We tried our hand at Basketball this week at EFSC

This week was the turn of basketball as the main sport to be played, which is always a favourite with the kids.
We started with a warm up as usual and then the basketball started with practising some basic skills so first up was bouncing a ball with one hand then switching to use the other hand once instructed. This soon moved on to bouncing between hands, so using alternate hands each bounce. Lastly the coaches asked them to control the ball whilst bouncing it as high as possible, then as low as possible. Using these skills they then played a Traffic Light game led by Ollie but ably assisted by Liam. When the red cone was held up that meant stand still on the spot holding your ball. Yellow was bouncing the ball on the spot and green meant move around the hall bouncing the ball. The last to do the instruction at each "switch" would be out. After all that activity it was then time for a quick drinks break.

After the drinks break the practice continued with a Slalom course to navigate around a layout of cones. From there the coaches then incorporated moving the ball around the body during the slalom run. There then followed some shooting practice. With two nets, one at either end of the hall, it was easy to set up a circuit so the kids queued to take a shot at one end and once they had their shot they passed the ball to the next shooter and then went to join the line for shooting at the other end of the hall (and so on).​

​After the main break for drinks and snacks we finished off the session with some 1 vs 1 games before playing a full team game. The one vs one games consisted of the kids starting under a net. On the whistle they then ran to the other end of the hall where the ball would be thrown in by a coach and then it was first to come back down the hall and score a basket. Even if you gained control of the ball initially once you had a shot the ball was back in play if you missed so the other player would likely to be waiting to grab the ball and have a shot themselves.
By this stage of the session the younger ones were screaming for some time to play in the ball pool so Ollie and Teagan took some of them down for the last half hour or so.

At the end of the session the coaches conferred and awarded the star of the week to Charlotte. Basketball is her favourite sport and she always excels when we play it. Well done to Charlotte!

I unfortunately wont be there this Saturday as I will be in Brussels for the day - if I get the chance I will sort out Brexit while I am there too! Enjoy the session which will be based around ​football - weather permitting. Although a very popular sport it is not one we play a lot of so come along and join in. 

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