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The Junior Surf Coaching Program at Papamoa
The Junior Surf program encompasses over 300 children from age 5 through to 13. The programs focus is on ensuring that Children have fun while being taught the fundamentals of water safety and competition based skills. The primary objective of the program is to create a lifelong relationship between our children and the Surf Lifesaving movement, principally as our future Lifeguards.
To allow this to occur, last season PSLSC implemented a succession program which introduced Coaches to a specific age group with the ideal that over the coming years, the Coaches will follow the same age group through and as the children grow and develop surf skills, the Coaches themselves learn and become more adept in teaching those same skills. Staying with the same group also allows the Coaches to better identify individual needs and plan the training programs to suit. This concept while not new, allowed a structured program to be put in place that allowed Parents (as Coaches) to have a greater input in to what their children are learning / being taught in Surf Life Saving and how the training is delivered.
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The reality is that not all Coaches will remain with the same group or even within our program as their circumstances change or their children move on or younger children come though. As a result, we are constantly on the lookout for new Coaches and this year is no exception. Most of you will have seen how our program worked last season and we would like more Parents / Club Members to become involved so that the teaching pool continues to grow and allows better more focussed interaction with smaller groups of children. In 2008, a number of you voiced an interest in being involved and we would like you again to make contact if you are still interested. For anyone else who wishes to be involved, we also invite you to get in touch so we can then begin the process of age group allocation and introduction to the Junior Surf training curriculum. Why more Coaches? Currently, the Sunday session Age Groups are 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10plus and there are 3 Coaches returning to each grouping from last season. PSLSC are looking for a greater concentration of Coaches for each so that the following can occur:
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· The Age Groups can be further separated by levels of confidence / competence and more targeted training effort can occur · The greater the pool of Coaches, the less strain placed on everyone on a weekly basis throughout the season · Smaller groupings will allow less downtime in organisation of activities · When other commitments impact on availability, there are still sufficient Coaches to cover those missing No-one who expresses an interest in being a Coach will be turned away due to our intention to create as large a coaching pool as possible across the whole Junior Surf movement. Coaches will also be involved in looking after kids competing at 2 away Carnivals and our own hosted carnival as well as managing events at said Carnivals. Training the Trainers Both PSLSC and Surf Bay of Plenty are able to run Coaches training courses and do so throughout the season.
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If you are interested in being involved as a Coach, let the Club know and arrangements can be made for you to join others who have already completed likewise courses. The Coaching Team also meets regularly throughout the Season to discuss / review sessions and methods of improving our session delivery plans. It is through this type of ongoing review that you will be introduced in to the Coaching Team and workshops introducing drills that could be incorporated in to your sessions will be presented. Throughout the season, you will also recieve informal training on body surfing, kneeboards and other aspects of Surf Lifesaving aimed at giving you the ability to pass that information on to your particular age group.
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Contact if you are willing to help out If you are interested in being a Junior Surf Coach at Papamoa, please make an initial contact with our Club Administrator Nikki Pol via her Club email address info@papamoalifeguards.co.nz. In turn, Nikki will pass your details on to the Junior Surf Coordinator, Josh Hahunga. Coaching is an enjoyable and satisfying experience, especially when you have a vested interest in seeing your own children develop, in this case, in to our future Lifeguards. All parents are encouraged to at least consider becoming involved in a positive experience that will reap major rewards for you, your children and one day perhaps, for someone in need of assistance. Please make contact as soon as possible advising which age group you would prefer to be involved with and then resource allocation and training schedules can be organised. Junior Surf > Welcome to Junior Surf > A Junior Surf Session > Junior Surf Coaches > 200m Swim Award > Ocean Athletes
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