Image yourself in this scenario – Sports hall dance studio, 4 table tennis tables set up, only a few students to participate, and the great Cliff Olsson ready to go with a table tennis bat in one hand and a ping pong ball in another.
You can see how annoyed he is there is only a few of us that have turned up, but he is still going ahead with the session. Is our lecturer going to be nasty? You just couldn’t tell nor did you want to find out.
What would you be thinking?
Take a minute to imagine yourself standing in front of him, knowing all of the above. How would you feel?
So, you’d think I’d say not very great but actually, I was happy to be there knowing I would be playing sport. On the other hand, if you are not so sporty, you would probably be stood there thinking “Get me out of here” or “I’d do anything not to be here right now” right? I think even though you would have thought this at the beginning of the session, by the end you would be amazed at what you have learnt and how this came about. Strangely I found this particular session confusing but fun as I was able to pick up the tasks set very easily.
It actually was a great session, from start to finish. Seeing the progressions that Cliff used and how he went about showing them to our particular age group.
From start to finish, Cliff had full control over the group, yet was still able to have a joke and a laugh with all students. Seeing what skills we had first was essential for Cliff to see to be able to progress us further, knowing most of us can play table tennis, (even at a basic standard) was essential so that he could carry on with the tasks for that day. Obviously we could all play to that basic standard through being brought up in a world full of sport and playing sports of some kind (I should hope because we’re on a sports course). He did this by letting us have rally’s with our choice of partner, to see our limits.
Me and my partner we’re diabolical at keeping a rally going, we decided to try and smack to the ball at each other instead, which didn’t really help our situation as none of us were great at the sport to begin with.
I think it’s safe to say, we were nothing like these.
Going through step by step instructions, Cliff shown us the correct way to hold a bat from head to toe, individually he slowly helped us to become more focused on keeping our head straight, arm in a bent position (writing arm), other arm in a straight position (to use as a guide of flow for other arm to follow), body an arms length away form the table, legs shoulder width apart, and knee’s ever so slightly bent.
Seeing the improvement for myself was great, I went from a beginner to amateur being able to strike the ball most of the time, me and my partner were able to have a rally back and forth for a lot longer than first time round. Each time we went back to learn something new, our rally’s became greater and our attitude was more focused than trying to win each other through smashing the ball at each other.
By the end of all the coaching points we all came together to have a mass competition to see who could last the longest whilst cliff was hitting the ball towards us, we were all on one table and once we had hit the ball back, we had to run around another table and back until we were the last one standing. A few different people won but nobody really stayed at the same standard as the first time we did this, by the second go around everybody stayed in a lot longer and didn’t miss hit the ball that often. Nobody was greater than another person at this, we were all very similar in skill.
By the end of this, we went into a mini tournament which was run by winners go up, losers go down. Cliff placed us all in order of how he thought we could play (I thought this was the case anyway). To be the ultimate winner, we had to make it to the top table and win everybody we had played. The underdogs started at the top!
Strangely enough, they were able to maintain their hierarchy and stay on the top 2 tables and kept playing each other, which is not what was expected by anybody, and especially not Cliff. Trying to take them off their ‘throne’ was what seemed to be impossible. The one who didn’t try throughout the session ended up winning. How you ask? You tell me because I have no idea.
I think this just proves that teaching children or adults in set ways does not always work, yes it may for some but not all. So trying to get a person to do something if they do not want to do it may end up in them failing, whereas if you let the child learn from their own marks or mistakes, they may just surprise you and come out on top.
My theory for the day is to never let somebody tell you what to do. The same goes for coaching, never let somebody else tell you how to do your job. If you know something is working with whom you are teaching, stick with it and don’t mess it up.
P.S. I’m still amazed at the outcome to this day!
Reflection 