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The Lesson Plans are only meant as a guide for the Master Coach. As some Master Coaches will be qualified and experienced in dealing with young children and their parents (teachers, certified coaches, day care/pre-school facilitators) they will be able to further develop the sessions from the One-with-One framework. If you are not very experienced, don’t worry! If you follow the “Game Plan” you won’t go far wrong.
One of the reasons we got into the One-with-One program was at the request of community soccer organizations. We thought: “How do we do this? Won’t the children be intimidated? How do we control 12 to 20 little rug rats?” Necessity is the mother of invention. So we said to ourselves, “One-with-One!” It was a moment of inspiration - not to mention fear! And it has worked beyond our wildest dreams. If the children, for whatever reason, are not into it that day the parents (or brother/sister) take care of the situation while the Master Coach is able to continue running the program. As well it gives many parents their first taste of soccer and maybe a first taste of coaching (or should that be coaxing!)
Also, please consider the following factors:
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Within each session plan there may well be too much content (better too much than too little). Don’t feel compelled to move everything along just to complete the session.
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The end-of-session game should be fun, but for whatever reason, the children may not be quite ready for it. So if you feel that another activity would be more appropriate, pull something from the activities “bank.”
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If you haven’t got yourself ready for the next activity, send the children away with their parents to play “Kick!” while you get yourself organized. The interaction between parent and child is a major part of the One-with-One program.
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Not all of the graphics show parents participating, but you should make every effort to include the parents in every activity you can.
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Print out each of the activities to keep as an easy reference.
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Look at all of the information pages to see which, if any, you might print out to pass on to the parents (your call), e.g., Overview of the Program; next week’s session plan, etc.
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Watch out for the overly exuberant parent who gets into the game too physically. Also the parent who thinks their 3-year old is the next Pele and demands too much of their own child. A quiet word in the ear should do it.
Most of all, the Master Coaches must have a good time as well as everyone else.
Learn to play... play to learn!
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