Learning AFL

A dim sky wouldn’t stop me from having fun at Kiwi Kick even if Goosebumps started crawling up my arms. As I stood still in the freezing, cold air a gush of wind rushed past me. The trees started to whistle and the wind started to howl.

Kiwi Kick (AFL) also known as Aussie Rules is a sport mostly known to New Zealand and Australia. Only 18 people are allowed to be on the field at the present time of the game, six forwards, six back’s, six midfielders. If you would like to learn more about Aussie Rules please click here.

Our Tutors for this sport are Sam, Anita and Micheal. To start off we played a few games to get our blood pumping.  We played some tag, with a twist. If you got tagged you had to sit down and you could only stand up if the person who tagged you got tagged. I probably got tugged in the first 5 minutes of the game which wasn’t a surprise! 

As part of the sport assessment , we have learnt a few skills to play better, faster and stronger. Skill one: When kicking the ball you always put laces away from faces, another vital thing you need to learn is you must aim with your toes. Skill two: Passing the ball is difficult for many. You hit the ball with your fist which is called a hand pass. We learn new skills every week.

To end the session we had one more final exercise. Which was practising our kicking. We had to try aim for our targets, also known as Sam and Micheal. I said, “OH NO!”, because my kicking wasn’t that good.  As I kicked the ball I turned away laughing, but then I turned back and my ball had bounced its way to its target. “YESSSSS!”, I shouted out loud. 

AFL is a great game. I can’t wait until we play a full game at our last session. I thought AFL was like rugby, but in many ways it really isn’t. I hope every week I can improve even more.