We had another great session at EFSC on Saturday. Although the result did not go our way on Sunday we had a fabulous time playing football on Saturday morning. The weather was not the kindest and there were spots of rain all morning but that did not get in our way. 
We had another good turnout with a couple of old members returning for the first time in a while, which was great to see.
Ray led the morning session, assisted by Ollie and Alan, and after a warm up it was straight in to some skill drills. The kids formed a circle and it was all about passing the ball to each other around the circle, then passing back and forth to Ray in the middle of the circle. 
From there, Alan laid out some cones to form a slalom course for the kids to dribble the ball around before passing to their next team mate.  The football session was then rounded off by some small sided games. The group was split in to three teams so that they each played each other, and enabled teams to have a rest along the way. They put all their practice to good use and there were some great goals scored and everyone had a lot of fun.
It started to rain a bit heavier towards the end of the session so we moved inside and played some hockey. After a few moments dribbling tennis balls around the hall with hockey sticks, to practice close ball control, we moved straight in to team games using the same teams as in the football. It was a great end to a wonderful session
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At the end of the session the coaches awarded the Star of the Week award to Alexander  - vert well done for showing great energy and enthusiasm throughout the session.

Join us again next Saturday for our last session before we break for the school summer holidays - see you then!

Hi All,
It was great to be back at Epping Forest Sportability Club on Saturday - our first meeting since 14th March 2020!
We were operating under slightly different rules in that we had to contain ourselves to the hall and playground but we slipped back in to the old routine quickly and had a fantastic session. 
We had a good number of the kids back along with a couple of new faces which is always good to see. 
Ray, Alan and Ollie led the session which was predominately Basketball related on the playground. We were going to switch to football after the mid-session break but the rain started and put an end to that. So we played some short sided games of Basketball, using the hoops, in the hall.
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The team still managed to present the Star of the Week award and for this first week back it was given to Davina. She showed great energy and enthusiasm throughout the session.
It is worth mentioning that all the kids did really well. It must have been a bit strange to be back after all this time and the circumstances were slightly different (coaches wearing masks etc). We look forward to another great session next Saturday  - see you then!!

Hi All
I am very pleased to announce that Sportability Club will be starting up again from Saturday 3rd July at the usual time of 10:00 to 13:00. 
There will be some changes so that we comply fully with all the Covid guidelines laid down. An email has been sent to all parents and carers that we have email addresses for but if you need more details please contact us at EFSC@hotmail.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you all again on the 3rd July - if we do not recognise you straight away it is because we have not seen you all for sooooo long and you have all probably grown!

See you then!

With Oak View School still open for business and with all our staff still fit and healthy our usual session went ahead on Saturday. Numbers were understandably slightly down from our usual level but we had enough kids in attendance to still make for a great session. We started as always with some warm up games and routines to get the limbs stretched and ready to go. As you can see in the pictures below we started with some tag games including What's the Time Mr Wolf.

We soon moved on to the main sport of the day - Cricket
We started with the kids pairing up for some throwing and catching to each other.
We then moved on to a game of Champion which is all about catching the ball - not dropping it. The kids line up and one of the coaches throws the ball to anyone in the line at random. If you catch the ball you return it and move yourself one place up the line. Drop it and you have to move down the line. The person at the top of the line at the end of the game is the Champion.

After a quick drinks break it was back to the action
The next drill had the kids picking a ball off one cone,  running around the wicket and putting the ball back on another cone. They then practised throwing at the wickets with the kids taking it in turns to be wicketkeeper. Lastly they played a game where they were batting off tees and aiming between cones at the other end of the hall. The cones were paired and getting the ball between different cones meant a different score with the hardest shot being worth 100 points. Callum did particularly well at this game.

After the main refreshments break we continued with the batting drill for a bit longer. From there we put all the skills together in our final game - Three Tee cricket. In this game the kids take it in turns to bat.  There are three tennis balls atop three tees. The batter has to hit these as hard as they can to the far end of the hall. They then have to run between two wickets as many times as they can. The rest of the group are fielders and it is their job to get the tees and balls back in position as quickly as possible. Once all three balls are back on top of the three tees, in their original position, the batter has to stop running. The winner being the batter that has scored the most runs.​

At the end of another wonderful session the coaches awarded the Star of the Week award to Kerrie. Very well done Kerrie.

It may come as no surprise to you that, with the rapid developments in the country with regards to the Covid-19 virus, we have been asked by Oak View School to suspend Sportability Club for the foreseeable future. Once we know any more we will let you know.

In the mean time, stay home (if you can) but more importantly stay safe! We hope to see you all again in the near future.

From all the team at EFSC

With the return of six nations Rugby this weekend our kids practised the sport as well - you never know where the next future Rugby star may come from!
We started the session as always with some warm-ups including tag games and the favourite "What's the Time, Mr Wolf?". It was then out with the Rugby balls and they started off working in pairs doing some short passes to each other. Then it was back-to-back passing the ball over and under and also side-to-side.​

The groups then moved on to passing around and across a circle to each other. They followed this up with a game of Rob the Nest which involves lots of running about getting as many Rugby balls as possible back to your own nest.

It was great to be back after the Half Term break and to welcome back our head coach Alan, who has been on a coaching course for the last few weeks. The weather outside was miserable so it was good to be a nice, warm school hall having fun!
We started as always with some warm ups and tag games to get everyone's muscles stretched and to get the blood pumping, so to speak. One of these you can see in the first few photos where Ollie held up a coloured cone and the kids had to run to corner of the hall that had the same coloured cone.

The first main sport of the day was Archery, which the kids love. Now that Coach Alan was back we had someone who knew how to put up the targets, which is always a help! The kids took it in turns to have a go trying to get a bullseye. Once again they showed a great aptitude for the sport with several getting really good scores.

We played Archery right the way up to the main break but we finished the session with some games of Curling and Putting. For the curling the group split in to a blue team and a red team with the aim to be the team with a stone closest to the yellow dot on the centre of  the school hall. The red team won the first game but as you can see in the photos below the blue team got extremely close during the second game. We then finished off with some golf - putting at cones. If you hit a cone with your ball then you collect it. The player with the most cones at the end of the game is the winner.

In our last session as we head in to the half term break we kept active and played a variety of games that were a lot of fun!
To get the kids warmed up we played some running games. This included a game where four coloured cones were placed in the corners of the hall and depending on the colour called the kids had to run to that corner. That was followed by some games of What's the Time Mr Wolf? - a club favourite. 

Ray and Ollie then got the big multi-coloured parachute out and played a series of games. The first one had the kids running around the outside of the parachute, one at a time,  and back to their starting positions as quickly as they could. The winner being the one to do it in the quickest time. Then there was a game involving balancing a ball on the parachute as it was floated up and down. They did Mexican waves with the parachute and a game where kids ran from one side to the other under the parachute. The last game was called Shark Attack and came from one of the kids - Daisy. It involved the kids sitting on the floor with the parachute low down. Daisy was the shark under the parachute and tried to grab the other kids feet as she moved around. The kids had to try and avoid being captured.

After a quick drinks break the kids then played a couple of games of Rob The Nest. The group were split in to four teams, each with a hoop (nest) in one corner of the hall. To start with they all took it in turns to collect a ball or cone from the two hoops in the middle. Once they were all gone the madness  started as the kids robbed balls and cones from the others nest. The aim being to have the most balls and cones in your nest so you had to collect more then were robbed from your own nest.

After the main break we were planning on playing some Archery but we had some technical difficulties with the equipment so we finished the session off with some games of Boccia. As you can see in the photos below rather than both teams aim at the same white "Jack" ball they had coloured hoops instead with each team trying to get their coloured balls in to the hoop of the same colour.

On the same day the GB Hockey teams were doing well against New Zealand (the men's team drew but the women's team won), we played the same sport here at Epping Forest Sportability.
The session started, as always, with a warm up made up of some stretching and jogging around the hall, followed by some tag games such as What's the Time Mr Wolf?
Once all the kids were suitably warmed up it was out with the tennis balls and hockey sticks. They started off with some ball control - dribbling their tennis balls around the hall. Then it was on to working in pairs, across the hall from each other, and passing a ball back and forth between each other. 

From passing in pairs the group then moved on to passing up and down the hall. Each child would stand by a cone that were laid out in a zig-zag up the hall. The kids would then pass the ball from one to the next up the hall and then back again.​

After a quick drinks break the coaches then laid out slalom courses up and down the hall so the kids could practice their close ball control, moving around cones as they made their way along the course. Once that was mastered the coaches added some shooting to the end of the course. Once the kids had made their way up the hall and back again around all the cones they then had to shoot and try and get the ball inside a hoop at the end of the course.

After the main break it was time to put all the practice in to good use with some one-on-one games initially and then on to full team games. For the one-on-one games the coaches picked players of a similar skill level and it was first to score past the goalie. Then the coaches made up two teams to complete in an end-of-session match.

In the week where the world mourned the passing of Basketball legend Kobe Bryant we got our own little legends practising the sport. You never know, we may have a future star in our midst!

The session started, as always, with some warm up stretches followed by some "tag" games such as "What's the time Mr Wolf?". Once warmed up it was out with the basketballs and to start with it was just walking around the hall bouncing / dribbling the ball. This was just to familiarize the kids with holding and controlling the ball. (Note: Apologies for the grainy photos above but the camera was on the wrong setting - it gets fixed by later on in the session)

The kids were then asked to move around a hoop on the floor whilst bouncing their ball within the hoop - a good way to practice ball control whilst moving side to side. The first part of the session then ended up with some traffic light games (stopping with the ball; bouncing on the spot or dribbling around the hall depending on the colour being held up).
After a quick drinks break the coaches took things up a notch by creating a slalom style course up the hall. As you  can see in the photos below there were three identical courses consisting of hoops and cones to go around and the kids then competed to see who could complete the course the quickest.

Ray and Kate then came up with some passing games, including one around and across a big circle as you can see in the photos below. Then came a drill involving bouncing and shooting. All this was then put in to practice with firstly some one on one games and then, after the main break, some team games. At the end of the main game it was Hal's team that were the winners.
You will also see in the some of the photos below that a few of the younger boys took a break from the basketball for a while to enjoy some fun in the school's Ball Pool. They had such a good time that one lad did not want to leave when it was time to go home!

We started this week, as we do all weeks, with a warm up - this time led by Ollie and Ray including jogging, stretching and tag games.
It was soon time to get on to the main sport of the week - Badminton. So out came the badminton rackets and shuttlecocks and to start with the coaches asked the kids to see how long they could keep their shuttlecocks off the ground by hitting it up in the air - Keepy-Uppies if you like. 

After practising their solo control of racket and shuttlecock the group then moved on to working in pairs. They attempted to get rallies going between the pairs keeping it going for as long as possible. Performances worthy of a mention include Pranav, Hal and Valentina.
From there the badminton nets were set up so that rallies and matches could take place across the nets. As you can see in the photos above and below the kids concentrated hard and demonstrated good levels of skill.

After the main break for snacks and refreshments, and a chance for some catching up, it was back to the courts for some more games across the nets

We finished off the session with some Curling. Ray devised a scoring target zone in the middle of the hall with a spot being the target and a scoring zone marked out by cones that the stones should end up in. The group was then split in to a red and blue team and the games began.