Moments of Stillness

One of my favourite things about my job is that I get to coach sport. This takes a lot of time and energy yet often planning training sessions, outside of the essential safety protocols needed for Rugby, take a backseat while other parts of my job demand more time and energy. It is amazing that the 3:30-5 lesson can often be the most enjoyable part of the day. At the end of our training we always do drop kicks as this is an essential part of 10’s and Rugby 7’s. Many of my ākonga have never really practiced drop kicking.

Now any one who is reading this blog who knows me from my rugby playing days (though they might think of me as a drop kick ;-) would know this is a skill I never worked on through my playing career. So how does someone who “can't” drop kick teach others how to drop kick. Well this is a good question and one I probably didn’t know the answer to till recently. I spent a lot of time looking at the students attempting and mostly failing. My best kicker would persevere for many kicks. It always played on her mind that missing a series of kicks meant we drew a match rather than winning it. She would get the ball kick it, miss be frustrated and try again, this continued for entire kicking session. I would tell her eye on the ball, follow through etc. It then occurred to me this like so much of her play, the kick was being rushed.

It then occurred to me what needed to happen. I talked to her about her rushing and said we needed to stop worrying about what is happening after and before the kick and solely focus on the kick itself. I picked up the ball and showed her how to approach the skill. First I looked around the field and acknowledged all the distractions I was not going to focus on. Secondly I showed her how I would still my mind and breathe. This moment of stillness allows me to think about the very action itself. I then told her what I was focussing on: look at the target, then eye on the ball follow through. Who would of know I kicked it perfectly!

That evening I was playing Social netball one of my favourite times in the week. With some changes in personal within the squad I have found myself more and more playing centre and loving it. Defensively and finding space on the court in attack are two parts of my game I am really pleased with. Shooting does not come naturally to me. This game I increasingly found myself in an open position to shoot and the results were predictable. It was not until the 3rd quarter in a tight match I mentally checked in with myself. Thinking about earlier in the day the ball came to me I took a breath focused on the task and swoosh 2 points. A fluke? Ball comes in again with the same method swoosh, 4 points. I move to defence for the 4th quarter.

Often in the classroom and education we seem to rush, how do we get the ākonga from here to where they “need to be”, we stare into the future pushing towards the next break, Friday, long weekend. How can we bring these moments of stillness into our practice for our wellbeing and helping the ākonga in their learning journey.

It has been a joy this term with so many moments to treasure and I look forward to another exciting term. Acknowledging mental health week as a whānau (form) class we spent our last time together in circle time. I asked the students for a highlight of the term, from Mountain biking and skiing to overcoming mental health issues and being accepted into polytech the examples were as different and vibrant as the individuals around us. A true moment of stillness and reflection.