What I Learned at Summer Camp: Trying New Sports
At a young age, kids try out team sports, and it doesn’t take them long to pick out a favorite.
“Soccer, baseball and hockey,” said Franklin Thompson, a 6-year-old from Robbinsdale.
While Thompson has already compiled a list of preferences, this week, he discovered that there are plenty of other games to play in the wide world of sports.
Take for instance, Ultimate Frisbee.
“It’s not that hard. It’s kinda like, hard to catch it, cause you might have, like, wet fingers sometimes,” Thompson said.
Ultimate Frisbee is just one of the sports taught at the Crystal Community Center this week during Multi-Sports Camp.
“Over the course of the week, we play close to 25 different sports. A lot of the kids have played some of the sports before, but typically not all of the sports,” said John Richardson, the owner of Revolutionary Sports.
Revolutionary Sports is an instructional sports organization aimed at creating fun and positive learning environments for kids all across the Twin Cities.
Kids Have an Open Mind
“For the kids, it’s exposure to a lot of different sports,” Richardson said. “They usually come in with a couple favorites, and most of them have an open mind.”
In addition to Ultimate Frisbee, the other half of the Multi-Sports Camp participants were outside on Wednesday learning the English sport of rugby.
“The concept is to get the ball and then be able to run, and the big thing is they can’t throw the ball forward,” said Tankiso Sekese, a coach with Revolutionary Sports. “They have to be able to throw the ball sideways. I keep using the word, ‘lateral,’ but sideways or backwards.”
It’s a game that’s similar to American football in that you have to run to the end zone. It just took the group on Wednesday some time to grasp the concept of no forward passes.
“Most kids are probably never gonna watch rugby or play rugby, but I think it’s important because it just teaches them about diversity of sports,” Sekese said.
By teaching kids new sports, it helps keep things fun. And in the process, the children learn about more than just how to play a game.
“With any sports experience, a lot of life lessons can be learned — sportsmanship, teamwork,” Richardson said.
The Multi-Sport Camp was a collaboration between New Hope, Golden Valley, Crystal and Robbinsdale. The kids even got to visit a trampoline park.
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