Ball striking (May 2020 play at home topic)

By | April 27, 2020
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Play at home ideas (May):

Ball striking (kicking the ball):

We encourage the girls to work on their ball striking using the inside of each foot. This is a complicated skill that involves a lengthy checklist of body positioning and footwork. We’ve put together a series of videos (roughly 1-minute each) that detail what goes into a proper approach (the most complicated part of the process), a proper kick and a proper follow-through.

We encourage you and your daughter to watch the series together, and then go out in the yard (or driveway) to practice the skills. No good space to practice? Use an empty school parking lot. Or try a soft soccer ball, passing it against a garage door or indoor wall.

Can your daughter become a citizen of Rulersville?

Quickie interim challenges:

We’re working on a May challenge related to ball striking. The details are still in progress in our challenge lab. In the meantime, here are two balance challenges for the girls. These don’t require a soccer ball or much space — only good balance! Instructions are included in the videos.

The tennis ball / cone balance challenge:

The octagon balance challenge:

Prior weeks’ activity lists:

April theme — juggling contest:

We just wrapped up our April juggling contest! “April juggles prevent May struggles.” We congratulate all of the contestants for their effort and determination.

Juggling is hard. Hard enough to make many players think “I can’t do it!” and just quit. The girls who entered the contest found a way to overcome that hurdle! Link:  player juggling videos

Top scores:  We had two juggling categories:  bounce juggling and no-bounce juggling. We split the girls into two groups:  girls with 2012 birth years, and girls with 2013 birth years.

2012 group winners:

  • Ella had the highest score in both bounce juggling (165) and no-bounce juggling (9).

2013 group winners:

  • Addie had the highest score for bounce juggling (64). Hayden had the highest no-bounce score (3).

Most improved:

  • This ended up in a 10-way tie between every girl who entered! It takes grit to hurdle all the failures juggling throws into a player’s face. Every contestant eventually got into double-digits in bounce juggling, and three players even got into the bounce juggling “century club” with scores of 100 or more. We applaud your hard work and self-motivation!

Parent information: