As a football player who plays as a goalkeeper, this position alongside the coach is the only two roles that can watch and guide the whole field. I wanted to mentor one team, and I got the opportunity to do so in a women’s tournament. My goal is to get exposure to football through the eyes of a coach.
LO 1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
Being a goalkeeper, I can say my strength is to guide the team, and knowing the game’s beauty helps me lead the team better. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses in this activity helps me be aware of where to focus more. My deficiency was that I did not have any experience in coaching. Knowing strengths and weaknesses helped me focus and develop on those aspects.
LO 2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
This process involved something which I had no experience in, and this made the experience more difficult for me. Guiding the team was easy, but getting tactics and the different gameplays according to the player’s strength was challenging for me. I overcame this by managing them through the tactics and gameplay favorable according to their strengths and weaknesses. Going through different challenges helps you get exposure and learn new skills. Learning new skills and going through unlike new challenges will help me get through different situations in the future.
LO 4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Being the coach, the guidance of the team, I had to commit to this activity throughout. I had to give in time and schedule myself. Knowing this experience will help me get exposure, it made me feel better that I took ahead a new challenge that might help me in the future. For me, it was easy to commit to the process as football is something I love, whether it’s playing, watching, or supporting.
LO 5 – Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Mentoring a women’s 3v3 football team was a bit difficult for me. The main difficulty is that I did not have exposure to coaching and guiding them according to their strengths and weaknesses. It was easy for me to collaborate with the players as I knew most of them. Cooperation is the key for guiding and leading the way through the matches.
LO 6 – Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
The main issue that’s worked upon in this process was inequality, women’s rights, and women’s space to play sports. This inequality in sports is visible worldwide. Knowing about these issues and working on fighting for their rights in sports, leading them for exposure, made me happy. After this activity, it seems that the scenario might change as there is great potential.
The skills I developed were communicator, thinker, and well-balanced. This experience made me get the exposure I wanted for a while also enhancing, and supporting women to play sports. This experience was a great way to get exposure in both fields of coaching and women playing sports, their potential, and their reach.
Evidence:
Few photos of the tournament:
