Running head: MAJOR ASSIGNMENT #1 PAPER 1

Major Assignment #1 Paper

Heather Cantu

EHRD 616-700: Methods of Teaching Adults

Dr. Elizabeth Roumell

Texas A&M University

March 15, 2020

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Abstract

This paper explores a basic soccer skills workshop that was created for adult participants

in a small town in Texas named Wimberley. The ultimate goal of this training session is to elicit

interest in the sport in this geographical area in order to develop an adult league. The coaching

methods employed in this workshop borrow heavily from the books Facilitating Learning with

the Adult Brain in Mind: A Conceptual and Practical Guide (Taylor & Marienau, 2016) and

Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn (Hattie & Yates, 2014). This paper describes

the tactics used in developing, promoting, evaluating, and executing the workshop while keeping

andragogical methodology and embodied learning in mind. It also provides instructions for other

coaches of adult soccer players that are interested in completing a similar learning session.

Additionally, a separate workbook has been submitted with this paper that explains anticipated

next steps for a subsequent coaching session. Finally, the conclusion of this paper cites potential

challenge areas for other coaches to consider when reconstructing such a session for their own

use.
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Workshop Development and Execution

The main concept behind this soccer skills workshop is deliberate practice leading to

automation of skills in adult learners. “The key idea behind deliberate practice is time devoted to

training tasks that a person can identify and achieve mindfully and sequentially” (Hattie & Yates,

2014, p. 96). Hopefully, through observing me perform the basic soccer skills, share each step of

the skill in a thoughtful manner, practicing the skill themselves, and getting feedback from me,

the adult learners will begin to achieve a state of automaticity. When these basic soccer skills “…

are automated, mental space becomes available for deeper levels of thinking and understanding

through acquiring knowledge” (Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 58). In other words, they can begin to

scaffold more difficult skills (i.e., trick moves, lobs, curving the ball, etc.) onto these existing

automated skills. The workbook attached to this paper shows that the plan is to explore more

difficult skills in subsequent training sessions.

Additionally, the idea of observing me as their coach perform the skills first before they

practice the skills first should not be overlooked. “The central idea behind social modelling is to

allow the learner an opportunity to witness the skills displayed by a competent individual”

(Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 72). I believe I fit this role because I played soccer in competitive

leagues for over ten years, and played soccer for over fifteen years total. The practice of social

modeling in this workshop allows the participants to analyze the skills, break them down into

smaller parts, and begin committing them to memory before trying them out themselves (Hattie

& Yates, 2014). Additionally, the attached workbook displays plans for adult participants to

begin to model skills to each other in more advanced training sessions. I want the initial

workshop to be low-pressure and not overwhelm participants that may not have the skill-level of

other participants. For example, if a participant only played soccer recreationally and is expected
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to model a basic skill to an advanced player in this first training session, they might become

intimidated. Yang, Lin, and Chen (2018) found that anxiety in new learning situations negatively

affects learners’ ability to retain information, and I do not want social anxiety to play a role in

this training session more than it needs to. Once the participants get to know each other in this

first training session, we can begin to explore peer coaching more in subsequent sessions.

Finally, the role of feedback will be crucial in this workshop. It has been shown time and

time again that students “… want to know how to improve their work so that they can do better

next time” (Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 65). It will be important for me to balance both positive and

negative feedback with my participants (Hattie & Yates, 2014). I do not want my participants to

become overwhelmed or discouraged by their performance if they are not doing well. I will

emphasize at the beginning of the workshop that most of us have probably been ‘out-of-the-

game’ for a while, that this workshop is a refresher, and that it is perfectly acceptable to make

mistakes. We will be learning together as a team, and I want it to be a positive experience for

everyone.

The workshop will begin with introductions. We will share our names, level of

experience, position(s) played, and what we hope to get out of the training session. Once this

concludes, we will proceed with a ten-minute warm-up to avoid injuries and to limber-up the

participants’ joints and muscles. Participants will perform thirty jumping-jacks, thirty high-knees

(standing in place), thirty rear-end kicks (standing in place), fifteen slow knee-pulls (to stretch

the hamstrings), fifteen slow quadriceps-pulls, and then complete a light jog around half of the

field. They will then complete this set of exercises one more time, and then take a water break

while we discuss plans for the session. At this time, participants will also be able to ask questions

and voice any concerns that they might have. This will allow them to rest a bit and ease any
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anxieties they may have by asking questions. By observing the participants after the warm-, I

will also be able to assess fitness levels and see if I need to keep a closer eye on anyone in

particular in terms of potential injuries.

The first ten-minutes of the workshop will be devoted to passing. Too often, I have seen

poor passing skills at elevated levels of play, and I think the adult participants could benefit from

reviewing this vital skill. I will demonstrate proper passing skills to the participants first: (1)

place the non-kicking foot next to the ball; (2) use the toes on the non-kicking foot to aim at your

target; (3) slightly bend the knee on the leg of non-kicking foot to make sure the ball stays on the

ground once struck; (4) look-up at the target before kicking and when striking the ball, strike

with the inside of the foot at the arch; (5) keep the toes up and the ankle locked on the kicking

foot; and (6) follow through with the kicking foot after the ball is struck in the direction of the

pass. After observing me passing several times, I will have the participants partner-up and begin

practicing their passing skills by passing the ball back-and-forth on the ground. It will be

important to give frequent feedback throughout the ten-minute session.

The next thirty minutes of the workshop will be devoted to trapping. It will be broken

into: (1) five minutes of trapping elevated foot-level balls; (2) five minutes of trapping thigh-

level balls; (3) five minutes of trapping chest-level balls; (4) five minutes of headers; and (5) ten

minutes of mixed traps. Before each five-minute trapping session, I will demonstrate how to

successfully trap a ball at that height. I will have them switch to a new partner from the passing

exercise, and then begin training. Each partner will trap for two-and-a-half minutes during the

five-minute sessions and then switch to the other partner. Their partner will throw them the ball

at the correct level, they will trap it, pass it back to their partner on the ground (or head the ball

back to them on the ground), and then repeat. This will allow them to continue to practice their
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passing skills, which I can also give feedback on as needed. During the final ten-minute trapping

session, each partner will have five minutes of trapping balls thrown at randomly-selected

heights from by partner. Like the five-minute exercises, they will have to trap the ball, pass it

back to their partner on the ground (or head the ball back to them on the ground), and repeat. I

will give consistent feedback to the participants throughout, so that their skills can grow.

The following twenty-minute exercise will be devoted to shooting. Shooting a soccer ball

at a goal is much different than passing, and it is important for the participants to be able to have

the skills to differentiate the two in-game. There are several schools of thought on how to best

strike a soccer ball when trying to score a goal, but I will just be teaching one method in the

workshop. The reason for this is that I do not want to overwhelm the participants with too much

information. “… excessive input is threatening to one’s clear mental organisation [sic] and gives

arise to confusion” (Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 48). Again, I will demonstrate the skill first to the

participants: (1) look-up at the goal before striking the ball, noting the position of other players

on the field; (2) place the non-kicking foot next to the ball, using the toes to aim toward the

target; (3) keep the non-kicking knee bent, so that ball does not launch over the goal; (4) bring

the kicking foot as far back as possible before the kick, and strike the ball with the laces of the

shoe while keeping the ankle locked and the toes down; and (5) follow-through with the kicking

leg in the direction of the ball.

For the first ten minutes of the exercise, the participants will be in a single-file line and

shoot the ball one at a time at the goal from the penalty spot as I play goalkeeper. This will allow

me to observe them one-at-a-time and give instant feedback on their technique. For the second

ten minutes, there will be two lines that will rotate from the far corners of the goalbox. One

participant will pass the ball to the other as they run toward the goal, and then that participant
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will shoot the ball at the goal as I play goalkeeper. This will allow them to practice passing,

trapping, and shooting all at once. I will be able to give feedback on all three skills from the

workshop as I observe their techniques.

For the final twenty minutes of the workshop, there will be a half-field scrimmage. I will

divide the participants up into two evenly-balanced teams and observe as they play. This will

allow them to practice their skills under a high-pressure situation. Before play begins, I will

reinforce that I expect them to use the skills that we practiced during the workshop during the

scrimmage and that I will be giving them feedback on their performance. The fact the scrimmage

is half-field instead of full-field will increase pressure on the players, encourage passing, and

allow me to observe them more closely to provide more accurate feedback.

Promotion

I will be coordinating this workshop with the president of the Wimberley Youth Sports

Association. I help coach youth soccer, so my idea is that we will advertise this workshop on the

soccer fields in Wimberley. Wimberley, Texas is a small community with a large population of

active adults. I will also advertise this workshop at the Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym that I attend,

several other social areas that I frequent, and on social media (i.e., Facebook community forums,

local Twitter feeds, Nextdoor, local Instagram pages, etc.) I think that through these

advertisement methods, I can get a fairly decently-sized group of interested adults together. I

foresee the skill-levels of the adults varying widely, so that is why I believe beginning with a

workshop on basic skills will be best. I am going to distribute a workbook after this initial

training session to keep the adult participants engaged in their training. This workbook promotes

a subsequent training session and also has the players practice juggling, practice and plan to

teach a move to fellow players, and think scholarly about set pieces. I believe this will involve
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the body-brain early in the process and contribute to neural network building (Taylor &

Marienau, 2014).

Additionally, I plan to email a survey via Google Forms after the initial workshop

regarding the participants’ experiences (see Appendix). The survey will be anonymous and will

evaluate me as a coach, as well as their experiences overall. If the ratings are positive, I can

potentially use some of these statistics for promotion of the workshop in the future.

Conclusion

There are several challenge areas within this workshop that I foresee: (1) varying skill-

levels; (2) injuries; (3) required gear; and (4) varying fitness levels. I would recommend that

coaches that attempt to reconstruct this workshop keep these areas in mind when designing their

own programs. These areas of concern can cause issues for legal liability, struggles in

completing the workshop, and cause frustration in the participants.

First, varying skill-levels can be a large issue. As any soccer player knows, someone with

ten or more years of experience playing with someone that has only a couple of years of

experience can be a frustrating endeavor. If two such players are partnered together in the

passing, trapping, or shooting exercises, it can be a recipe for disaster. The more-experienced

player can get annoyed with poor touches, and the less-experienced player can be intimidated by

the other player’s skills. In such a case, neither player could end up learning anything from the

exercises. If your group is out-of-balance skill-wise, perhaps enlist the help of more-experienced

players. It may be beneficial for them to give the less-experienced players feedback and give

them tips. You can even rotate these players through your session if it is going well, so the less-

experienced players get more exposure to them. The benefit to this is two-fold: (1) the less-

experienced players get more one-on-one coaching to improve their touches; and (2) the more-
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experienced players have the frustration-levels reduced while also learning as a consequence of

their teaching. Joyce and Hassenfeldt’s (2019) study runs parallel to this thought process in that

peer teaching mentors were found unanimously beneficial by participants. The peer teachers not

only improved the performance of students but also their enthusiasm for the subject-matter,

interestingly.

In any athletic-setting, injuries are a risk. I will need to work with the Wimberley Youth

Sports Association to develop a waiver for all adult participants to sign before the workshop

commences. This type of setting is a particular risk because the workshop is designed for players

that have been ‘out-of-the-game’ for extended periods of time and want to brush-up on their

skills. From personal experience, muscle memory is huge. Someone’s body may react to a soccer

ball coming towards them as if they are eighteen-years-old again when they may not be in the

physical condition to perform such an athletic feat. Interestingly though, a recent study found

that previously-trained muscles build and strengthen faster than other muscles that have not

undergone rigorous training in the past (Lee, Kim, Kim, Shin, Rajan, Wu, Chen, Brown, Lee, &

Park, 2018). In any case, I recommend that you instruct your players to ‘take it slow’ and ‘listen

to their bodies’. If they injure themselves, they are not going to be able to practice and they are

going to put themselves out-of-commission. So many former athletes are used to giving

everything at practice, but it is important to reinforce that we are not practicing for the state

finals here. It may be necessary to pull certain players aside that are being too aggressive with

other participants, as well.

Required gear is another issue. A lot of people are not going to have cleats, shin guards,

and soccer socks as adults. I am not going to make these a requirement at my practices, but it

will be included in the waiver. Participants need to understand that there is a good chance they
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will walk-away with shin bruises if they choose to forego shin guards. However, I think

requiring everyone to buy gear for non-competitive practices will exclude many interested

participants. The choice is up to you and your coaches, but it is something to think about.

Perhaps looking into donation might be an option as well, depending on your location.

Finally, varying fitness levels will be huge. If you have participants that have not worked-

out in months or years, chasing a soccer ball even in a half-scrimmage will be overwhelming.

These people will get winded, may have underlying cardiovascular issues, and may injure

muscles, ligaments, or tendons due to lack-of-use. This will be something important to not only

include in the waiver, but also to bring-up at the start of practice. Telling your participants that it

is acceptable to stand aside, stretch, gather themselves and rejoin when they feel ready to do so

will be important for their well-being. If you notice that fitness is a big issue with your group, it

may be important to include a conditioning camp in your training, encourage working-out

outside of practice, or take the opportunity to do physical activity together as a group outside of

practice for team-building. The bottom-line is, if the fitness-level is not there, you are not going

to be able to improve the skill-levels of your players.

Through observation, deliberate practice, repetition, and consistent feedback, I believe

that I can have a successful workshop with my participants. One item that I really enjoy about

this workshop is the natural embodied learning elements, everyone will be out of their comfort-

zone, engaging with new people, making mistakes together, and doing something that they

enjoy. I think this kind of learning environment really captures a lot of what was discussed in the

book, Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind: A Conceptual and Practical Guide

(Hattie & Yates, 2016). This also gets me out of my comfort-zone as an instructor, which I think
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is important for this course. I think that through this project, I can potentially learn a lot about

new instructional techniques that I can apply to my professional life.

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References

Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn. New York, NY:

Routledge.

Joyce, A., & Hassenfeldt, T. A. (2019). Utility of a peer teaching mentor to graduate teaching

assistants. College Teaching, 68(1), 12–19.

Lee, H., Kim, K., Kim, B., Shin, J., Rajan, S., Wu, J., Chen, X., Brown, M. D., Lee, S., & Park,

J. (2018). A cellular mechanism of muscle memory facilitates mitochondrial remodelling

following resistance training. The Journal of Physiology, 596(18), 4413–4426.

Taylor, K., & Marienau, C. (2016). Facilitating learning with the adult brain in mind: A

conceptual and practical guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Yang, J. C., Lin, M. Y. D., & Chen, S. Y. (2018). Effects of anxiety levels on learning

performance and gaming performance in digital game-based learning. Journal of

Computer Assisted Learning, 34(3), 324–334.

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Appendix

Survey of Experience at Workshop

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