Basketball Fun at EF Sportability

Despite the snow returning to Loughton on Saturday morning, we had a good turnout for our session which was dominated by Basketball.
​After a warm up session including stretching, jogging and some tag games including What's the Time Mr Wolf? we played a game involving cones before moving on to the main sport of Basketball.
​The cone game is simple - loads of cones are laid out on the floor. Half are face up, the other half face down. When the game starts one side will aim to get as many as possible facing up, the other side as many as possible facing down.

The basketball started, as always, with some skills practice - bouncing the ball, throwing it in the air and clapping as many times as you can before catching it; moving it around your waist and also bouncing the ball between your legs. It was then on to a shooting practice routine where we make use of both nets in the school hall with half the kids lining up to  shoot in to one basket and the rest lining up for the other basket. Once each member has their shot they pass the ball to the next person then move to the back of the other queue so they end up going around the hall from one queue & basket to the other.

After a quick drinks break it was back on court for some one-on-one basketball games. This is where players are matched up with other members of a similar age, size or ability. They run from one of the hall to the other where Ollie will throw the ball in. The idea then is get the ball and get back down to the basket at the other end and score first. It is fast competitive and involves offense and defence in the same game,

After another break for drinks and snacks the final part of the session was split in two parts. Firstly we had some team basketball games using the whole hall and both baskets. Frantic action utilising all the skills learnt throughout the session. The last twenty minutes or so were spent playing Indoor Curling using a new Curling set we have bought with the assistance of a grant from Epping Forest District Council. The set comprises of four red and four blue "stones" which are disks with ball bearings on the under side. We used a small disk as the centre target with a circle of other disks around it and then members played head to head trying to get the best score.

At the end of the session we had two presentations rather than the usual one. The star of the week was awarded to Charlotte which is not surprising as Basketball is her favourite sport and she excels playing it. Well done Charlotte! Our second award was  the presentation of a certificate to the club by Loughton Town Council who have been very generous once again in supporting the club with £800 towards running costs for the year. A very big THANK YOU to everyone at Loughton Town Council.
​Join us again next Saturday for our last session before the Easter break.