Lia Chan

Dakota State University

15 February 2021

Community Service Reflection

My community service took place at Dakota State University. I was volunteering as an

assistant and helping hand to the assistant softball coach at DSU, Alexandra Holland. Coach

Holland teaches pitching lessons to a middle school student from Madison to help improve their

pitching skills and development. My coach has been working with the student for almost 2 years

now, but I only started helping out with her lessons in early November of last year. I started these

lessons only with the intention of helping out my coach because she needed someone else there

to catch so she could focus more on the student’s mechanics, and not have to catch their pitches

at the same time. So far, the lessons have been for 1 hour a week for pitching on Wednesday

afternoons. Soon we will be adding Thursday afternoons to the schedule to help the student with

their batting skills as well.

My responsibilities are to make sure everything that the student and my coach will need

for lessons is set up in the gym before lessons start (bow net, pitching mound, plate, pitching

balls, spinner, towel), catch bull pens for the student, and with my knowledge of softball and

pitching, give the student tips to help her with her pitching mechanics and strategy. One skill that

I developed while doing my community service was that I learned how to explain skills and

foreign object manipulation tactics in a way that it would make it easier for the student to

understand. Learning what language to use and which examples helped the student learn best

was interesting for myself to learn which helped my development as a teacher as well as the skill

development of the student. Since November, the student has come incredibly far with the
development of their pitching and their mechanics and strategy have improved greatly. The

student’s level of pitching greatly exceeds her age level and continues to get better after every

lesson.

Being able to help this student grow and develop in the short time that I have been

working with them has been incredible. You can see that they want to get better and are working

towards their goals. Another one of my responsibilities was to help the student appreciate the

process of development. Like any other athlete, when training isn’t going as expected or the way

they want it to, it can be really frustrating. When the student gets flustered or frustrated, I take a

minute to talk to them and see what is going on. I ask if they’re hurting, tired, annoyed or just

need a drink of water. It is important for the student to know that it’s okay to slow down and take

a breather and to know that making mistakes is normal and they can’t be perfect all the time.

Keep working hard, trust the process, and success will follow.

I feel that participating in my community service was a great opportunity for me to

become more active in the community. That is one of my favorite parts about DSU; Being able

to give back to the community that supports us in everything that we do is definitely something

special. It has also allowed me to grow, apply, and spread my knowledge of softball that I have

acquired over the past 16 years to help someone else grow to love the same game that I do. From

this experience, I’ve learned that I love seeing the people that I help and teach succeed and now

know more than ever that I have chosen the right profession.