Over 100 year seven pupils at Michaelston Community College recently tried a new, fast paced, mixed team sport where boys and girls work together to score goals

Year 7 play Korfball.

Korfball is played with four girls and four boys on a basketball sized court with no set positions and no restrictions on which parts of the court the players can play.

The day long session was organised in collaboration with the school and Sport Cardiff, Cardiff Council’s Sports Development Department and saw year seven pupils put through their paces but current korfball players from across Cardiff.

The sport is played across theUKwithCardiffboasting four clubs, a welsh league and over 100 adult players. One of the clubs, Cardiff City Korfball Club, currently usesMichaelstonCommunity Collegeto train on a Wednesday evening which led to the recent collaboration.

Will Hayward, one of the korfball players who helped run the day said, “When we first introduced korfball to the children there was the usual confused look in the eyes, which is expected as not many people have heard of it.

“However as soon as the children tried the sport, they loved it and it was really great to see boys and girls working together while getting fit and having fun.”

Zoe Rose, Chair of Cardiff City Korfball club said, “We were really excited to have the opportunity to introduce Korfball to so many children. We currently run korfball clubs in a few primary schools in Cardiff so it was great to be able to see older children get involved and enjoy it.

“We are committed to developing youth korfball in Wales and look forward to creating more links like this.”

Dawn Mitchell-Williams from Sport Cardiff said: “Events like these really support our ethos of developing club-school links so that we can engage pupils outside of the school hours. This way they are more likely to stay active once they leave education.

“Korfball, although not a traditional sport, has several proactive clubs based in Cardiff that have the capacity to increase junior membership therefore we hope that Korfball can become an alternative sport for pupils in Ely.”

Korfball is currently played in Roath Park Primary School and Moorlands Primary School in Cardiff as well as Tyn Y Wern Primary School in Caerphilly. A schools competition was held in June 2012 which was won byRoathParkPrimary School.

For more information on Korfball please visit www.welshkorfball.org or for more information on Cardiff City Korfball Club please visit www.cardiffkorfball.co.uk