Six to Nine Year Olds - Playball Players

PLAYBALL IS RECOMMENDED BY UNIVERSITIES, SCHOOLS AND LEADING SPORTS DEVELOPMENT SPECIALISTS AS THE BEST METHOD OF PREPARING CHILDREN FOR CONFIDENT SPORTS PARTICIPATION - WHETHER FOR LEISURE PURPOSES OR ELITE ATHLETE PREPARATION.

Girls and boys of ALL abilities are most welcome!

Players (6-9 years) - From years of doing Playball, these children are confident manipulating various pieces of sporting equipment and handling any type of ball. Due to the nature of the multi-sports activities, they are able to quickly adapt to new rules and new sports. They understand the importance of working as a team, enjoy the challenge of showing leadership skills and concentrate on more tactical play. They show respect and sportsmanship at all times (and are not allowed to argue with the umpire!)

Playball follows the guidelines of the Long Term Athlete Development framework and engages children in a programme of multi-skills and multi-sports. This allows children the ability to develop ALL physical capacities and prepares them, not only for the sporting areas we provide, but for ALL ball sports.

MULTI-SPORT PROGRAMME:

invasion games; such as hockey, football, rugby and basketball
net and wall games; such as tennis, squash, badminton and volleyball
striking and fielding games; such as cricket, baseball and softball

Classes

Mondays 4:30pm Richmond Lawn Tennis Club, Kew Road, Richmond

Thursdays 4:15pm Hawker Centre, Kingston

Most of our Players Classes are held at Primary Schools.

If Playball is not offered at your child's school then please register for a Players Academy.

FUNdamentals Players Academies

All our Players Academies focus on a wide range of movment and core skills related to ALL ball sports. We do have target sports which we will pay more attention to but it is not recommended that children specialise in one particular ball sport before the age of 9.

All academies run for one hour per week Excellent learning ratios assist all children with getting the corrective coaching they deserve.

Our multi-sport programme focusses on a wide range of ball sports including tennis, hockey, cricket, football, basketball, baseball, rugby and hockey; whilst our individual sporting academies focus on a particular sporting area.

Multi-Sport Academy for ages 6 - 9 Register interest here

Richmond Lawn Tennis Club (Richmond) map

Hawker Center (Kingston)

(TBC) Quicksticks Hockey Acadmey for ages 7 - 9 Register interest here

Uni of Westminster Sports Grounds (Chiswick) map or German School in Ham

(TBC) Football Academy for ages 7 - 9 Register interest here

Pools on the Park Fields (Richmond) or Rocks Lane (Barnes)

(TBC) Mini Tennis Academy for ages 7 - 9 Register interest here

Richmond Lawn Tennis Club (Richmond) map

Hawker Centre (Kingston) map

(TBC) Kwik Cricket Academy for ages 7 - 9 Register interest here

Rocks Lane (Barnes) or Richmond Cricket Club

All academies are subject to numbers - maximum 12 in a lesson. If you would like to book a group of children in to ensure that they stay together, please email me.

Courses are suject to minimum numbers. Confirmation of places will be issued only when the course has become viable to run.

Term Dates 08/09

Classes are held once a week and are scheduled alongside the school term dates.

Autumn Term: week commencing 1st September - 24th November
(excluding the week of half term: 25th October - 2nd November)

Spring Term: week commencing 19th January - 3rd April
(excluding the week of half term: 14th February - 22nd February)

Summer Term: week commencing 20th April - 13th July
(excluding the week of half term: 23rd May - 31st May)

Contact Us

To discuss these sports specific programmes, please contact us for more information.

Long Term Athlete Development

Playball is unique! We follow the guidance of the Long Term Athlete Development framework and provide the fundamental building blocks of all ball sports by nuturing and enhancing each child's fundamental physical capacity from the most basic to the most complex areas of development.

Children need these fundamental building blocks in order to feel confident engaging in physical activity and sport as they grow older.

The guidance states that all children should be exposed to a variety of physical development and sports opportunities at an early age. The advantages are plentiful. Emotionally, children develop essential life skills such as confidence, persistance and self-belief. Socially, children will understand what it means to be a part of a team, learn how to win and lose graciously and respect the feelings of other children, and physically, children will enjoy a far more solid physical platform from which they will be able to springboard into any one sport they chose to favour later on in life!

Research over 25 years has shown that children who have had Playball training are far more confident adapting to new games and rules, are far more physically ready for sports and are far likely to excel in any particular sport than children have been exposed to a single sport at an early stage in their development.

Most National Governing Bodies for Sport in the UK have recommended that children take part in a multi-skill or multi-sport programme before they engage in any sport specific club.

Bill of Rights for Children's Sports

RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN SPORTS
• Provide an opportunity to play a variety of sports and positions.
• Adopt “child first – winning second” (Rainer Martens) philosophies.
• “Full” participation for ALL – equal playing time in competitions.

RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE AT A LEVEL COMMENSURATE WITH MATURITY AND ABILITY
• Flexible age classifications to give late maturing children a chance to participate at current level of maturity.
• Provide various levels of activity within a sport.

RIGHT TO HAVE QUALIFIED ADULT LEADERSHIP
• Provide specialized training for adults working with children 10 years and younger so they understand the characteristics and appropriate programming and interpersonal skills necessary to match those characteristics.

RIGHT TO PLAY AS A CHILD NOT AN ADULT
• Provide activities/competitive situations that have been modified to match the maturity level of children involved – few 5-6 year olds have the physical skills or emotional maturity for team competition.
• Avoid over-structure, over-specialization and overemphasis on seriousness.
• Provide opportunities to tap their creativity, imagination and enthusiastic energy.
• Provide consequence-free activities.

RIGHT TO SHARE IN THE LEADERSHIP AND DECSISION-MAKING OF SPORT PARTICIPATION
• Allow children to share ideas on their level of involvement.
• Listen as well as dictate – provide as many decision-making opportunities as possible.

RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN SAFE AND HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS
• Activities should attend to both physical and psychological safety of children.

RIGHT TO PROPER PREPARATION FOR PARTICIPATION IN SPORT
• Provide programs that develop fundamental skills prior to thrusting children into competitive situations.
• Provide more opportunities to practice in “fun” activities, rather than competition.

RIGHT TO AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO STRIVE FOR SUCCESS
• Teach that success is not synonymous with winning, nor failure with losing – success is found in effort and improvement.
• ALL children deserve qualified instruction and an equal opportunity to strive for success – including community based programs. Not providing “quality” programs takes the right to choose “excellence” away somewhere down the road, and makes recreational play less healthy, safe, and fun.

RIGHT TO BE TREATED WITH DIGNITY
• Treat ALL children with sensitivity, understanding and respect.
• There is NO place in children’s sports for hecklers or insensitive adults.
• Behavior expectations and consequences of misbehavior should be introduced and meted out with the dignity of the child the number one priority.

RIGHT TO HAVE FUN IN SPORT
• If the first nine rights are upheld, FUN will be a natural result.

UK Locations