Gap Year Volunteer Sports Coaching On the Beautiful Moturiki Sports Field:
It was a big final few days on the sports field with some brand new sports on the rota too. Ellie introduced of ballet at youth camp for classes 1 and 2 and Classes 1 and 2 were also got into the rhythm with zumba dancing, which continues to grow in popularity. Madam Cama is very pleased to see such a unique activities on the rota, especially as she has never seen ballet before!
Rugby was, as usual, played with passion by all classes who relish the difference training and drills which our volunteers bring. Classes 3 and 4 enjoyed volleyball with Matt, Henry and Matt who taught simple setting techniques for them to take forward into future games. Hockey was a popular choice by students this week and Rob, James and Katie focussed on passing exercises. Athletics training was led by Handsome Tom, Sarah, Adam and Mia including some highly competitive relays!
The teams all enjoyed regular “House Shout” practice as all the children get ready to perform their songs and dances for the whole school at the end of the week as compete for the House Championship. Adam and Mia created an obstacle course which included a lot of mud sliding, roly polies, hurdles, backwards running and much more! Class 3 and 4 were split this afternoon with the boys joining the rugby coaches, and the girls joining the zumba mayhem as they all scream out “Single, single, double!” to the rest of the school. Classes 5-8 boys were introduced to the basic principles of triple jump by Tom and Sarah which they grasped very quickly, they will be challenging the Jonathan Edwards’ records soon enough. The 5-8 girls joined Ann, Henry and Matt for a slippery volleyball session with a big tournament to finish! After school sport, the rugby players in the team joined the village for further preparation for the final match of the project at the weekend.
Class 1 and 2 had an introduction to triple jump this week with Tom and Sarah. Amongst the chaos, some of the more talented pupils really began to pick up the basic techniques of the jump. The coaches feel they are making great progress. Meanwhile all year groups competed in a closely fought football tournament. The boys and girls of classes 7 and 8 also enjoyed some epic volleyball tournaments with Ann, Henry and Matt!
As well as all our volunteer coaching, our gap year boys had time to put in lots of training with the men’s team in rugby and the TP ladies joined forces with some of the class 7 and 8 girls to on the ‘Kindi Mothers’ in a big netball contest. The worthy winners of the afternoon were without a doubt the highly talented 7 and 8 girls, despite fierce competition from the kindi mothers.
Of course, there have also been lots of meke practices for both the boys and girls. With just over a week to go until the performances of these traditional Fijian dances, the passion from the team was incredible!
This week also saw ‘The TP Sports Dinners’ The village boys enjoyed their official end of project rugby dinner in the hall which was naturally full of great banter. Billy was also announced as captain for the weekend matches. Next door, the ladies gathered for a lovely netball dinner that ended with an inspiring speech from Biau and Miranda, our captains, followed by the standard hop hop with a “Bring It On” theme!
