We had another fantastic session on Saturday in which we welcomed another newcomer - Aidan. Welcome Aidan!
We were however without Coach Alan but coaches Ray and Ollie provided some great fun. We also had two birthday's to celebrate so there was also plenty of delicious goodies for the kids to enjoy.
After a warm up on the playground led by Ray we then went straight in to some Parachute Games. It is a great team building exercise. As you can see in the pictures Ray varied the games to include running beneath the parachute and balancing a ball on top of it.

From there we moved on to the main sport of the day - Tennis. We started by working on basic racket skills like hitting the ball up, hitting down, balancing the ball as we moved around the playground. The group then split in to smaller teams to play "Build a burger". This is where the kids move up and down the play ground balancing a ball on the racket as they go around cones. Once the first person gets back the next person adds their racket and ball to the first person's to make another layer. The two people carefully go up and down the course again trying not to drop their tennis balls. Then a third person joins in and another layer is added to the stack - much like adding all the layers of ingredients in a burger!. Obviously the more layers there are the more unstable the stack and the harder it is to balance it all without it collapsing.​
We then worked in pairs with one person throwing to the other for them to return the ball with the racket. They then switched roles so that everyone had a chance to practice returning the ball.

Our last tennis game was King of the Court. This is where each child takes it in turn to try and return a ball thrown over the net. The return must land in the court and not be caught out either to survive. Fail to get the ball back over the net and in the court OR get caught out and you are out and join the fielding side on the other side of the net. The winner is the last person left in and they are crowned the King or Queen of the court.

To finish off the session we went back inside for the last 30 minutes to play some Benchball. It is a great team game where you aim to pass the ball up the hall with the intention of your player on the bench catching the ball without it bouncing. If you do then you join the catcher on the bench. The team with all players on the bench first is the winner.
At the end of another great session our Star of the Week awards went to Millie and Kealan - congrats and great work both of you!
We are on next Saturday (28th) which will be our last before the half term break. See you all then!

On a beautiful Saturday morning we met once again for a fantastic session of sport led by coaches Alan, Ray and Ollie. The first sport we played this week was Rugby out on the playground. We did passing in pairs then passing the ball around the body, when you caught the ball, before passing back and then running then passing.

We then moved inside the school hall for a tag game called Hunter. This is where two kids compete against each other. On the word go one races to get a ball from the hoop and get back without being tagged by their opponent. The opponent meanwhile has to run up the hall, around a cone and then try and tag the other player before they get back. The two kids then switch roles for a second run so both have the chance to be hunter and hunted.

After the main break we switched to Golf and more specifically putting. The first game we played was who could get the ball closest to the bench. Controlling ball speed was the key with many kids striking the ball too hard initially and the ball would bounce back off the bench at the far end of the hall. The kids then learnt through practice how hard to strike the ball so that it just reached the bench without bouncing back. There were some really impressive strokes by the end of the game.
We then played a really great game which was putting through the legs. Sounds simple but we built it up so that every time someone got the ball through the legs of a teammate they would join the queue of people making a tunnel for the next person to get the ball through. By the end of the game the tunnel would be up to 8 people deep which makes for a really tough shot for the last person!
We then finished off the session with teams of kids trying to hit cones with their putts to collect them. Loads of cones were scattered over the hall floor so early on it was quite easy to hit and collect cones but as the game wore on and the number of cones left decreased it became harder and harder to get the cones.​

Our two star performers this week, and recipients of the Star of the Week awards, were Charlotte and Ellis. Very well done both!

Join us again this coming Saturday to see what sports we have in store to play! Dont forget to bring plenty to drink and to put on the sun cream in case it is another hot day!

It was great to be back out in the fresh air for a session of all things Cricket.
Ray was back so he led the warm up, with Ollie. From there it was straight in to the cricketing activities and we started with some throwing and catching in pairs. We then enhanced that by changing it to a bounce pass with a disk to aim at as a target to bounce the ball on. Then Ray led a game of Champion. This is a catching game where the kids line up facing Ray and he calls out one name at a time and throws the ball to that person. If they catch the ball they move one space up the line but drop it and you move one space down. The Champion is the person at the top of the line at the end of the game.

After a quick drinks break we progressed on to some fielding practice which at first was picking a ball up from a cone, running around the wicket before placing it back again. Then we progressed to throwing at the wicket, taking it in turns to throw then be wicketkeeper. Lastly the wicketkeeper would roll the ball out so that the incoming fielder would collect the  moving ball and throw it at the wicket. They would then become the wicketkeeper and carry on the rotation in the group.​

Next up it was batting practice which to start with was hitting the ball off the tees but aiming towards a target areas. We then had our main break before wrapping up the crickett with some games of Qwik cricket with everyone taking a turn to bat, bowl, be wicketkeeper or field. The aim being that when batting you face a set number of bowls and you have to get as many runs as you can but you can only run when the bowler does not have the ball.

We finished off the session with some games of Boccia. The blue team won the first three ends but the red team made some amends by winning the last one.

It was another great session with some good effort from all the kids. Our ​Star of the Week awards this week went to Alexander and Todd - well done to both of you!

See you all again next Saturday for more fun and games.