May 22nd 2020
A couple of months ago the phrase ‘virtual sport’ led the mind to video games with the likes of Fifa, Wii Bowling or Madden. However, the current situation has certainly changed that to real events involving physical exertion and the pursuit of skill development.
Cricket
In hindsight, we are fortunate that such a time fell within our cricket season, a team sport that has so many individual characteristics to it. Firstly, we wanted to ensure that the sessions we set were accessible to the boys whilst they were at home, finding creative ways of using general household items and not needing a lot of specialist equipment. Secondly, we realised the importance of independence, where we wanted the boys to be able to crack on with it without a huge need for parental help.
With this in mind, we have been providing the boys with 10 to 12 coaching videos a week. These videos have been put together by the Moulsford Games staff, with the help of Mark Garaway, Director of Cricket Coaching at Millfield. Each one focusses on a different element of the game, either bowling, batting, fielding or wicket keeping. These have been adapted to suit the home environment, seeing new games evolve such as Wall Ball, Deflection Squash, Dice Cricket and Whack-a-Mole.
We have also tried to ensure that the videos are accessible to those of all abilities, using levelling and progression. We have some players new to the game, especially in our junior year groups, whilst also having more experienced players towards the top of the school who still need to be challenged.
Lastly, we wanted to recreate the competition and camaraderie in sport, in any way we could. Therefore, we have run a House Competition on a weekly basis, aimed at boosting engagement and quality of practise, whilst also having peer guest coaches delivering master-classes and sharing fun games or drills they had created themselves. This was firstly led by our current Captain of Cricket, Charlie H.
Athletics & Fitness
Mr Orgill, our Head of PE, has been heading up our athletics and fitness provision, to make sure that the boys aren’t just building on their sporting skills but also ensuring they have a high activity level and are staying healthy. This has involved challenges and sessions being published twice a week. These have included imaginative ways to keep the physical activity fun, such as, celebrating Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile anniversary, a number of #ibeatmrorgill challenges and home Olympic events….. This also included us teaming up with our friends at Caldicott School, where we took on the challenge of climbing as many stairs as possible to see what we could achieve together. We ended up climbing Mt. Everest 3 times!
The lockdown and lack of physical interaction certainly posed a problem for school sport and sport in general across the world. We have really enjoyed the challenge of reinventing and adapting our provision, having learnt a lot along the way. However, we are only part way through the journey and are looking forward to pushing out our provision further with new challenges, ideas and initiatives over the coming weeks.
