A Busy Session Based around Tennis

The main sport last Saturday was Tennis, but in the loosest sense as no Tennis matches were played! It was more around ball control, throwing and catching. The session started as always with a warm up - this time stretching exercises rather than a tag based game. Then everyone grabbed a tennis racket and tennis ball and the first exercise was balancing the ball on the racket as each person walked around the hall. They then switched to bouncing the ball with the racket as they moved around. After that everyone paired up to take things to the next level and that meant one person throwing the ball to their partner a few feet away by means of a bounce pass. This was so that their partner could return the ball with the racket meaning controlling speed and direction so that it didn't fly off across the hall. The pair would switch around between throwing and hitting so that they had a go at each. The more adventurous pairs even tried both hitting to each other with the racket to try and build up a rally - but I am not sure that went very well!

As it turned out the last racket based game we played was the Hamburger game where small teams were formed and the idea was to build a large stack of racket - ball - racket - ball - racket. The more rackets and balls the better and then move around the hall trying to keep the stack (burger) together.

​At this stage we stopped for a refreshment break and were intending to get the tennis nets out to start playing some points / matches. However, as the turnout last weekend included a lot of younger children it may have been a bit too much for them so coach Ray switched the game to some throwing and catching games. Firstly, everyone sat in a circle and  the ball was rolled from the coach in the middle to each player in turn. Then, everyone stood up and it became throws instead of rolls as we played a game of Champions. Catch the ball and you move up the line, drop it and you move down. The Champion is the person at the head of the line at the end of play.

After the main break Joseph wanted to use the ball pool so Tiegan and Kerrie accompanied him as you can see in the photos. Everyone else joined in some games of Benchball, carrying on the throwing and catching theme. These games are always enjoyable with lots of calling for the ball and everyone screaming instructions at everyone else. 
​At the end of the session the coaches conferred and decided to award the Star of the Week award to Daisy - a very well done!
​Join us again where, if this bad weather continues, we will probably be doing the Luge, ice hockey and skiing! On the other hand we may just stay indoors and play some more traditional sports!

This weeks Star performer - Daisy, pictured here with coach Ray