The importance of physical activity and team sports for children.

I am very excited to share that things are finally normalizing at our school again, after a year of absolute uncertainty and isolation for our young learners.

Sports help in the overall development of students. Playing sports teaches lessons of life, such as teamwork, accountability, self-confidence, responsibility, and self-discipline.

Sports in school help prepare students to face the challenges of life. They enhance physical and mental abilities of students and help them achieve the goals of their life.

I am in my element, as sport has commenced at our school again. Being the sport manager, I finally feel that my talents are being utilized again and it just fills me with joy to see the learners starting to move and gain much needed confidence and socialization on the sport field.

The shocking part was seeing how the lockdown and lack of excise physically impacted our athletes. After just our normal stretching and warmup routine, my hockey team was already out of breath, begging for water and a bit of a rest. I won’t lie, even I, Coach Ella, was suffering, trying to catch my breath!

During our hockey practice, we started with routine dribbling, passing the ball between team mates and basic handling and positioning of their feet and hands. Many of the younger players haven’t played since 2019, or have never even played hockey at all, so it was really a refresher course for all of us.

After our normal practice and reintroducing us all to the sport we love so much, we had a mini game of “Bok in die hok”, as it needs to be fun as well!!! We partition a piece of the field and the learners try to hit the other players’ ball out of the area. Last team member standing that still has their own ball, is the winner!

I am the cross-country coach as well and found this even more challenging! Most people have the wrong impression that cross-country is just running around the field to get fit, this is definitely not the case. We incorporate a whole exercise routine to strengthen all of the muscles in their feet, legs and core. Exercises include lunges, squats, frog jumps, burpees, walking on your toes and heels and doing planks.

I usually participate in the activities with the kids, as it gives them confidence and a team mentality, they are not suffering alone! But…. I have to say, a few of us were definitely struggling to sit down the following day, as we were all stiff as planks!

Luckily these kids’ bodies are still developing, they recover quickly and will redeveloped those muscles after a long, inactive lockdown. Let’s hope their coach gets her fitness back asap as well!!!