I am currently looking to reinvest in sports equipment for my squadron. I have composed a list of things that I would like to buy or replenish for my Sqn this summer. Can you add anything to this list that you use or would like to have on your Sqn?
Table tennis. Always a laugh and you can have mini leagues.
rounders…easy to set up with some cones/markers, tennis ball and a bat
Good ideas thanks guys
obviously i don’t know your set-up, staffing, sqn interests etc… but speaking from a sqn that appears to have all the equipment of a decent sized university athletics club rotting in a storeroom, i’d be very tempted to concentrate on the team and fun type activites - rounders, football etc… and avoid the serious and more individual stuff like javelin and shot like the plague…
what proportion of your cadets would be interested?
does your sqn have the skills to actually coach them in technique?
does your sqn have the staff to manage 30-odd cadets playing rounders, football and tag rugby while also running a javelin/shot range and providing individual cadets with coaching?
i’d be very wary of a fad that might try and turn your sqn into an athletics club, not least because your staff and cadets will demonstrate in short order that if they had wanted to join an athletics club they would have done so.
my advice would absolutely be stick to the fun, team games and leave the specialist stuff to Schools and athletics clubs - its unlikely you can compete with them in terms of staff skills and time, so don’t bother trying.
Basically we need to refresh general sports kit for team games etc and we also want to buy new equipment to expand the general team sports we can offer.
The athletics kit is basically because we have recently (because of a new head teacher, no fault of our own) lost the privallage of using the local school athletics kit. We can still use the field/facilities for athletics but don’t have any of the equipment for the specialist events.
We wouldn’t do both at the same time, staff can coach as well.
I’m just looking to see if anyone can give me some ideas for equipment to add to either list or to see if I’ve missed anything out.
Following on from Angus’ comments.
Apart from having the staff to look after the cadets, having a large number of cadets actively engaged is better than a few doing lots of things, because if something looks better they will wander off, which if you are using things like javelins, discus and shot, has the potential to go wrong.
You need to be careful wrt field athletics kit given the different weights/lengths used by different age groups, not mention storage and these things aren’t cheap. Schools need to have it so it seems you have been very fortunate, until recently. Having a decent sized field to use is a real bonus.
We were given some badminton rackets and bought some more and it makes for a fun night, doing ‘round the clock’ in teams. As the shuttlecock is light it can be done in a hut if the weather doesn’t play the game on a sports night.
We have dodge-balls on squadron and buckets which we use for bucket-ball (netball where one person acts as the goal holding the bucket) when we can’t go outside due to bad weather as well as indoor uni hockey equipment which is very cheap and has lasted our squadron years cadets seem to love it as well. Rounders equipment is also good many know how to play as it’s taught in schools.
Coloured bibs are vital for team sports as well.
Also a good exercise for leadership would be to get the cadets to create their own game and set of rules using any equipment you already have.
Just bare in mind that you don’t want to spend money on equipment for one time use, we have full industrial shelves worth of equipment that just doesn’t get used and is taking up a lot of space. Don’t get anything for the sake of it ensure there is enough interest in a sport beforehand
Thank you for that suggestion it’s really useful!!