Skills, Activities & Games

So what do we actually do during our In The Game sessions?

Every In The Game session consists of a range of physical activities that are designed to teach and develop different physical and emotional skills for the students. The idea of each session is to give the students a chance to practice certain skills in the first part of the lesson before putting the skills into games or competitive situations to finish.

The session starts with a 5-10 minute warm up to get the students prepared for their workout. The warm up may be linked to the skills that they will be working on during the session or it may be just a quick, fun activity to increase the kids blood flow and enthusiasm.

After the warm up, the students take part in a number of activities to improve their skills in a certain area. The skills that they may work on could include, throwing and catching, netball, soccer or basketball skills such as dribbling, passing, kicking, controlling a ball while moving etc, movements including running, side-stepping, jumping, dodging etc, bat and ball skills like hand-eye co-ordination, moving and hitting etc, or a wide range of other skills.

After participating in a few different activities, either individually or as a team, the students move on to putting the skills that they have been developing into a game or modified sport. This is where they have the best opportunity to work on not only their physical skills, but their life skills as well.

Throughout the entire session, but in particular during the game situation, the students are aware of developing their life skills such as co-operation, working as part of a team, showing good sportsmanship in success and defeat and learning a lesson from the result etc.

The competitive activities are structured so that every student has an equal chance to develop their skills, regardless of their ability. The key to achieving this is to modify the game or sport that they are taking part in. By changing the rules or playing field of a game we can ensure that the gifted students are challenged at an appropriate level, while the less talented students are still able to participate confidently.

This modification of different sports or games is one of the great benefits of In The Game. When playing a regular game of soccer or basketball for example, the strongest students tend to dominate the games at the expense of the other kids. This leads to discouragement and a lack of motivation to participate in further physical activity for the students who are missing out or being beaten comfortably on a regular basis.

At In The Game we often teach and develop the skills that are necessary for participating in regular sports, however the way in which we choose to put these skills into competitive situations ensures that all students are catered for and they will leave each session feeling like they have a great level of participation and enjoyment at In The Game.

By making sure that all students are enjoying their time and getting a good amount of action throughout their sessions, we will motivate them to continue to become more active, more often.