Sports School Work Experience - South Africa

Product Details

This is a unique opportunity to do a sports work experience in a sports school for the under-privileged community. You'll assist in the management and running of the school, coaching the children and possibly playing for the teams based at the school.

Located in the beautiful town of Knysna along the Garden Route, you'll have the opportunity to coach and play cricket, golf, hockey, squash and tennis.

This is quite a unique project in that it combines coaching and playing a variety of sports with gaining experience in managing and administering a sports school dedicated to a development programme for the under-privileged children in the community.

As a volunteer on this project, you'll be able to involve yourself in a number of different roles:

• Sports Administration and Management
• Coaching
• Sports events organising
• Sports Development
• Grounds Management and Maintenance

The sports school is in a very beautiful location overlooking the Knysna Lagoon - being out in the fresh air and playing sports with such panoramic views is enjoyable, uplifting and quite unique. The school has excellent facilities, including a pavilion, cricket and hockey ground. The school was established in 1992 as a sports promotional tool for the previously disadvantaged community. The school's motto is ‘To play for the sake of the game’. The sports school provides term-time coaching in squash, cricket, golf, hockey and tennis to boys and girls in the area of Knysna and works closely with the children from the under-privileged community.

As well as coaching, the school also organises a number of sporting events which brings visiting teams to Knysna to play against local teams. These occasions are always lots of fun and a good strong competitive spirit. The mission statement of the sports school is; - The promotion of sportsmanship, fellowship and self-respect among children in Knysna through the medium of a healthy sporting ethos and environment, and the development of their skills in their chosen sport.

You'll be involved in a number of different activities during the day. A typical day will consist of undertaking the administration and management of the sports school, which includes, for example:

• Organising monthly sports festivals at the Sports School - schools from all over the country come to Knysna to take part in these festivals
• Organising matches for overseas touring sports teams
• Sports facility maintenance
• General paperwork and administration
• Organising matches between schools and clubs.

As well as working on the administration side of the sports school, you'll also be involved in coaching your particular sport, or a variety of different sports, depending on your choice.

Sports Development Programme
The sports school has a well-established sports development programme which aims to allow children from the surrounding townships to come to the facility and receive free coaching. They also have children from more affluent backgrounds attending the sports school and this interaction benefits both groups.

There are a number of qualified coaches at the school who you will be assisting, so if you're not a very experienced coach, or you lack confidence in your coaching skills, you can learn and develop your own abilities by working alongside these coaches.

You can chose to coach one or more different sports and you can do a placement for any length of time, from two weeks upwards. The sports are divided by season and are as follows:
Sports : Cricket, tennis and golf
Dates: Between October and April, with a long break in the middle from 1st December to 15th January
Sports: Squash, hockey, tennis and golf
Dates: from April 10th to 22nd September

During the start of the school year (February and March) you will be going into the township schools with the coaches to do talent spotting, i.e. identifying children who have talent in a particular sport. These children are then encouraged to come to the sports school to receive coaching.

Playing Sports
As well as coaching sports, you'll also have the chance to train and possibly play for the sports schools senior/mens teams. The sports school has teams in a number of sports. If you'd like to compete and train in your sport, the dates for the different sports sessions are given below:

Cricket: January - mid March, and September - mid November
Tennis: April - end of May
Squash: April - mid September

This placement would suit someone who has a keen interest in not only coaching sports, but also getting involved with the sports administration and management role. It is open to anyone who has, or intends to, study sports.

This is a very professional and intense sports placement where you can really benefit by learning sports administration, management and coaching. At the same time you'll also benefit the poorer community through the sports development programme.

Accommodation and living in Knysna
You will more than likely live in one of our volunteer houses with other Travellers volunteers. You will either have your own room or will share a room with one or more other Travellers volunteers. It will depend on how many people are there at the same time. These are comfortable houses with good facilities and most have a beautiful view of Knysna Lagoon.

Your meals are all provided. There are several good, inexpensive steak houses and lots of good Chinese, Italian and other ethnic restaurants. With local beer costing only 50p and Coca Cola 30p. A good night out is cheap and spending money goes a long way!

Our users say...
"Thank you so much for all the time and effort you have put into making this a fantastic stay for us. We will never forget this experience!" - Cat Dunlop and Liz Lunn