling. I will never forget the smiles on there faces!

MAD 2011-2012 Basketball

February 28 of 2012 i helped out Mr Hardy in coaching kids from 4th and 5th grade.
Coaching ICS 4th and 5th graders were the hardest thing ever, they would hardly listen to me and when they do they would listen for only TEN SECONDS and then get distracted again.
That coaching session, i taught the kids how to shoot with proper technique and use the backboad as you can see in the first picture i am trying to tell the kids to always use the the backboard when shooting a layup.

In this photo i was giving the kids some pressure by defending them. Later on during the drill, i realized that defending the kids made it even harder for them to shoot and so i stopped.

In this photo i am just rebouding the ball for the kids.

In conclusion, i think that ics 4th and 5th graders are a lot harder to coach than the kids i coach at Renaissance College.

MAD project

rebounding for kids and teaching them how to do a proper lay-up

January 14th of 2012, this was my second time going to help out the kids. Well the second time where i got photos. I have actually been going twice a month but always forgot to get my coach and students to take pictures for me

By Jan 14th, i was already treating this as my job and made it first priority on Saturdays. My coach let me lead warm ups and ref the games and trusted me enough that he allowed me to take a group of kids and teaching them what i know.

Me helping kids learn how to shoot over bigger people.

Being in this basketball academy and helping out younger kids taught me a lot. I learned that i have to be a good role models to my students, be on-time every practice(time management) and learned that sometimes kids will take a while to adjust to new things so i have to be patient.

explaining to a student that footwork and balance is very important

2012-2012 MAD projects-10th grade

      For my MAD project this year, i decided to coach(assist) 8-12 year olds in basketball on Saturday mornings. I think that this is a great MAD for me to do because basketball is something i LOVE to do and i believe that i can help younger kids improve their game and allow the coaches to take a break from demonstrating skills and shooting, as the coaches are very old, frail and weak.

Here is some pictures of me coaching the kids. This picture was taken on November 12th of 2011.

I am the one in red shoes

helping kids do a simple lay-up

On that day, it was my first time helping out and i remember i was quite nervous because i never taught kids how to play basketball and the fundamentals of basketball. But as it went on, i slowly became more confident in myself and started being myself while teaching the kids. The coach even told me in the end that he would try to get me be his assistant coach when he starts his own basketball program! Overall my first day volunteering was great!