Day 67

Day 67

As I said in my day 66 blog, our first appointment was at goodwood correctional prison. We were scheduled to coach the parolees who are serving their probation sentences, some of which are as long as 20 years.

Jeff and I agreed before hand that we would do a shortish warm up and then do a mini matches session with all kinds of restrictions in each of the games! Jeff and I both joined in as they were our age and above so it wasn't our usual passive observant type of coaching session! It was nice to play for a change rather than just coach. The session lasted a good hour and a half and everyone was shattered by the end of it! It went really well and the boys were grateful for having us there! Like Joe said, we could have been many other places today but all of us wanted to come here instead and I think they appreciated that!

It was nice to have Joey to come with us today. His motivational speak in the board room was really powerful and I can see why he chose the missionary path, he's such a good talker and he's 'been there and done that' so he knows what he's on about and understands the path that some of the boys are going down or have been down! Joey did his speech in the board room and promoted the victory outreach type of gang which meets at the church every Wednesday! I think he definitely connected with some of the boys. We had lunch shortly after and it was quite a shock to hear some of the boys, at the age of 15, had been sentenced for charges such as murder, attempted murder and drugs! Such a young age!

We finished up at the prison at about 1:15 and then went back to the learning centre for a short while before heading off to our second appointment at 2.

Our second appointment was at a school not from the ruyterwacht learning centre, a school which Joe's children Yonick and Jodie attended infact! They had a really big field and we were given the under 19's and 14's to coach! We had decided to do a control session, using our ever popular control and move drill and then transferring those skills into a 4 box keepy uppy, ball control game! Each round Jeff and I would change the restriction such as you're allowed one bounce, no bounces, can only use, have two take two touches and so on! Each team would have three lives and would be eliminated if they lose their allocation of lives. It's quite a fun game because you can form alliances to knock the team with the least lives out for a quick and easy elimination! Not that we're promoting bullying but it's similar nature stuff! You "gang up" on the team who are in the most vulnerable situation to make it easier for your team! I took the 19's for the warm up and 14's for the fun 4 box game! Overall we had about 35 kids which was a nice number. I finished my group with a match because they weren't as skilful or developed enough to do some of the harder progressions like the under 19's!

A really nice day, two new venues in two completely different environments! Decent.

All the best

Luke