Great to be outside playing Tennis this week @ EFSC

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!

Mille is delighted with her Star of the Week award

All smiles for Kealan too, who was great at the Tennis imparticularly