Independent Study 2 LIA

L- I, Emily Almeida, affirm that I completed my independent study which represents 30+ hours of work.
I assisted in coaching a youth (8U) recreational team for the season.

I- I spent over 50 hours with the Bat Girls team at practices and games, helping the coaches and occasionally running my own drills.

A- This helped my senior project because it gave me the hands on experience of coaching a youth team

2 hr Rough Draft

Topic: Coaching Softball
EQ: What is the most effective way to influence young athletes to play softball?

Classroom Theme: Outside, trying to reserve the field
Sponge Activity: 

1. Stretches, proper stretching for softball pregame
2. Talk to group, intros and stuff while stretching to keep them active
3. It relates to answers because you have to keep group active with intstruction, effective practices, proper techniques

Introduction:

-I will Introduce myself, my topic and why I chose it.

-Then I will break down my EQ for the group and the perspective (coaching) I took in answering it

               -Most effective

               -Influence

               -Young athletes

-After that then I will break it down into what we will be doing during the lesson, what I will be going over. Talk about the history of the sport and how it's evolved into such a large youth recreational sport, then talk about my answers to my EQ and conclude with best three sources and my product.

Foundation:

 Because of the focus on youth athletes I will talk about the history of softball and how it has become such a big recreational youth sport instead of going into career of coaching (college coaching, WMLS, etc.). * or maybe I can hit on both?

     -History- The first games, in Chicago around 1880s. Kitten Ball. development of rules, Gearge Hancock. Evolution of male to female sport

     - The Rules and Positions, simplified as if teaching to a group of young athletes.

     -Slow pitch (adult play) and youth fastpitch, leagues and popularity of sport now.

Answer 1:

Teaching skills and technique

     -I will talk about the coaches job, teaching kids the sport of softball

     - part of the first point will include the significance of a coaches athleticism( ability to perform/demonstrate skills) and background in the sport(knowledge)

     - I will talk about proper teaching and teaching proper techniques and the downside if you do either wrong (effective teaching, but improper techniques OR negative teaching habits of the right techniques)

     - The importance of teaching PROPER technique with effective teaching

     -I will have to hit on the effects of improper teaching or teaching improper skills and technique

Activity

For this activity I will teach them the proper way to field a ground ball.

or I was thinking teach half the group how to properly field a ground ball or execute some other skill and then have them use proper teaching techniques to teach a group of students.

     - This activity will show the execution of a proper technique and how to properly teach it (wether I teach the whole class a technique or not)

    - I will need gloves and balls for this activity *which I may ask to borrow from Hanke or obtain a set of my own

Answer 2:

Philosophy

    - I will start off with what is philosophy in terms of a coach's philosophy

    - A coach should communicate their philosophy, well let their team and staff know how they expect things throughout the season to go, getting the rest of their staff to implement their philosophy

    - I will go over different coaching philosophies and what makes each philosophy good or bad

          - "Buzz words"

    - Most philosophies are a mixture of broader philosophies

Activity

I'm not quite sure how to run an activity that relates directly to the answer without being to similar to teaching technique. I was thinking run some skill teaching (batting) and hit/emphasize buzz words

 

* I need to review answers three and activity

Best Answer 

Here I will go over philosophy and how important it is because it basically makes up how you run your team and how keeping the girls interested and fun makes them want to play (which is why #3 may be running/scheduling practices). philosophy is the difference in coaches

Three Meaningful Sources

1. Service Learning with Coach Ford at Mt. Sac
2. Third Interview
3. Coaching Girls' Softball: from the How-to's of the Game to Practical Real-world Advice, Your Definitive Guide to Coaching Girls

Product

My product from this project is the connection that I gained at Mt. Sac and the ability I may have to play there next year.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I will go over the importance of a coach in an athelte's life and the most important parts of their 'job'. I will recap on my answers and what I have done this year for my senior project.

Interview 4 Questions

1. How do you approach a new team?
2. How do you not show favoritism to players? (other coaches and daughters)
3. How do you approach practices?
4. What is most important for a new team to practice?
5. What are the easiest drills to teach young girls?
6. How d you teach skills to girls? (Do you follow the IDEA/ 6 step method?)
7. How do you teach the rules of softball to a group of young girls?
8. How do you approach games?
9. What do you think is most important for a team to work on?
10. What is your philosophy for your team?
11. What are your views on winning and losing?
12. How much should you stress winning and losing on a team?
13. How do you keep girls interested? at practices, etc.?
14. Why do you think players quit after a season?
15. How can you help them so they don't want to quit (if the don't have the skill)?
16. What is the most important thing to teach players?
17. How do you get the girls to 'want to' play?
18. How do you communicate with players? coaches? parents?
19. How do you deal with girls that don't get along? (why they quit)
20. Why do you think girls play? What makes it fun for them? 
21. 
    

ESLR

Doing service learning with a division higher then you there is so much to learn and each practice I go to with their team is really cool. I learn from not just the coaches and the stuff that they know but I learn from the players and things that they've learned over the years they've been playing the sport. I've talked to all the staff members but I think that a way to improve my learning is to talk to them more and ask more questions about the way they see coaching as well as what I've asked the head coach. Maybe even talk to the players and what they think about the team they are on and hwo they like playing and how they see softball.

20 min. Presentation- Rough Draft

Topic: Coaching Youth Softball

EQ: What is the most effective way to influence young athletes to play softball?

Objective:
      Teach the class the effective way to teach young athletes new skills
Procedure:
      - Ask the class for what they think is the best way to show a group of kids and athletic skill or new drill
      - Go through the 6 step process that teaches kids drills easily and how to properly execute each step
            - Have the class participate
      -Check For Understanding: have the class learn the skill while showing them how to teach the skill
            - Step 6 of the process involves asking questions about the skill being taught, include questions on how you're supposed to teach

Materials: Choose a drill to teach (equipment for drill), outdoor lesson)

EQ with Preliminary Answers

EQ: What is the most effective way to influence young athletes to play softball?
1. Proper Communication
2. Knowledge of game and skills
3. Motivation

Interview#2 Questions

1. Did you play softball when you were young?
         How did your coaches influence you?
2. What is your approach to a game? (strategy, philosophy)
3. How long have you been coaching?
         How many teams?
4. Can you give any advice to players that are looking to play college ball soon?
5. Have you worked with youth teams?
             Can you give any advice to new coaches for youth teams?