Teaching Those Who Have Never Played The Game
- The American Experiment

SUMMARY: Imagine being given the task of teaching a group of kids how to play Australian rules football – even though none of them have ever seen or heard of the game? Below, how Coach AFL is attempting just that with a group of American university students in Perth as part of a radical experiment to grow the game internationally. Includes some interesting observations and an explanation of how we’re going about it.

Background

It was a long hot day in Perth when suddenly, a fascinating email popped up in the Coach AFL inbox. It was from ‘US Footy’ and asked, “Can you help teach Australian rules football to a group of American kids?”

Turns out the dedicated group at US Footy had an idea – to grow the game in the US by exposing American college students studying here to Australian rules.

Aussie Rules is rapidly growing in the US and needs support from us here in Australia to promote it and educate those who are playing.

And while US Footy has secured some wonderful ambassadors to promote the game with the likes of Kevin Sheedy and Paul Roos, I felt the opportunity to give some of my time and energy to their cause was too good to pass up.

Funnily enough, word had spread around the universities in Perth and a few other students from Europe and Africa had joined the American group by the time our project began.

But whilst most of us here in Australia take it for granted that everyone at least understands the game to some degree, even if they don’t play footy. It quickly dawned on me that not only did these young individuals not understand Aussie rules – most had never seen a game.

So where do you start in a position like this? Well here’s what we did…

Strategy # 1 – Start by Introducing Them To The Game

At our first session, I decided to wet their appetite for our game by showing the group highlights from some classic games of AFL. The last thing I wanted was for players to lose interest and stop coming down to training.

And it worked – these kids were quickly excited by our game. The speed of play and the physical nature of the game proved hugely attractive to them and they couldn’t wait to begin.

Strategy # 2 – Test Their Existing Skills

Once our group had been introduced to the game, it was time to test out their current skill level before we worked out the structure of our training program. And while I had no preconceived expectation, even I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised.

These young kids – with no previous experience in Australian rules – quickly picked up the basics of marking our funny shaped ball very quickly.

Catching an object is a motor skill taught very early and is defined through hand – eyes coordination sports. As most of the group were from the US, they had at one time or another, thrown and caught a gridiron ball.

Funnily enough, a couple of the other students were from Europe and with soccer being their most popular sport, this also helped them mark the ball.

But while they were able to pick up marking skills quickly enough, it’s obvious that kicking and handballing the ball would take a bit more work.

Strategy # 3 – Development of a Structured Skill Program

While our first session was some video highlights, a quick presentation on the rules and structure of football and then a kick around on the oval, the subsequent sessions need to be a little more structured so as to maximise our time during our one and only session per week.

My strategy to tackle the issues needed to be focused around 4 key areas.

1.    General ball handling and control
2.    Ball skills of the game which includes kicking, marking and handballing
3.    Game skills such as tackling, spoiling and shepherding
4.    Rules of the game

This strategy gives me the opportunity for progression in the training program to reach the ultimate goal of playing a game.

But my biggest hurdle is the lack of time with the students, so maximising the time spent with them is crucial. This is the same for any football coach. Getting as much into your players in a short time is the key.

Where do I start?

I decided that simple ball handling exercises that were both fun and interesting would be best suited to start off with. These are individual skills with one football per player and focus on getting used to the size, shape and weight of the ball and how to control it.

Simple skills such as passing the ball around the body, doing figure of 8’s between the legs, handballing in the air and bouncing the ball from the knees are a god start.

From there we will be moving on to working in pairs and doing handball type drills.

Once the players become proficient enough to handle a ball comfortably, I will introduce short kicking skills such as “Hang Kicking” and kicking off a step before progressing to kicking on the run, which will be test for all the students.

The focus will then shift to tackling techniques, shepherding techniques and spoiling. The use of bump bags and tackle bags will be a great benefit, whilst protecting the players from injury.

It is important to educate the students as to why we do these types of skills and their application in a game.

Strategy # 4 – Video Modelling

I will also be using plenty of video footage from AFL and WAFL games to enhance their learning even quicker - something WAFL and AFL coaches seem to be using more and more (albeit, they use footage of their own games).

By using video, we can break down sections of play and describe the actions of the players and why he is doing a certain thing at a certain time. I feel they will comprehend the information more easily.

Conclusion

Our game is so inherently unique with the type of ball used, the speed at which the game is played and the physical nature of the sport. And it will be a difficult task to adequately teach these students properly in the time we have, but the biggest benefit will just be the exposure to the on field and off field culture that is unique to our sport.

Nevertheless, we hope this “US Experiment” will result in these kids learning our sport and continuing with the game in the growing US footy leagues when they return home.

Further more, we’re hoping that this experiment will also trigger more ‘word of mouth’ marketing about our game amongst their friends – encouraging others to also have a go. Wouldn’t that be fantastic?

Thriving footy leagues and AFL Grand Final parties in the US… it’s hopefully something we can all look forward to… and that’s something we can all get excited about!