It was a lovely day at Oak View School on Saturday so we made the most of the weather and got outside on to the playground for some Hockey. 
We were without Ray this week (get well soon!) so Alan led the warm up and then it was in to the Hockey with some ball control practice. Every child grabbed a Hockey stick and a tennis ball and started moving around the playground with their ball. Ollie then led a traffic light game - stop on red, move the ball side to side on yellow and dribble with the ball on green.

Alan then laid out pairs of cones and the kids had to dribble the ball between the cones. From there he asked them to do a figure of eight pattern around the pair of cones to get that close ball control working. After that they paired up to do some passing to each other between the cones, in their pairs.​

The shooting practice continued, after a break, with kids lining up to take a turn to shoot against a goalkeeper in one of three goals set up. Millie's Dad volunteered to be one of the goalkeepers along with Cliff (Charlotte's Dad) and Ollie. Even Liam took a turn in goal.

From there all that practice was put to good use with some matches. The group split in to three teams and they played each other in short, 5 minute games.

We rounded off the session with a bit of Golf - putting on the playground in to hoops. Getting the speed of the shot was key. Hit it too hard and it will bounce past the hoops. Hit it too soft and it wont make it over the ridge of the hoop.

At the end of another fantastic session Alan and Ollie decided that the two star of the week awards should go to Davina as well as one of our newer, younger members. Congrats to both for great effort and enthusiasm throughout the session.

See you all again this coming Saturday for more fun and action!

It was great to see so many kids back for our first session after the Easter holidays. Our main sport for our first week back was Basketball. So, after a warm up led by Ray, it was out with the basketballs for some ball handling and dribbling skills.

As a group we then formed a circle and on your turn you had to bounce the ball twice then pass it on to the next person in the circle. We started with just one ball but soon introduced a second then a third ball so concentration was key.

From there it was on to some shooting practice making use of the baskets at both ends. Once a shot was taken the ball was passed to the next person in the queue and the shooter then joined the other queue to shoot at the basket at the other end

After a quick drinks break it was on to a slalom dribbling drill where the kids had to dribble a ball up the hall, around the cones, before throwing in the air, clapping and catching. Then they moved the ball around their waists before returning back down the hall, around the cones, and passing the ball to the next person in the queue.
To finish the Basketball we divided the group in to three teams and played a few short matches of 4 or 5 minutes each.

After the main break we switched sports to do some Archery. This time the group split in to two teams and after a practice we managed to squeeze in three matches totalling the points scored by each archer in each round (two arrows each per turn). After two rounds it was all square so it went to a deciding match which was won by the blue team, for a come from behind victory. Special praise to Todd for getting two bullseyes and Kerrie for getting one.

We had great fun in our last session of the term, before Easter break
We had Ollie back from a week off to help with the coaching and a good turn out which made for a great session. We started inside with a game of Rob the Nest which is a game all about running and team work. The group was split in to four teams and they each had a hoop as their nest. To start with one player from each team would run to the middle to collect a ball and return it to their nest. Once all the balls had been collected it is on to stage two of the game. This is where players "rob" a ball from an opposing team's nest and return it to their own. This gets a bit mad as while you are robbing another team they could be robbing your nest in return. The team with the most balls in their nest when the game ends is the winner. In our games it seemed to be the team consisting of Valentina and Davina that won most, if not all, of the games - GIRL POWER!

We then braved the cold outside for a while to practice some Hockey skills on the playground. This started off with some dribbling - moving a tennis ball around with the hockey stick. Ollie then led a traffic lights game - Green for dribbling around the playground; Yellow for standing on the spot and moving the ball from side to side with the hockey stick and Red for stop. Lastly, Ray and Alan laid out some cones and the kids worked in pairs dribbling between the cones.

After a quick drinks break we moved back inside for some one on one battles. The kids were paired up and had to run to the far end of the hall, around a cone and then battle for the tennis ball to try and be the first to score against the goalkeeper. Initially Ray was the goal keeper but one Callum had taken his turn he went in goal for the rest of the match ups.

We then moved on to team Hockey games with the group splitting in to three teams - the blues, the yellows and the "rest". This put all the skills practiced to good use.

We finished the session with a variation on a Boccia game. The kids split in to two teams, one at either end of the hall. They had to target as many cones as possible with each throw that they took. They then had to remember which ones they had hit and then collect those cones,  along with the ball, once their turn was over. Once all the cones had been hit, which took a while as it gets harder as the number of cones reduces, the kids counted up their haul of cones and placed them in front of themselves. The next phase of the game was to try and hit an opponents stack of cones with your throw. If you succeeded you collected their stack and add it to your own. In the end, the red team at the far end won by hitting and collecting all their opponents stacks.