Kicking with 1st and 2nd graders!

I have been teaching my first and second graders correct kicking form.  It is a pretty easy concept for most of them and they have had a lot of fun with it the last 2 weeks.

Week 1:   I decided to use foam dodge balls because we have enough of them that they each could have a ball and they are soft enough that no one would get hurt should a stray ball whack someone in the head.  The first week I demonstrated kicking form. We were just doing stationary kicks and I stressed the concepts of placing your non-kicking foot next to the ball,  bringing your kicking leg back with a bent knee and then a big follow thru as the ball is kicked.  I coned off a kicking area on the play field with lots of room to kick.  I then instructed the children that when they had kicked the ball all the way through the kicking area, they were to pick up the ball, walk outside the cones, and bring it back to the starting line.  This kept kids from running into each other and all the kicking was the same direction.  After a practice session, we played a simple relay game (kick down to a cone, around, and back) with about 6 players on a team.

Week 2:  I began with a simple review of what they remembered about how to do a good kick and a short repeat of kicking straight down the field.  Our second activity varied just a bit.  They kicked down the field and into a goal then came back the opposite way zig zagging in and out of a row of cones.  For the third activity I demonstrated a running kick (some of them were starting to do this anyway) and had them repeat the activity but with a running kick.  They really loved getting way back and getting a big run in.  Next week I will use what we have learned and try a modified kick-ball game!