Community Service

Nicholas Geffre

During this past summer I got the opportunity to volunteer my time with the Watertown

Baseball Association. One of the main things I did during my community service was help out

with practices and go to games when other coaches were unavailable, depending on certain

circumstances. When I would help out at practices, I would work with the young athletes on

different skills used in baseball. I would observe what they were doing and give them some

pointers on how they could improve. I also helped out by hitting them ground balls and throwing

them batting practice. Also during this time I learned different strategies on how to handle certain

situations in ways that I did not realize before. This type of experience is important to me

because I was doing it to help others out, especially the athletes. Seeing these students succeed in

life and sports is what motivated me and will continue to motivate me.

One thing I took away from my time volunteering is learning how to set up a practice

plan. In a way setting up a practice plan is similar to setting up a lesson plan for a class. In a

baseball practice plan it is important to keep things consistent, but it is also important to involve

things that the team needs to improve on. For example, one game the team was really struggling

with their pick-off moves, so the next day at practice the coaches of the team and I came up with

a way to teach them how to pick-off and different drills to help them get as many reps in as they

could in the time that we had set aside. There are also things that a coach must include into the

practice plan everyday, such as hitting and playing catch. Through this I learned how to prepare a

plan that best suits the team and helps them improve. This will be very beneficial to me as I work

towards becoming a teacher.

 Another thing I learned is how to give the student-athletes new information in a way that

they will understand. I learned that in sports especially the best way to give new information to

the athletes is visually, I also believe this to be true for Physical Education. Some of the students

and/or athletes may have never heard of the information or skill that you are trying to teach them,

so if I just explained it to them verbally they may not understand it. Showing the athletes how to

do it correctly is by far the most efficient way. For example, if you see something wrong with an

athletes swing, you may explain it to them, but it is also important to show them at the same time

because it will stick with them better. In the Physical Education world, if you are introducing a

new activity or game in the class it would be important to show a video of gameplay or

demonstrate it for the students yourself. Keeping in mind that some student-athletes may have

never seen or heard of this game, activity or skill is very important to assuring that you introduce

and teach it properly.

One final thing that I learned through this experience is how to communicate with the

athletes and also reinforce rules. All students communicate in different ways and they all take

advice or reinforcement differently, especially in today’s world. Not all students respond well

when being yelled at and degraded. Using this information as teachers and coaches you need to

find different ways to reinforce your rules or proper behavior. An example of reinforcement is

positive reinforcement, which may include a reward or positive praise of an action. Another

example would be negative reinforcement. I learned that the best one is positive reinforcement,

as this can help a teacher or coach stay ahead of the problem before it happens, or you can give a

reward to a student-athlete for showing proper behavior. Negative reinforcement often receives a
bad reputation and sometimes I would agree with that, but it is also important and necessary to

use in certain situations so you can get your point across.

Overall my community service experience was very positive and beneficial. I will

definitely use these strategies and the advice throughout my personal career of teaching and

coaching. These experiences will help me become the best teacher and coach that I can possibly

be so I can help the student-athletes have a fun and successful career themselves!