Lots of Racket based Sports at EF Sportability this week

It was good to be back after the half term break for what turned out to be a session full of racket sports. 
As usual the session started with a number of warm up exercises that you can see in a few photos below. These included some warm up jogs around the hall and some games of What's the time Mr Wolf?"​

Once everyone was limbered up it was time to start the badminton and that started with some basic skills such as hitting the shuttlecock up in the air repeatedly without it dropping to the floor, a bit like keepy-uppy in football. That then moved on to hitting and catching in pairs with one player hitting and the other catching and throwing it back for the player to hit again. They would then switch around so everyone got a chance to practice. After that both players had rackets and they would try and hit to each other in their pairs.
Finally, they progressed to playing in their pairs over the net.​

It was then time for a break for refreshments but before long they were back on court playing some more rallies and switching pairs around. Lesley took a LOT of photos of the Badminton and I have selected some of the best ones here.

Once we were done with Badminton the kids had their main snack / drink break by which time the weather had improved sufficiently to get out on to the playground where the rest of the session was dedicated to Tennis. To start with they grabbed a racket and ball each and practised hitting the ball up and keeping it in the air (keepy-uppy) and then bouncing the ball on the ground with the racket This was quickly followed by a game of King of the Court where the kids aim to be the last person standing. They line up and take it in turns to return a ball back over the net and critically to get it back inside the court without being caught. If they fail to get it back over the net OR it goes out of the court OR they are caught then they are OUT and join the pitcher on the other side of the net to try and catch the others out. To be crowned King or Queen the member must be the last person left.​​

Whilst all the fun and games were taking place we also set up a fun sweepstake for the FIFA world cup. There are 32 teams taking place and we don't have that many members and staff unfortunately so we allowed each child to pick two teams  each. We then let them pick a team each for the other regular members who were not present on Saturday. The last few teams were then picked by the staff. Alan has promised the member who has the world cup winner a "Special" prize.

Our star of the week this week, as voted for by Alan and his coaches, was Pranav who excels at badminton and tennis but also behaved really well throughout the session and showed great effort. Well done Pranav - keep it up!

Join us again on Saturday where Alan has promised a session of Golf! Don't worry the balls are plastic and we wont be doing 18 holes or taking 4 hours!

Have a great week and enjoy the World Cup!

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Pranav pictured with Ciara