For the Younger Ones – Corner Spry

Weird name, great game (especially for the younger ones).

Most of us know ‘Tunnel Ball’ and ‘Captain Ball’. Most will also know that Captain Ball, which to cut a long game explanation short, involves one student throwing a ball to another. After each player receives the ball they bob down until the last player in line gets the ball. This player at the back receives the ball and then runs to the front… and so it all starts again.

It’s a great game, but for reasons such as kids being ‘Afraid of the Ball’ (see our blog on helping with this here http://wp.me/p1n4Jm-3k) and the fact that some students do not have the strength to get the ball to the back players, it can result in the ball landing on heads resulting in an occasionally calamitous, disjointed game.

‘Corner Spry’ is a great adaptation of Captain Ball. It retains all of the teamwork elements as well as the variety of skills that are required and 20 or more kids can play at once. Here’s a step by step on how you play it (or skip straight to the diagram below):

1. Divide your class into groups of 4 – 6 players (more involves too much standing around in our opinion.)
2. If you have a multipurpose court, painted square / rectangle or even just a square marked out by cones, have each team move to a corner.
3. One player stands in the corner with the others fanning around in a semi-circle, approximately 2m from the player in the corner.
4. Using a ball of your choice or beanbag, the player in the corner throws the ball to the player on the far left hand side.
5. The recipient of the ball/beanbag throws it back (the throw and catch must be completed or it must be repeated.)
6. This sequence is repeated to every player until the player on the far right hand side is reached.
7. When this player receives the ball/beanbag they replace the player in the corner and as everyone rotates in a clock-wise direction, the process starts again.
8. Once every player has had a turn in the corner and the player who started in the corner is back there, everyone sits down to indicate that they have finished.

Here’s a diagram which might be easier to understand than reading 8 steps (or perhaps if you are a visual learner.)

Incorporate this into your infants athletics carnival or just use it as a great game for a 20 minute break outside.

Enjoy!!

Meet Your Targets

Have you ever played Darts? It’s pretty hard to hit that stupid bulls-eye. In the most common of darts games where you count down from 500 you have to hit a triple (the thin little rectangle which forms the inner circle of the board) to close out the game. Trust me, it can take a while and tests even a decent player’s patience. To be honest it’s so difficult to finish a game I don’t like it that much.

Imagine then you are a child learning a new sport and you have been presented with the equivalent of hitting a ‘triple’ as a measure of how well you’re progressing. It’s more common in sports lessons than you may think. These difficult to achieve and developmentally counterproductive targets might take the shape of:

• Fielding practice using a single (or even 3) cricket stumps with the thrower being asked to stand too far way when lining up the target.
• Shooting soccer goals from too far away, with over-sized soccer balls or with a goal keeper that stops too many shots.
• Using adult sized netball / basketball hoops during children’s practice.
• The use of the tennis ball pyramid (4 balls stacked up) placed in the service box.

 

 

Targets are great but a balance must be achieved to keep the student engaged and motivated. The magic ratio (according to Sports Psychologists) sits at about 1 target achieved for every 6 targets attempted. Hardly a likely outcome when you can barely see the 4 stacked balls from the other end of the tennis court. So try some of these:

• Make the goals bigger (big squares of carpet instead of small stacks of tennis balls for example)
• Remove the impediments in front of goal (goal keeper / goal defender)
• Get your hands on modified equipment (adjustable height goals)

Most importantly, constantly review the difficulty of the targets that you have set for the students you’re teaching. Too easy/ Too hard? Modify and improve to keep the kids seeing their own improvement and subsequently coming back for more sport!

(This image of the kids performing a great example of a target drill comes from old friends and the ultra professional operators at Max Tennis. They run the best junior tennis lessons you are likely to find at centres in Belrose, Kenthurst, Breakfast Point and Moore Park. Check them out here at www.maxtennis.com.au)