toc

toc = training of coaches

right now we are in the process of hiring/training a bunch of new coaches/peer educators. they are the ones who lead the curriculum with the kids at the schools; so basically, they are the heart of the organization and very important in the whole process of getting our curriculum to the kids.

currently, we have around 70 coaches. we are trying to get up to 100. but that involves weeding out some of the weaker, current coaches. also, we are trying to get to a 50-50 male/female ratio with our coaches. they are always in pairs when delivering the practices to the kids, so we want to make it always a girl/boy pair if possible. this will be helpful bc there are certain practices that require splitting the boys and girls for the activities to allow the discussions to be more open.

we are training almost 70 new coaches in our tocs and then we will hire somewhere between 30 or 40. we just finished our first toc with half the candidates. it was monday-saturday 8am-6pm. so it is fairly intense, bc they have to learn our entire curriculum, what is required of them as a grassroot soccer coach, and everything grassroot soccer does as an organization. we start our second toc on monday.

i'll be curious to see how the second group is bc i have no basis for comparison for this first group. i have no idea if they were good, average, or horrible. but once i see this next toc, hopefully it will give me a better gauge.

the tocs are pretty exhausting, but also tons of fun. we get to hang out with the potential candidates all day, getting to know them, watching them do teachbacks of the practices, etc. its an interesting process to go through, and it is good for me because every time i see the practices done, i get more and more familiar with the curriculum. some of the practices i've seen done probably 15 times at this point, but it's still interesting seeing them facilitated by different people and seeing the best way of delivering it to the kids so they understand it completely.

new coaches facilitating a grassroot soccer activity

coaches coming together after a "teachback" of a practice for feedback and praise.