First Week of the Season

      Last week’s practices went well. The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny, for the first time this year, so it felt great to be outside.

      We actually have two coaches now: Coach Arcenas and the girls’ soccer coach, Coach Austen. I think it is good to get input from more than one person. They also work well together because Coach Arcenas knows about lacrosse, but is new at coaching and Coach Austen has been a coach for a long time, but knows nothing about lacrosse. But, it is weird though for me and some of the other upper classmen to have one coach let alone two. The “captain’s” practices, which lasted for about a month, have consisted of all kids. There was opportunity for everyone to give input about what they thought we should work on and how to practice. Now we have two “outsiders” telling us what to do. I mean, obviously, we are playing a high school sport, so we need a coach and a coach’s job is to lead the team. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this, but it does feel weird. It’s just a weird transition. I am still trying to work towards my objective of working collaboratively with others, and this includes the coaches. Therefore, I will try to work collaboratively with the coaches to help the team.

      I think I did work collaboratively with the coaches this week. I did what the coaches asked and it actually helped me a lot. For example, we started to work on being ambidextrous. I have always heard that this was an advantage in lacrosse, but I had never really tried it. This year though (this week) I’ve really been practicing and experimenting with this and it’s been working. I’ve been learning all these applications for switching hands and so I know that what my coaches are saying is worth listening to. Another time, Coach Austen asked me to explain rules whenever someone broken them in a scrimmage. The other returning players and I have been working with the coaches to teach the rules to the new player. This is working really well. Even if the player knows a rule already, pointing out mistakes can help make the rules memorable and provide application for them (At least that is what it does for me. I’m glad when people point out my mistakes that I can learn from.) Encouragement is also always good.

      Actually, having new and returning players work together seems to contain the same concept as peer tutoring. Sometimes kids are the best teachers because they themselves have just learned the concept. They can simply explain the concept the way that they learned it. They also can remember the mistakes they made or things they were confused on and so they will explain those parts even more clearly to prevent the learner from making the same mistakes. I will remember this if I ever have to teach something.