Slam Dunk time at EF Sportability Club this Week

Not sure of Coach Alan had been watching the NBA finals on TV or whether he thought we might have a young LeBron James or Steph Curry in our midst but this week was all about basketball.
Ollie and Ray led the warm up, as usual, with some stretching exercises followed by a game of tag to get everyone running around.
Then it was out with the basketballs and straight in to the skills session. As always we start off with some basics and build up from there. So to start with it was bouncing a ball on the spot before moving on to some basic dribbling.  Then it was some shooting practice before Ollie led a traffic light game. This is where the kids had to do a different thing depending on which colour disk he held up - red, yellow or green, It was either bouncing the ball, moving the ball around the body or throwing it up in the air and catching it again. The shooting practice was a game where the group split in to two lines, one at each end of the court. Each player would take it in turns to shoot. Once they had taken their turn they would throw the ball back to the next person then join the other queue. This way the two lines operate in a form or circle utilizing both basketball nets.

After a short break we moved on to some one vs one games where the kids would race each other up the hall away from the basket to where Ollie was waiting to throw the ball in. Once the ball was in play it was a race back to the basket and to be the first to score a basket. The coaches mixed up the pairings to keep each match up interesting and the kids showed some great shooting prowess.
After a final break it was on to the main games. We split the group in to yellow, red and blue teams so that two teams were on court while the other rested. It also meant each team got to play each of the other two teams in a round robin format and utilise all the skills they had practised. There were some great games and teamwork on display and the kids really enjoyed it.
To finish off we played a game of benchball so still throwing and catching but just a little less frenetic and once you made it to the bench you had a chance to rest a bit!

Our Star this week was Pranav, pictured with Coach Alan

At the end of the session the coaches collaborated
& deliberated and came to the conclusion that
ranav should be award the Star of the Week
award for his great attitude, participation and his
exemplary behaviour during the session.
A very well done Pranav!

​Join us again next Saturday when I believe Coach
Alan has planned a session of indoor athletics
for us all, making use of the wall bars and other
equipment.

​See you then! 

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