CHILDREN have been introduced to a range of new sports thanks to a school holiday programme.

Barrow AFC Community Sports have been delivering multi-sport workshops at St Bernard’s School during the summer holidays.

Youngsters have been able to try football, basketball and cricket among a range of activities aimed at broadening their sporting horizons.

“The multi-sports sessions have been really popular,” said organiser Marc McAloone.

“The kids are doing a variety of different sports, so they will probably do a different sport every day, possibly two – one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

“They are experiencing a wide range of different sports, learning different techniques and different rules, plus different ways of working together etc.”

He added: “It’s a little bit like going into the unknown.

“They might think ‘oh, I don’t like basketball’, but then when they get there and they do it, they actually do like it and they’re not bad at it.

“They might have been in an experience before where they have played a game and never got a touch of the ball, so then they have hated it. But then they come in, they get lots of touches, get some shots off, make some passes or score some baskets and they come to like it again.

“It’s a case of making sure everyone has a chance, everyone sees plenty of the ball etc.”

McAloone is hopeful some of the children who come along will be inspired to take up new sports as a result of their participation in the summer holiday sessions.

The AFC Community Sports team have contacts for most sports and will always try to point the youngsters towards the next step for any activitiy.

“We always try and figure out exit routes,” added McAloone. “If a parent comes to us and says they want their child to start playing football, we will point them in the direction of all the local football teams.

“It’s the same with cricket. If they come to us and ask about cricket, then we point them towards all the clubs.

“We don’t just point them to one team, because that would be unfair, but we make them aware of the different teams and clubs within the area.

“If we have contacts at those clubs, we can give them names to ask for. We can give them a little bit of an exit route to all the different clubs in the area.”