Coaching at Lincoln Wellington Athletics Club meant that we could only use two lanes for twenty two students which proved to be quite challenging in week six. The focus of the lesson was endurance, as some of the sprinters were better at longer distances and there were some students who needed to improve their fitness. However, the students don’t enjoy endurance training which when reflecting in action revealed challenging behavior. This could have been prevented and avoided if I had been more organised and included more fun elements into the session. I decided to adapt the session and create a competitive environment to make the children work harder and subsequently perform better. The pairs now had to race for the last 200m they were running but take the first 300m at their own pace. This increased motivation and made the lesson more enjoyable for the children which then provided better learning outcomes.
Reflecting on action, for the following endurance sessions that I plan, I have learnt to always apply fun elements and adapt standard training sessions to suit the various needs of the athletes. However, reflecting after the session finished helped me to understand that some weeks you aren’t always as organised as you would like to be. The most important thing that I learned after this week’s session was how I can adapt, be flexible and cater to every child’s needs by applying different rules as soon as I see any deterioration in motivation.
An example of how I can employ this into future sessions is to plan in advance better and for this session in particular, it would be suitable to bring hurdles and other pieces of equipment because past sessions have proven that the more equipment that is used, the more fun the session is for the children.