Football drill during the Life Skills training

In our blog we will introduce the wide range of services and activities that are being offered at our Health Academy. Every week one of the WKU team members gives you an insight into why the Health Academy is so popular and successful in Edendale.

Being a life skills trainer in the Edendale schools is such a great job.

To be honest, I learn a lot myself from being a life skills trainer and also get to know kids more and learn more about how they see things and respond to the knowledge you give them. Sometimes you find kids who are really good in the life skills and some of them are good on the football field - and of course some are talented in both. But each and every one of those kids is a great personality and it is a pleasure to work with them.

I started coaching life skills here at the Health Academy and it has been a great experience for me and I’ve learnt a lot; even own my life skills and knowledge improves each day. At the moment I coach at Muzi Thusi Primary School and it is great working with the kids from that school because they show a lot of interest in the programme and our curriculum.

To tell you more about my task as a life skills trainer, I teach the kids how to live healthy and how to take good care of themselves as they grow up to become young adults. I teach them about HIV&AIDS and how it affects the human body, and also about the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the best ways to avoid them. The 3-session Sexual Health manual, which I use, is the key for my training. It explains all the activities and football drills that help young people to understand the life skills and gets them motivated in this great programme.

In order to enjoy and be able to run a proper life skills training, you should be flexible and energetic because kids need to have fun and encouragement. It is important for me as a coach to be around when the kids need help, even outside of the life skills session.

Two teams are ready for action prior to their matchup!

I had such a great experience in running the Mixed Gender League (MGL) for the first time. At first, I was very nervous because I wasn't familiar with the coaching. But, after the first week, my coaching skills truly improved.

The MGL kids behaved well and each day they learned life skills and improved their behaviour on and off the pitch. Most of the kids came to WhizzKids feeling shy and scared. But, after a few days, the kids became familiar and opened up to each other. For example, a 16-year old, HIV-positive girl was shy and quiet during the first week. Yet, as time went by, she got used to the other MGL players, played extremely well and made so many friends.

The most important thing that we did with the participating youth was to work with the players before each game to teach them about life skills and health education. I used the WhizzKids United "On the Ball" Life Skills, three session manual which helped me to tie in the sport of football with youth development. For example, I was able to tackle issues such setting life goals and HIV & AIDS prevention through football drills of shooting, defense and ball control. 

We had 8 teams compete in our MGL and three winning teams rose to the top. Each of the three teams were rewarded with medals for their outstanding play. In addition, we also presented a trophy to two of our budding players, one male and one female, for being the leading scorers of our league. The action from the league really made children from the community excited and eager to join the MGL in the future! The MGL kids really enjoyed their experience of learning through the sport of football. And so did I!