We played a variety of sports last Saturday at Epping Forest Sportability Club. After a warm up we started out with Hockey and as always we practice some skills and build our way up to playing some matches.
We started off with some simple ball control with each child taking a hockey stick and tennis ball and dribbling / moving the ball around the hall. Once they had the hang of things we made it slightly harder by asking them to follow the lines marked out on the hall floor. Then to finish off we laid out a course of cones and asked the kids to control their ball as they moved around the course.

After the break we played some putting (golf) games. Firstly trying to get the ball in to one of the hoops. Then the coaches laid out all the cones on the floor and the kids had to try and hit as many as they could. Any they hit they collected with the player who collected the most by the end of the game declared the winner.​

We finished off the session with some games of Benchball. The kids love this game as it is fast and fun and needs some great teamwork in order to win the game. The object being that the kids pass the ball up the field and throw to their player on the bench. If it is caught, without bouncing on the floor, then the person who threw the ball joins the catcher on the bench. The team with all their players on the bench first is the winner. 
Join us again next Saturday for some more fun and action

In the week that saw the end of the humiliation of the England Cricket team in the Ashes down under, we were busy cultivating our own cricketing stars. 
Once the group were all warmed up we started off with some simple catching and throwing routines. Firstly the group started with bouncing and catching a ball with both hands. Then they did the same but catching with only one hand. They then went on to working in pairs - throwing and catching with each other. 
With everyone confident in their catching abilities we put it to practice with a game of Champion. This is where the kids line up facing a coach. There is just one ball and the coach will call out a kids name and throw the ball to them. If they catch it they move up the line. If they drop the ball they go to the back of the line. Whoever is at the top of the line at the end of the game is the Champion.
Once the Champion game was complete we went back to more practicing by throwing the ball to wickets and then on to batting practice.

After the break, for drinks and snacks, we played some games of Three Tee Cricket. The group split in to two teams with each taking a turn to bat and field. When batting, each player takes a turn to hit three tennis balls off of three tees. The fielding team are not allowed to touch the balls until the third ball has been hit. Then the batter tries to get as many runs between the wickets in the time it takes the fielding team to put the three balls back on the three tees and return to the fielding side of the hall. Once everyone on the batting side has taken a turn the teams switch so the batters then field and the fielding team take their turn at batting. In the end Pranav's team managed 50 runs but Callum's team amassed 60 runs.
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T finish off the session we took the pace down a notch as we played some games of Curling. The kids took it in turns to try and get the "stones" inside one of the basketball circles marked out at the far end of the hall. Then it got harder as it was whoever got closest to the centre circle​

It was great to see some familiar faces back for the start of 2022 and a new term.
We hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New year and hope you had a chance to relax and enjoy some quality time with family and friends.
We started back with a session of Basketball and Boccia. After the usual warm up, led by Ray, it was out with the basketballs and to start with it was just practising with the balls, bouncing them on the spot and then as they walked around the hall.
From there, the group formed a circle and passed the ball to each other. They called out the name of the person before passing the ball across the circle. Alan then developed this so that on catching the ball the player had to pass the ball around their waist and then around their feet before passing it on.  After a while it went even further by throwing the ball in the air and clapping before passing around the waist etc.

After a quick drinks break the group moved on to some shooting drills. This started with them taking it in turns to dribble the ball around cones before shooting at the basket. Once they had some practice shooting, Alan developed it further by getting them to work in pairs so that they passed to each other as they approached the basket before taking it in turns to shoot.

After the main break we placed all the practice to good use by playing some small sided games with three teams of  5 a side - reds, yellows and blues. All the leaders got stuck in as well and there were some great skills and shooting.​

We took things down a notch or two as we finished the session off with some Boccia. The group split in to  two teams at either end of the hall. Ray set up the game with a number of hoops in the middle of the hall to aim for. As each round progressed he removed some hoops so that there were less to aim for. It ended with just two hoops and then one solitary hoop in the middle of the hall to aim for.

It was a fabulous session for our first week back and everyone worked hard and seemed to enjoy it. The coaches gave the Star of the week award to Alexander for his hard work and enthusiasm throughout. Well done Alexander!

Join us again next Saturday for a different sport but still loads of fun!



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In our last session before Christmas the kids played a variety of sports. After a quick warm we started off with some small sided games of Hockey to get the blood pumping.

I was not around for the remainder of the session but I am reliably informed that they played Handball, Archery and Boccia. In the Archery both Valentina and Callum scored Bullseyes and in the Boccia Ray managed  to come up with some new games to play.​ Due to technical difficulties, any photos taken have not made their way to my inbox so apologies for that.
The kids brought in their own festive snack boxes and drinks so I hope they all had a great time (I think Santa may have brought them a small gift as well!).

​All it remains for me to say is that, on behalf of Epping Forest Sportability Club, may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we will see you all back on Saturday 8th January 2022 for a brand new year of fun!

We played some lesser known sports  this week at Epping Forest Sportability Club - Handball and Goalball
Handball is a cross between netball and football - all about passing, throwing and teamwork.
Goalball is a sport for blind people and can be best described as sitting football. The ball has a bell inside it so that you can hear where it is.

Ray led the morning warm up before we got the balls out to start on the games of Handball. We started by throwing at the benches (goals), them moved on to working in pairs passing, moving then shooting.

We then moved on to some team games with the group splitting in to three small sided teams - thus allowing for some rotation and rests between games. We had a bench at either end of the hall which was the goal the players had to aim for. 

After the main break we switched sports to Goalball. We started by practicing rolling the ball between players before splitting in to three small sided teams once more for some team games. The Goalball is a lot heavier than the balls used earlier in Handball so the kids had to get used to rolling the ball to each other and moving around on the floor without standing and running.

It was a great session and good to play different sports. At the end the coaches decided that the Star of the Week award should go to Hal for his efforts throughout the day. Well done Hal!

Next week is the last session before Xmas so it is party time! Bring along your party food and drinks, and wear Xmas outfits if you like!
​See you there!

For the first time in a very long time we played Volleyball as our main sport this weekend at Epping Forest Sportability Club.
The session started as always with a warm up, which is very important. Ray was back from a week off so led the warm up with Ollie.
Before we got on to the main sport we had a few Parachute games. We started off with Ray  calling out a pair of names and they had to run underneath the parachute to switch positions. Alan then introduced a ball in to the mix with the group trying to keep the ball on the parachute as it bounced around. Once the gang got the hang of that, Alan stepped it up a level by adding a second ball. That was really tricky as it is hard to keep track of two balls at the same time - especially if they are going in different directions.

It was then on to the main sport of Volleyball. Alan started this off by splitting the group in two and getting them all to sit down across benches. The aim being to get the kids used to hitting the ball over the bench to the opposition players and then trying to get a rally going. Once they were comfortable Alan then progressed the group to standing up hitting the ball across the benches. This allowed the players to move about a bit which meant it was easier to move to  the ball as it came over to your side. Lastly, the benches were switched out for tennis nets which are higher up, and less forgiving. It meant the players had to ensure they had to hit the ball up to get it over the net (before they could bounce it off the bench). ​

After the main break the group joined up to play one big game, using the hall as one big court. The session then finished off with a few quick games of Boccia

Cricket seems to be in the news for all the wrong reasons this week so we at Epping Forest Sportability Club decided to play the sport the right way and have a lot of fun in the process.
After a warm up the group got going with some fielding practice - throwing at stumps, catching, returning the ball. From there they moved on to some batting practice.

Putting the skills practice in to use the group split in to two teams to play some Three Tee Cricket. Each person takes it in turn to have a go. On their turn they hit three tennis balls off of three tees. The fielding team are not allowed to move or touch the balls until the last ball is hit. Once that happens the batter tries to get as many runs as possible in the time it takes the fielding team to return the three balls and tees to their starting positions.  In the end, Pranav's team beat Todd's team in both the games played.​

After the break we switched to a catching game called Champion. In this, the kids line up in a row and the coach threw a ball to each of them in turn, when called. If they caught it they moved up a place in the row, if they dropped it they moved to the bottom of the queue. At the end of the game Hal was at the top of the line and therefore the champion!​

We finished the session with some Archery, the kids loved it when we played it the other week so it made a quick return. The kids soon warmed up and their shots were getting better and better. Valentina was the first to get a Bullseye, closely followed by Pranav and Charlotte. A feat that none of the adults present could achieve so well done!​

Another good session at Epping Forest Sportability Club this week with Rugby being the main sport, as well as some putting and boccia.
Ray led the group in a warm up to start with - stretching and twisting to get limbered up.
The kids then paired up and grabbed a rugby ball between them and practiced passing the ball between them, as instructed by Alan. Alan then made it harder by asking the kids, when they caught the ball, to throw it up in the air and clap their hands, before catching it and passing it back. Once they had that mastered he switched it up again by asking them to move the ball around their waist, after catching the ball, before throwing it in the air to clap and catch then pass it back to their partner to do the same.

Once the pair work was complete Alan got all the kids to form a circle. To start with Alan had the kids run to the centre, one at a time, and pass to a person on the opposite side. Once passed they would take the catchers place and the catcher then became the passer.

Next up was a game called "Beat the Ball", the idea being that each child had a turn to pass the ball to the person next to them in the circle. They then had to run around the outside of the circle while the rest passed the ball around the circle. The idea being that the child would run around and get back to their starting position before the ball - hence Beat the Ball

After a quick drinks break the group played a game called Hunter. This is a tag rugby game where the kids paired up and raced each other. One would run and get a ball from the hoop at the far end and try and get back without getting tagged. Their opponent would, at the same time, run to a cone at the  far end of the hall, go around it then try and grab a tag from their opponents waist band before they got back home. Once that was done, the pair would switch roles so the hunter became the hunted.​

After the main break we did Putting - the kids trying to hit a ball from a tee in to a hoop opposite, at the far end of the hall

Lastly, we played some games of Boccia with the group splitting in to two teams, reds and blues. The red team won a very close first leg but the blue team got their revenge winning the second leg two-nil. The blue team then won the next couple of games to become the overall winners. Todd was awarded Star of the Week

It was great to be back after the half term break and we had a good turnout for what turned out to be a very good session.
The main part of the session was taken up playing Hockey.  Everyone grabbed a hockey stick and tennis ball and they started off by moving the ball from side to side. From there it went on to dribbling around cones, in a slalom course. The next drill was around passing with everyone taking up a position by a cone in a grid shape. The person with the ball would call out who they were going to pass the ball to. The receiving person would control the ball and then do the same, calling out who they were passing to.

Then after the main break we switched sports to play some indoor archery - dont worry, the arrows are plastic with sticky ends! There were some great skills on display - Robin Hood would have been proud!

We had a great session last Saturday despite a low turnout and being without Coach Alan, who was looking after his poorly Mum - what a great son!
​Ray and Ollie led the session and started with some great Parachute games. Ray had them switching positions, running underneath the parachute; running around the parachute and trying to keep a ball in the parachute as it moved up and down. Some great photos below I think you will agree.

After a quick break the kids lined up either side of the nets to practice Badminton for the first time this term. Ray and Ollie switched the pairings around to keep it fresh and there was some good effort and performances on display.​

After the main break we finished the session with a form of Boccia. Ray once again came up with a great variation of the traditional game. To start with the groups split in to two teams and lined up at either end of the hall. The first game saw loads of cones laid out on the hall floor and then players took it in turns to try and hit as many as possible with each bowl. Those they hit they collected. As the number of available cones decreased it became much harder to hit them. Once all cones had been hit and collected the players counted up their cones. 
The second phase of the game meant each player put their stack of cones in front of them and again the players took it in turns to try and hit a stack of cones on the opposing teams side. As these were at the far end of the hall it was tough to get the ball on target but several players made it and soon one persons stack was captured by another's. That stack was  then hit again by the opposition so they all passed to the other side and added to an existing stack. This carried on and Pranav was the eventual winner as he bagged the biggest stack of cones.​