Over the span of two months (also known as summer), I managed to get a spot on the coaching team for TAFA, but as an intern. On my first lesson, I was so afraid. I had never coach before! and now I was coaching the girls that I used to play with. After school every Monday and Wednesday I would rush into a tuk that would take me to the CR&FC grounds. I was no longer a student but someone who loved playing football so much that she wanted to share it with girls that wanted to learn. The first couple of weeks of the first term the international coaches were in quarantine so it was up to us interns to do a large amount of the coaching.

Coaching some of our younger girls. Photo: TAFA

My first week I shadowed one of TAFA’s other interns, we were coaching the under 12 and under 14 girls. It felt very new and I was confused about what to do and how to control these kids, but I was slowly learning. I showed perseverance by trying to learn how to effectively teach my younger girls.

Then it came to the week that I had to start coaching by myself. I had planned a couple of meetings with Mr Turner so that I could get some outside help. I also didn’t want to create random plans for my girls, I wanted purpose with each activity that I did with them. So after planning with Mr Turner I had to apply it practically.

One of the sponsored lifeboy ads for TAFA. Photo: TAFA

Even though a lot of activities worked really well with the girls, some, of course, were a hit and a miss. But the experience just taught me to move on and work with the activities I had just done. Through coaching the girls I learnt that when I was creating lesson plans, rather than throwing in a bunch of exercises, have a couple of solid drills and then build on them. Take them to different levels.

Once the international coaches came in I was relieved from my coaching post. After the first couple of weeks, I was eagerly learning and shadowing the new girl’s coach, Henry. I watched how he work with the girls and constantly kept them engaged. After a couple of weeks he asked if I wanted to take lead in coaching a session, I was so nervous but took the opportunity. I had planned a session with help from Mr Turner and did it with the girls. It started off a little slow but after they got the hang of it we were cruising. Henry said that I did well and gave me some revisions to build upon for next time.

Unfortunately, that was my last session seeing the girls face to face for a while as everything has flared up again. We are back to looking at each other from a screen.

A Yeti sponsorship post. Photo: TAFA