Lots of fun at our 6-8 year old Taster Sessions!

Lots of fun at our 6-8 year old Taster Sessions!

With the support of the Swim England Club Links programme, we have been running taster sessions at Woodhouse Close Leisure Complex, Bishop Auckland for the 7 weeks. This has been on a Sunday afternoon and aimed at children aged between 6-8 years old with the aim of teaching them some basic skills in Water Polo and also giving them access to a sport that they and their family might not have heard of before. In addition, the sessions were created to allow our newly qualified level 1 coaches to gain some practical experience under the supervision of a Level 2 coach and we’d also like to thank Swim England North East for their help in allowing us to secure coaching courses for our volunteers.

Sean has been one of the level 1 coaches that has been helping at these sessions and it has definitely become the highlight of his week. The coaches have been teaching up to 18 children at most sessions and one of the most pleasing things to see is that they have almost as many girls coming to the sessions as boys. If it's not the big splashes in the warmup you hear then it most definitely will be the cheering and laughter from the water (and on the side of the pool from the coaches and parents). We are giving them the opportunity to learn new skills each week whilst at the same time having fun, making new friends and growing in confidence in the water.

At the first session the children came in a little bit shy and nervous not knowing what to expect. By the second week, it was really heart warming to see the children arriving on poolside with big smiles on their faces and, at the end of each session, they leave looking really happy and giving fist bumps to all the coaches.  We have definitely seen all the children improve their water polo swimming skills such as egg beater, head up front crawl, water polo backstroke etc and in their passing, shooting and handling skills. Each session finishes with a mini game - and when we ask the children who won they all shout "WATERPOLO"

Our sessions will be running until 21st December and then we will be giving the children the opportunity to progress into our Level 8 sessions on a Saturday afternoon back over at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre. 

If your child is interested in trialling these sessions, please get in touch!