DEEP Service Magazine Spring/Summer 2014 | Page 25

DEEPCONNECTIONS
Q: Who facilitates the clinics?
I would make the curriculum a week
prior to the clinic. Yalitza Negron ’08
and Hannah Waldman ’15, who was
the Bonner Service Leader at BGCA,
would review the curriculum and
make adjustments if they felt it was
necessary. At the clinics, I would take
the lead in facilitating the drills,
however, many of the girls would step
up and would explain a drill if they
felt comfortable.
Q: What types of activities are held at
the soccer clinics?
We tried to make each clinic focus on
an athletic element and a skill. For
example, if a clinic was focusing on
teamwork, we would work on
passing. If we were doing leadership,
we worked on dribbling. We tailored
the clinics to drills and games that
highlighted these specific areas. We
would normally start off with a group
warm up. Then we would look
specifically at a skill like dribbling,
passing, first touch etc. Then we
would play different games that
highlighted both areas that the kids
enjoyed but allowed them to work on
their new skills. Our main focus was
development and fun.
Q: What types of skills do the
facilitators utilize and/or learn?
The facilitators learned many different
things while planning the clinics, as
well as facilitating them. It was
important to manage the time based
on the kids response to the activity. It
was even more important to have
many drills and games ready in case

kids didn't respond well to a certain
activity. The main goal was to make
sure the kids were having fun, so if
something wasn't working we always
had a back up plan to keep the clinic
moving. The facilitators needed to
show confidence as well as a lot of
energy. It was always a team effort to
keep the kids focused and under
con