Week 27

This week was the week before the end of the season and our team marked it with another great performance and we have already won the league because of our large lead in the total score table, however, this doesn't mean that we should just relax as we have shown this week. We didn't start off too well since our collaboration was rather poor but after 2 or 3 games we finally started to move the ball a lot more and help each other by moving around into space and communicating very well which led to a victory of 9-0 against the red team during one of our encounters.

On a personal level, I was able to achieve my target of assistances, a hat trick, and over 10 goals since I was able to score a total of 11 goals which secures my position as top scorer of the season which I am very proud of since it shows a great improvement in my confidence and abilities compared to last season where I wasn't able to score half the goals I did this season. I will make sure to prepare myself throughout the break from the season until we return so that I will be able to score over 300 goals next season and once again be top scorer since that will be the last year I will be able to play in the league.

My dribbling has also improved since after a while I got more confident with the ball and tried out some skills such as 360s which turned out very well and got me several changes at goal. However, there were some moments where I had problems controlling the ball fast enough which led me to waste time and get closed down by the opposing team which then restricted my ability to play the ball. I will try to focus more on my control of the ball next week since my over confidence in my ball control makes me sometimes lose focus and thus I sometimes don't have the most accurate of touches.

My contribution to our team has improved considering that I'm playing my part as a defender and an attacker rather well since I often run back to defend and then run forward with the ball and, if we lose it, run back again. However, this could be improved by increasing my stamina since I feel out of breathe sometimes which limited my potential so I think I will put more time into the elliptical machine in order to fix this so that next week I am in top form to close off the season with an amazing performance.

Link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAVE71xYctk

Another interview, this time filmed

This week I was once again asked to take part in an interview and talk about the school in order to help people form a sort of advert for the school. Considering that the other people around me were reluctant to help these people, I decided to step up and give a service to our school.

I was asked some questions but expected to talk in depth for every question and this pushed me towards being more open and talkative which made me more confident when I spoke. I tried not to think about the fact I was being filmed, but rather thought of it as the interview I had last week. I took more pauses in order to think about what I was going to say so that I would be sure that what I was going to say not only made sense but also answered their question to their satisfaction. This activity made me think of possible ethical issues since I tried to emphasis the fact that this school was very international and has open arms for people from any nationality.

I spotted, however, a few things on which I could improve on. I sometimes felt like I was repeating myself when I didn't know what to say since I felt pushed to continue talking so I think that next time such a thing happens I should either take a pause to think or take a pause and expect the interviewers to ask me another question.

Week 26

Due to a lack of numbers and experience of our players (most of my team consisted of Year 9s) we didn't do so well this week however I think we were still able to achieve a high position this week with a lot of points considering our offensive plays were very effective. On a defensive side, however, our team didn't do so well because of our reluctance to come back and defend which was valid for my case as well but since I suffered from a knee injury at the beginning I wasn't able to play to my full potential which is why I was only able to score 8 goals this week. Nevertheless I think my dribbling was good even though sometimes I took it too far which cost our team the ball.

My passing was acceptable, however, I still think it needs improving since when I have the ball and there seems to be no available pass, I try to make one which I know will be intercepted so I think that next week I will try to move more with the ball when looking for a pass so that my team mates start to move around or I create enough space for myself to move forward with the ball.

Coming back to my dribbling, I think that it was very good since I tried out new things which had a good effect however I think that sometimes I was a bit too shy with the ball, for example, when I dribbled Mr English and was about the dribble the next player, I decided to leave the ball to a team mate which was in my running line and that ended up costing us the possession of the ball so next week I will try to be more confident when dribbling but not too confident that I keep the ball too much and congest our team's play.

My shooting accuracy needs some practice as well since I am finding it hard to hit the ball into the corners most of the time and I often rely on the power behind my shots rather than the potential of accuracy. So next week, in order to fix this, I will warm up by trying to shoot into the corners rather than aim anywhere as long as I have power.

Considering our team mostly consisted of younger players, this gave me the opportunity to be more communicative since I had to set myself as an example to my other team mates and provide them with help because of their inexperience. I took advantage of this by telling them what they could do with the ball e.g. "pass it back" or "in the centre" or "well-played". I think that this kind of support helped them a lot since you could see that they were starting to feel more comfortable in playing and this ultimately helped our team score the amount of goals we did.

Link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfP4bYpKvNA

Interview for a shy person ...

During our last CAS session, I was one of few to be selected to tell some people about our IB program and enlighten them on was CAS and TOK was. This was a very good experience for me considering I need to be more outgoing and communicative with people and so I didn't waste this opportunity. We talked in turns and I was going to be the last one to be asked to introduce myself and say what I think but when they asked an open question which anyone could answer I decided to take the task in answering their question. I made sure to try to explain as well as possible, however, I think I shouldn't have talked so fast since it didn't give me much time to think before talking so I was unsure of how valid what I was saying was and how well my audience would comprehend what I was saying so next time such an opportunity comes at hand I will make sure to slow down and give myself time to not only breathe but also think of the structure of what I am going to say and its content as well.

Week 25

After a two week break of playing football Thursday after school, our team started this resumption of the season with the most points and me becoming the new stop scorer after passing Stefan who hasn't been playing for about a month now because of exams nevertheless I shouldn't take credit away from myself since I have over 200 goals next to my name which is more than I could have predicted.

Today I was able to score 13 goals and at least a hat trick during a game and maybe two. The reason for this success was because of my positioning which has improved since last time since I always tried to move into space both when I had the ball and when I didn't. I made sure to communicate well with my team so that they were aware that I was open and they could pass the ball to me. This is something I should keep on trying to improve so that it is hard for the other team to stop me from getting the ball since I am constantly changing position. However, I think that my stamina has gone down since last time I played so I will make sure to use the elliptical machine more often and keep swimming on Saturdays so that I could put more energy into my game.

On a dribbling side of things, I think I did well when it came to control and agility however I don't think that this week I pushed myself to try new things or dribble too much which I think is a shame since it is one of the areas I am very good at so I will make sure that next week I try out new things or at least use more old tricks so that I can practice using them during a game.

My passing could have been better at times since I sometimes gave away the ball with a bad pass so next week I will warm up before the matches start by passing the ball against a wall so that my accuracy increases and our team doesn't lose the ball because of a careless pass I did. Nevertheless I was able to assist my team mates several times especially Mr Bruce.

Overall, I think that I did well especially when it came to simple ball control, agility and movement into space which I will try to reproduce next week so that I keep up this high goal scoring and try to reach over 300 goals by the end of the season which is now my target along with scoring 10 goals and a hat trick weekly.

Link to video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxYDwZuEnzk&feature=youtu.be

Holiday CAS

During these holidays I decided to stay active and do some CAS work which I shall divide into different sections to show that I haven't isolated any of the criterion of CAS.

Creativity and Service

I decided to do some more work on the organisation of Sports Day even though it is in about 2 months time. I created several pages of notes on the different activities and what will be needed, what are the rules, who should supervise it and so on. I made some adjustments to the previous plan I had since after going through it I noticed some problems which may arise which has made me a more thoughtful person since I wanted everyone to have fun and I could see that with this issue not everyone would. I decided to dismiss the idea of having a teachers against Year 12 group, however, there will be a relay like this. As a result of the large numbers in Year 12, I decided to make them in one group and divide them in 4 teams so that everyone has something to do during that day since the initial idea was to divide Year 12s into organisers and participants however there was no point in having organisers since there were enough teachers to do this and it wouldn't be efficient to have so many people organising. I assigned teachers to do certain roles such as looking after year groups to make sure they make their way to the right activity and so on and made sure to make notes on what I would need to give them so that the teachers also know what they are doing. I will need to have a meeting with teachers or something of the sort to make sure that they are alright with doing the tasks I assigned them.

I also had the idea of having some people in Year 12 doing photography ( max. 3 ) so that we could sell photo albums at a profit to students and that money would go to charity however I would need to create a questionnaire that I would give out to students the next school year to see if they would buy this album so that I know it will be worthwhile. 

Action

I went swimming 4 times during the holidays as a way to work out and relax at the same time. I have found this to be very productive since I feel like my stamina in swimming has increased since the first time I went, however, I need to improve my speed over a short distance since there has been no real improvement in the 25m crawl that I did in 16/17 seconds before. In order to change this, I will try to go twice a week and if not at least once a week in order to try to get that number up to 15 at the end of the month.