A Week of Tennis Action at EF Sportability Club

With the return of the hot weather it was back out on to the school playground for some Tennis practice and games. After a warm up to get the kids prepared it was straight in to the skills practices starting with balancing a ball on the racket, then bouncing a ball on the racket followed by bouncing the ball between floor and racket.  From there it was on to working in pairs passing back and forth. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of this first part of the session as was stuck on the front desk and Lesley, who often helps out with the photography,  was away.
After a quick drinks break it was then out with the nets and the group split in to two lines, one per court. Ollie and Ray then worked with each line practising returning the ball over the net, with Alan helping out across both courts, as you can see in the photos below. 

After another refreshment break we put all the practise in to good use by playing some games of King of the Court. For those not familiar with the game all the players start off in a line on the far side of the net from the coach. The coach throws the ball over the net and the player has to return it back getting the ball inside the court (the cones in the photos below) and also not getting caught out. In the practice rounds even if you were caught or failed to get the ball back over the net and in to the court, then you were given another life. In the main games once you are out you join the coach on the other side of the net helping to get the other players out by catching the ball. The last person remaining becomes King (or Queen) of the Court. In the first game, after some very good play where a few players survived a number of rounds,  it was Charlotte who won and was Queen of the Court.​

After a final snack and drinks break - much needed to re-hydrate some hot children - we took things inside and out of the sun. The youngsters went to the ball pool with Tiegen where Liam, Todd and Joseph seemed intent on terrorising her and throwing the plastic balls at her. The rest of the group played a series of Indoor Curling games in the hall using the new kit we purchased recently (with Epping Forest District Council's assistance). The coaches would pick two people at a time to play each other. They had four stones each and we used the basketball shooting circle at the far end of the hall as the target. The player with most stones inside the circle was the winner.​

At the end of the session the coaches picked Hal, our Happy Hammer fan, as the winner of the Star of the Week award for all his efforts throughout the session.  Very well done Hal!
Hal can be seen pictured receiving his award from coach Alan along with Callum. Looking cool in them shades gents!

Join us again this Saturday to see what sport Alan and the team have in store for us. Hopefully if the weather remains good we will be outside again so dont forget the hats, sunglasses, sun cream and drinks bottles! 







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Hal receiving his Star of the Week award