PATTERING FEET, CHILDREN'S VOICES
ABBY: Do you fancy playing a sport that will test the power of both your brains and your muscles?
You do! Perfect.
Because today, we’re going to be getting to grips with some of the skills that we need, to play boccia.
UPLIFTING MUSIC
Time to meet our wonderful boccia coaches:
Rafael Young and Natasha Critchley.
NATASHA: Hello, everyone.
RAFAEL: Boccia is a target ball sport.
You win by getting more of your balls closer to the jack (the target ball), than your opponent or the other side can get theirs.
And you do make it seem pretty simple, but I know from playing boccia, it takes a lot of skill and concentration.
So, I think we’re going to have a good practice.
Are you all ready to give it a go?
CHILDREN: Yes! Yeah!
Abbey: For boccia, everyone plays sitting down and you’re allowed to throw or roll the boccia balls any way you can.
You can use your hands, feet, even a ramp.
So Rafael, what is the first thing that we’re going to try today?
RAFAEL: We’re going to do ‘Control the Roll.’
We’re going to work on controlling the speed of the ball.
You’re going to roll it between each other.
The spot in front of your partner is your target.
UPBEAT MUSIC
CHILD 1: I got to practise my strategy and my accuracy, while having fun trying to get the ball on the spots.
ABBY: To make this activity more of a challenge, try moving further away from your partner.
And to really step up your skills, see if you can make the speed of your roll faster or slower, but still stop your ball on the spot.
What do we have next, Rafael?
RAFAEL: We’re going to take it up a step.
We’re adding in control of direction as well as speed.
We’re calling this ‘Cone Zone.’
The kind of ball that you’re using is important for this, whether you’re playing with a beanbag or boccia balls of different hardnesses.
Three zones, three cones.
UPBEAT MUSIC
Yeah!
ABBY: If you’d like to challenge yourself in this activity, you could use targets that are smaller and more difficult to land your ball in, increase the distance between the cones and players, or both!
Evie, how did you find Cone Zone?
EVIE: It’s really fun. There’s like different ways of doing it.
ABBY: It is really fun, and you almost get quite competitive with yourself because you want to beat what you did the last time. Yeah.
CHEERING
ABBY: What’s the next step that we need to upgrade our boccia skills?
RAFAEL: We’re going to pull together everything we’ve done so far, and do ‘Score More.’
So, you are in two teams; you’ve got a red team and a blue team.
You get loads of points if you get the tiny red zone target.
Four points for the yellow zone bigger, medium sized target.
And just two points for the biggest, ‘easiest to stop a ball in target’ at the back.
ABBY: So, this is where the tactics and strategy really come into play?
RAFAEL: It really is, yeah, that’s right.
Okay, so as always with boccia, red goes first in the match, so Natasha, that’s you. Take it away.
NATASHA: Shall we go for the red?
RAFAEL: Go on… Oh, nearly.
CHILD 2: I think I may go for yellow.
When we played Score More, it was pretty competitive.
RAFAEL: Oh, nearly! Oh, very nearly!
CHILD 2: But what I liked about it was when you could see your partners and tell them what you think you should go for.
CHILD 1: Right, hit it on the edge and put a spin on it to go in, like that.
RAFAEL: Oh, well done.
Good job.
And so, with the last ball thrown, that is a resounding win for the reds with ten whole points.
Brilliant job, reds.
But you know what, that’s been brilliant all round.
CHEERING
ABBY: I’ve had a great time, brushing up on some of my boccia skills.
But why don’t you give it a try?
CAMERA CLICKS
PATTERING FEET, CHILDREN'S VOICES
Watch this film with British Sign Language
Watch this film with audio description
Watch this film with British Sign Language and audio description
Blue Peter presenter, Abby Cook, learns how to play Boccia with coaches, Rafael (Rafa) Young and Natasha Critchley.
Skills
The activities develop these skills: how to control the ball and how to control the speed of its roll, practising accuracy with a direction and speed task, and a final exercise where they explore the tactical side of boccia by playing a simple target scoring game.
Activities
Control the Roll
Rafa demonstrates how you can control the speed of the ball by rolling it and aiming for a target. To make this activity more of a challenge, try moving your pupils further away from their partner and see if they can make the spin of the roll faster or slower but still stop the ball on the spot.
Cone Zone
This involves controlling direction as well as speed. To challenge your pupils in this activity, you could use targets that are smaller and more difficult to land the ball in, increase the distance between the cones and players or both.
Score More
This is a team game. In two teams, a red and a blue team, you get different points for getting your ball in different-sized targets. In boccia, the red team always go first.
Activity card
Activity card: boccia 8-11. document
Download and print the activity card for boccia 8-11
For more information on 'How to play boccia' go to: https://www.bocciaengland.org.uk/how-do-i-play-boccia
Please be aware this link will take you away from the BBC.
