Kicking and screaming!

At this point in the semester, we have played several games with the students in which I feel to have been very effective and appropriate for the children at St. Mary's. I strongly feel this way because although we are not there every week, I do notice improvement in each of the students on all of the skills our games incorporate. Every time we are there the kids har a good time and keep wanting to play more and more of what ever game we have then play. This is a good feeling and it makes me happy an also makes me realize that the games we play with the students are definitely appropriate for them. There are definitely some limitations to games an activities we can play when we are assessing the students. This is because either (a) the students skill level is not up to par to perform he game or skill and (b) there are many students in the gym participating and it can be distracting and get in tr way of what you are tryin to achieve. The movements we evaluated this past lab were the stationary bounce and kicking. We had evaluated 2 students, one male and one female ate age of about 5. The girls skill level in dribbling a ball at first was not very high. She was slapping the ball with her palm and wa by making good contact with the ball. She also had no control over the ball because of how she was attempting to bounce it. After Dr. Yang personally showed her the correct way to do it, she immediately improved and began to use her finger pads and had control over the ball. It really wa amazing to watch!! This same student was actually pretty decent at kickin a ball. Aside from being skittle choppy in her approach towards the ball, she had decent form. Her opposite arm swung forward and tr trunk also inclined backwards upon impact with the ball. Her biggest flaw I thought was her finish. She didn't ever leave her opposite foot even though your supposed to hop in the finish of a kicking motion. The boy we evaluated had a very low skill level when bouncin the ball. His contact was at about knee when it should har been at about hip level. Also, the way he made contact with the ball was more of a slap than anything. The one thing I must say he was good at was keeping the ball infront I him. Although his form and skill was low, he still managed to keep control of the ball, at least most of the time. This same student had a very nice kicking motion. He had a very continuous approach to the ball an had a very nice follow through in which he hopped and lande on his opposite foot than the kicking foot. Overall, both students were very good at some stuff and need work on other movements. Nothig of which us "rockstars" can't take care of! ;)