Children in India are wonderful to teach and
incredibly enthusiastic about learning sport. The Principals and
teachers in the schools we work with have stated that the children have
also learned life skills from the team work and gained tremendous
confidence in themselves.
You can also coach a variety of other sports in
South India,
so your choice is not limited to football alone!
You don't need
any qualifications to coach football in India - just a good knowledge of
the game.
This is a totally FLEXIBLE programme tailored to suit you!
Coaching Football in South India is a relatively
new project for Travellers and the responses we've had from the schools we work
in have been very encouraging. Students and School Principals alike have agreed
that the coaching has not only been fun for the children, they've also learned
life skills from the team work and gained tremendous confidence in themselves.
Children in India are wonderful to teach and
incredibly enthusiastic about learning sport. Although for the vast majority
coaching won’t have a direct impact on their lives; indirectly it has
immeasurable effects. Personality changes, health awareness, increased
confidence and social skills are all benefits from the coaching they receive.
Travellers works with different types of schools and/or sports clubs:
some are well off, private schools but most are public schools and usually very
poor.
We also work with schools and/or sports clubs
which are solely for children who cannot pay to go to school.
Most schools have some basic facilities, such as football and
cricket fields, and general teaching aids and equipment. Others
are very poor and lacking in facilities. Although materials and resources may be scarce, the
enthusiasm of the students and colleagues more than makes up for any hardships.
Coaching is usually done in three sessions,
morning, afternoon and evening, at three different venues. You may work in secondary
and primary schools and you will normally help out with all age groups. At the end of
our previous volunteers' project, the three teams played for trophies and cups,
which were given to the Best Team and to the Best Player.
School Holidays: Holidays are in the
latter part of December and running into the beginning of January.
15th March to 1st April
Summer Holiday: 25th April to 4th June
24th September to 4th October
Winter Holiday: 21st December to 3rd January
During the school holidays, we hold classes for
about 60 to 80 children in Summer Camps and our Teaching volunteers hold
informal classes. These Summer Camps actually take place in the school grounds
and are an opportunity to give more informal lessons, perhaps combining them
with playing a sport or putting together a music concert or play – much more
relaxed and not quite so structured.
Alternatively, you can use the holidays to tour
around the country and sightsee. Coaching is available all year round, except during the examination
periods (see below). This will affect school coaching as well as Sports
club coaching.
Examination periods:
20th September -26th September.
15 December – 20th December
17th November – 21st November
28th July – 31st July
Revision tests 09th February – 14th February
03rd April – 19th April
Sports Clubs are for students aged 10 – 20 years
of age and are for the football students from various schools in the area.
Because most schools do not have the facilities to hold sports on their grounds
they arrange for the students to participate in sports before and after school
hours at these sports clubs. Coaching is held in the mornings from 6am – 8am and
in the afternoon from 4pm – 6pm. You will also need to integrate teaching in
schools from late afternoon onwards, but some schools may arrange for specific
football lessons at their school throughout the day.
You will generally be asked to
help out with any age groups, and you are, in fact, very likely to be in popular
demand everywhere. The Principal/sports
director and/or relevant teachers at the
school and/or sports clubs will liaise with you about your coaching assignments.Our Organiser will also be happy to
assist you where necessary.
Our Organiser said of
a previous group of volunteers (Ben Du Preez, Tom Harris, and Tim Cowbury) placements:
‘We have just had three
volunteers who were here for playing and coaching football to Students. These
volunteers were busy coaching and conducting matches at three venues in the city
during their placements here.
Three of them divided the teams into groups and
the feedback from the boys, their Teachers and the Head of Institutions were
very encouraging. The morning
session used to be at the Race Course (sports ground), the mid afternoon at one
school and the evening session at another. Though they occasionally had problems
regarding language, they were very smart in training them and it was good
exposure for the volunteers as much as it was for the children. They had come
with the professional coaching materials which were really appreciated by the
Head of Institutions and by Physical Education Teachers.
All three were really
appreciated for their involvement and enthusiasm. They even arranged for
trophies and cups to be presented to the best team and players during the last
day. All in all it was an excellent
placement for them and the school where they worked, so hats off to them!!!’
FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO COACHING WEBSITE
As a volunteer
sports coach with Travellers, we have arranged for you
to get a year’s free subscription to a Coaching website:
www.grassrootscoaching.com. With
this membership (which normally comes with a price tag
of £39.99), you automatically become a member of the International Coaches
Association (ICA) and join a community of coaches from over 65 countries. The ICA is
rapidly growing into one of the largest coaching organizations in the world.
This subscription will allow you access to over 4,000 pages of the best
interactive, online soccer and football coaching information.
Although
they deal mainly with soccer/football, the coaching principles are the same for
all sports and will be helpful for you in teaching any sport. This
excellent resource should hopefully be able to give
you a few tips that will benefit both you and the children that you’ll be
coaching, and enable you to gain the maximum enjoyment from your placement.
‘We actually created a mini world
cup competition when we were there and also awarded medals such as best skilled
player etc. We also bought a whole kit for our groups because they were such
good students. The kids were fantastic and were very sad to see us leave. We
just hope that other Travellers volunteers can take up from where we left off’. Tom Harris
"Thanks again for
arranging such an excellent
trip, hopefully it won't be the last
(I
quite fancy Sri Lanka next)...!"
Paul White - teaching
in India.
ACCOMMODATION AND LIVING
IN SOUTH INDIA:
You will most likely share a
Travellers house with other volunteers and you may share a room with up to 3
other volunteers. The house is very nice, with marbled tiled floors,
verandas back and front and a rooftop patio/garden. It has mod cons and
facilities, including some en-suite bathrooms, showers and Western toilets.
There is a communal lounge with TV.
Food: Your
food will be prepared for you, but there may be occasional days when you'll need
to prepare your own meals (on the cook's day off, for example). Food is a
mixture of Western and local meals and includes fruit, fruit juice, etc. You'll
also have access to the kitchen if you want to make snacks or drinks.
It is possible that you may be assigned to guest house accommodation, or live with a host family, or possibly live on the school premises, usually in a
fairly basic but clean and comfortable room with bathroom attached. It
depends on how many volunteers are there at the same time as you, where you're placed and with which school. Wherever, you live, you
will be well looked after.
Often our Volunteers arrive to be greeted by the children with
drawings and banners shouting welcome. More than one Volunteer has been so
overwhelmed that they've burst into tears! Schools and families
have in the past taken our Volunteers on trips to show them the
sights. They love to meet you and socialise with you. One
volunteer in Dehra Dun was invited to 60 (yes, 60!) homes.
You'll be popular!
"It's so nice that I've had
the opportunity to really live in a place and feel that I know it and have a
base. I've grown quite attached! You know, like the little routines, the corner
shop where I buy my Sprite and fags, the Internet, the auto driver I get back
from the pool everyday and I don't even need to tell him where to go or ask the
price .... I think that is something very special and something I'm so pleased I
did during my gap-year. I can be a poor tourist backpacker whenever I want to,
but to live somewhere is quite different."
Caroline Lever
TRAVEL and SUPPORT & BACKUP
You have the option to arrange your
own flights or we can assist you with your flight arrangements. If you would
like us to do this for you, we will liaise with you regarding available flights
and dates to suit you. All arrangements for your flight bookings/payments will
be fulfilled by Murray Rogers Travel Ltd., ATOL No. 6856. (Read more about Murray Rogers Travel Ltd.)
Where possible, we arrange for two or more people to travel on the
same flight and we will let you have the names and telephone numbers of other
volunteers on your flight, so that you can chat to each other or even meet up
before leaving for your placement.
Where possible, all
flights we arrange for you have changeable return tickets because many of our
volunteers choose to extend their stay once they are in their destination
country. Changeable return tickets enable you to do so, within the limits of
your visa and the level of your air ticket, of course.
If you choose to book your own
flights, you should endeavour to get a changeable ticket. We meet you at the
airport regardless of whether you make your own travel arrangements or not.
You will fly into Madurai where you will be met by a representative from our India office.
You'll be taken to your accommodation, and your school and introduced to
everyone.
VISAS:. We'll send you all the necessary forms and information and
make the process very easy for you.
We can also arrange your flight
dates to give you additional time at the end of your project for travelling
around and sightseeing - this is a fascinating and wondrous country!
PRICES:
To see the Prices of this project and all
our other projects in India, please
click here
Prices
include
Food & accommodation while on your project,
2 T-shirts, if required
for your project
All support and backup
during your programme
Meeting you at the
nearest airport, where appropriate, but exclude international travel.
.
+44 01903 502595
