Hemel Hempstead children become Tailball champions
Children from Hemel Hempstead have been going head-to-head in a bid to become a Tailball champion following the launch of a brand new sport designed by children.
The pupils from Belswains Primary School put their Tailball skills into practice during an intense tournament, after being crowned the national winners of Mookie Toys’ Too Cool for Rules competition, where they created the rules for the game themselves.
During the tournament, the children received top tips from the official Tailball Coach, before battling it out to become the top champion in a series of matches.
Guy Orr, head of product development at Mookie Toys, explains: “Tailball provides a great introduction to racket games for younger children and really helps to build confidence in sports, so we thought who better to come up with the official rules for the game than the children themselves?
“Our Tailball Tournament offered the perfect opportunity for the children to put their newly created rules to the test before we roll it out as a national sport. We have to say that we are already very impressed by all the children’s Tailball skills, but there can only be one winner, so we would like to offer huge congratulations to the children from Belswains Primary School for coming top of the class.”
Karen Yilmaz, Year 5 teacher and PE subject leader at Belswains Primary School, commented: “The Tailball Tournament was fantastic fun and all the children really got into the spirit of things. We had a great time and look forward to introducing the sport into our regular PE programme.”
Tailball offers a fresh new take on the traditional bat and ball game which features a unique ‘tail’ design which makes it easier to hit. A recent study conducted by the Faculty of Health at Staffordshire University also revealed that playing Tailball for just a few days can really help to increase a child’s confidence in their playing ability and improve coordination, making it an ideal entry-level game to racket sports such as tennis or badminton. For further information visit tailball.co.uk.
