The charity giving 20,000 children an exercise fix during lockdown

ON PLAYGROUNDS and playing fields across the land, cause for optimism has faded with the light on these winter nights. For Ella Emmanuel, prospects appeared particularly bleak. The 11-year-old from Bromley plays for Crystal Palace academy but coronavirus has largely consigned her to the sidelines. After-school clubs stopped, PE lessons were scaled back. For a time during the second lockdown, she couldn’t train or play with Palace, either. Her mental wellbeing paid the price until a period of self-isolation. Then, from loneliness, an escape route. Her mother Kate contacted the Youth Sport Trust and soon they joined the thousands enjoying a new evening fix. At 5pm, every night for the past five weeks, the charity has run an After School Sport Club on YouTube — 30 minutes of themed activity, led by elite athletes and aimed at keeping youngsters inspired and in shape. Every session is filmed in a living room with minimal equipment. More than 20,100 children have tuned in. ‘(They) bring a sense of purpose to the day and the motivational comments from the athletes really do boost morale in these unusual times,’ Ella’s mum says. ‘(It) has had a massive positive impact on my daughter’s mental wellbeing.’ The initiative is aimed at those denied their usual dose of activity — either at school or a grassroots club. ‘Young people were reporting to be missing that sense of belonging and routine,’ explains Emily Reynolds of the Youth Sport Trust. So the charity called on seven athlete mentors, drawn from swimming, skating, tennis, boxing, football, rowing and rugby. They include world champions, an Olympian and Paralympians such as Kate Grey (right). ‘I used to do all the after-school clubs when I was younger,’ says the retired swimmer, a mentor for the last eight years. ‘This pandemic, more than ever, has forced us to really think outside the box.’ Grey watched former team-mates build makeshift

swimming pools in their garden in the summer and thought: ‘For athletes to be finding it hard to stay active and do their training, God knows how hard it is for young people who can easily go home and sit and watch TV or play on their phones.’ And so the mentors devised ways to bring sport to those trapped inside. ‘It’s about the power of the athlete to draw lessons from their sport and bring it to life,’ says Reynolds. During her halfhour sessions, Grey dipped into a decade of top-level experience. ‘You don’t have to be in the water to still be learning how to swim and become more confident in the water,’ she says. Instead, the only aim is to make each club educational, engaging and inclusive. ‘If you’re someone who’s lacking confidence at school and wouldn’t usually go to a club because you think it’s quite scary… (here) no one is judging you, no one’s going to embarrass you,’ Grey adds. ‘Whether it’s a young person in reception that just wants to be a dolphin or a crab… or an older member who wants to understand that to do a really good front-crawl technique you have to keep a high elbow.’ Toby Garbett, an Olympic rower, based one club on the Boat Race. The result? ‘The young people didn’t know they were doing really difficult physical activity because they were lost in the story,’ Reynolds says. Typically, 1,500 youngsters take part within 24 hours of each session — either live or on catch-up, often with families joining in, too. The final session was due to be today. But the Youth Sport Trust have now committed to running twice a week in 2021. ‘England Netball have asked if they can get involved, so have the FA,’ adds Reynolds. Heading into the new year, the spectre of another shutdown lingers. Fortunately for Ella and Co, this avenue of release will remain open.