Initial+Proposal

While doing my research I create a driving question to help me focus what I wanted to study. My driving question is, how can being on a sports team help build self-confidence? I came up with this idea because being apart of the Springfield water polo and swim team, helped my break out of my shell. The friends I made and everything we did helped me to realize who I am. It helped so much with my self image, self confidence, and helped me to become more outgoing and be my self in front of people.

For my project I want to create a water polo clinic for eighth graders and anyone who needs extra help or wants to learn how to play. I want people to see if they enjoy water polo and help them learn the basics so if they decide to play they will understand a little and won’t be so shocked. I want people who have the same self issues as me to be apart of something that will truly help. I want people especially new comers to feel confident and comfortable with the team and the sport.

I want to start off my project by getting the pool for a few hours. After I have the pool I will create flyers and post them around school to create awareness of the clinic. After people come my team mates and I will help the student learn the basics of water polo and begin to feel comfortable. This project will involve a lot of time and preparation, but it will be fun and worth it.

My mentor will be able to assist me by helping me through challenges that come up. She will be my rock and someone I can depend on if things start to go wrong. She can help me with research if I hit a wall, and help if certain things with the clinic go wrong. Some problems that I foresee are people not showing up and my teammates and I not being able to teach in a fun and creative way. To stop these problems I am going to talk to my coach and ask him what is necessary for new comers to learn, and then I am going to think of fun ways to carry them out. To make sure people come, I am going to talk to people myself as well as posting flyers and other notifications throughout school. However if that does not work I will be able to spend individual time with the people who do show up to assist them with any problems they are having.

For this topic I am going to have to research team psychology. I will have to discover how and why being apart of a team can help increase self confidence and ones self image. I am also going to research about coaching and self esteem in teenagers. Learning about coaching will help with the clinic and being able to help who comes to learn. If I learn about the self esteem in teenagers I can discover if people who do not play sports have a lower self esteem or not. This topic is very interesting to me and I want to show people that being apart of a team or any kind of close knit friends can help increase self-confidence.