We had a really good turnout this week and enjoyed two great but very different sports in Rugby and Archery.
Alan led the warm up once more, on the playground, before the kids paired up and grabbed a rugby ball.

The first hour was all about Rugby drills starting with ​passing in pairs whilst standing still. Then running around the playgroun and passing whilst on the run. Then it was moving the ball around the body - over and under then side to side.

We then played some games of Rob the Nest before our break. The group split in to four small teams and once Alan shouted GO one member of each team could run a take a ball from another team's nest and bring it back to their own. Only when they were back could the next person in the team have their turn. It is fast and frenetic and I think we had three different winning teams over the three games that we played.

After the main break we moved back inside to play some Archery. The group split in to two, as we have two targets, and took it in turns to fire three arrows at the target.

It was another great session and at the end Alan and Ollie awarded the Star of the Week awards to Alexander and Kerrie. Well done to you both - great effort throughout!
See you all again next week for more fun and games.

We were blessed with some good weather and a great session of Basketball on Saturday at Oak View School.
Ray is still recovering from his surgery so Alan once again led the warm up. After that the kids grabbed a basketball each and started to dribble with it. First one hand, then the other, then switching between hands. They bounced the ball low to the ground and also high up but the main aim being to always be in control of the ball. The routines got longer with throwing the ball in the air and clapping before catching being added. Then moving the ball around the waist and lastly, around the feet. 

Ollie then led a traffic light game - green being move around  the playground dribbling the ball, red for stop and yellow for move the ball side to side between hands whilst standing still.
Alan then laid out a run of cones and the group split in to three little groups to practice their ball dribbling around the cones ending with a pass to the next person in the group to take a turn.

That dribbling practice around cones became shooting practice when we added a couple of baskets at the end of each run. We then put all that practice to use in some small sided games, either side of the main break.

Our star of week winners this week were Liam and Hal so congrats boys! Great effort

Join us again this coming Saturday to see what sport we will be enjoying.

We were blessed with wonderful weather on Saturday so we made the most of it by getting outside on the playground to play some Tennis. We were low on members this week as a number of the kids were attending a drama show. That meant that those that did come got added attention and we could concentrate on upping their skill levels.
We started with a warm up led by Coach Alan before it was out with the tennis rackets to practice some balancing skills.

After balancing the ball on the racket as they moved around they then started to hit the ball first up, then down. They then paired up to starting returning the ball to each other. One would throw the ball underarm for the other to hit a return. They then switches around so everyone got a chance to return. This helped them to judge how hard to hit the ball and in what direction to get it back to thei partner.
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We then played two tennis related games. First we played Champion which is a catching game. The ball is thrown at random to people in the line. Catch it and you move up the line, drop it and it is back to the bottom of the line. The person at the top of the line at the end of the game is the champion. 
The second game is King of the Court where the idea is to return a ball thrown over the net back. The ball must be returned in to the court (not miles outside) and must not be caught out. If you are out you become a fielder on the other side trying to catch the others out. We played a few games of this, as we enjoy it so much, and Harry won one game and Swaran two. An honourable mention to Kealan who came second in at least two of the games.

We finished off outside on the playground with some Putting at hoops. We then ended the session back in the hall with some games of Boccia, trying to get as many balls in to the hoops as possible.
It was a lovely session and we hope the weather stays kind for as long as possible so that we can have many more fun sessions like this. We just had one Star of the Week award this week and that went to Joseph, new this term, who has settled in really well and showed great energy throughout the session.
Join us again next Saturday for more fun and games when we hope to see all the "Drama" kids back.

It was great to be back at Oak View School on Saturday for the start of Autumn term at Epping Forest Sportability Club. It was lovely to find out what exciting things people had got up to over the summer holidays.
We then got outside on to the playground for a much needed warm up of jogging and stretching before we launched in to our main sport of the day - hockey!

The hockey started with the kids grabbing a hockey stick and tennis ball each and started moving around the playground dribbling the ball under close control.
They then paired up to practice hitting the ball to each other between cones laid out on the floor. Alan then came up with an exercise called Follow the Pass. In this, each child was stood next to a cone laid out in a big "circle" around the playground. There is just one ball and the first person moves towards the next person in the circle and passes the ball to them. They then follow the pass and take that players position at that cone. The next person then takes the ball and moves towards the next cone and so on. This was they are practicing passing the ball while on the move.

Next up, the group split in to four to practice dribbling around cones then shooting at a goal, marked out by cones at the far end of the course. Again, this concentrated on close ball control before stopping and shooting accurately at a target.

After our main break we put all that skills training to good use with a game of hockey. The group split in to two teams and it was a great game with the lead changing hands a number of times. A lot of the kids got on to the score sheet including an end to end attack from Harry, who was probably getting bored of being goalie!

We finished off the session to moving back in to the school hall from some games of Boccia, trying to emulate Team GBs success in the Paralympics. The group split in to two teams once more and we played several games with a decreasing number of hoops to aim for each time. It was the blue team who came out victorious in all three games.

At the end of the session Vikram picked up his prize for correctly picking the winning team in the Euro 2024 sweepstake. It finished just before we broke up for summer (that seems a long time ago!) but unfortunately Vikram was away for our last week. Therefore, Coach Alan presented the prize this week. Vikram was  then also chosen as one of our star performers this week along with Davina. Congratulations to you both!