In the Club
The ultimate podcast for kids activity clubs! ClassForKids is an award-winning booking and management software trusted by 3000+ kids activity clubs.
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In the Club
EP 31: Inside the World of Inclusive Multi-Sport Camps with Sports Focus Coaching
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Community engagement is at the heart of Sports Focus, and Olly Kanner shares how parent feedback and collaborations with local organizations, like farms and petting zoos, enrich the camp experience for children.
Discover the future vision for Sports Focus, which aims for sustainable growth and strong team dynamics, with potential additions like an enormous inflatable assault course on the horizon. Listen to Olly's reflections on the rewarding aspects of his work, from seeing the joy in children’s faces to fostering a positive and energetic environment that benefits both kids and staff alike.
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Welcome to In the Club everyone you sound so excited to be here you are on green with a green screen background. Those that are listening won't see this, but those that are watching. We can do some fun stuff with this later, Brian. No, I want out. I'm off. We should have positioned this differently, but here we are. In fact, I'm on blue with a blue background. Let's just blend in. Blend in Again. You won't see this is.
Speaker 2:Brian's fault. It's taking my head at Brian production values.
Speaker 1:We got in this. Come on anyway, welcome to in the club. We've not sat together for a long time, we haven't. It's very sad.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's terrible these days that we're so busy we are very busy, but we're back with a brand new episode of in the club, a very, and actually we aren't even the interviewers.
Speaker 1:This is how big this is growing. We are talking this week to Olly Cannon from Sports Focus in London. Well, we are not talking to him.
Speaker 2:Who's talking to him? James from our customer success team Went down with Brian to chat to Olly, and there is loads of good things packed into this episode. There is, but my main thing Sports Focus, sports focus.
Speaker 1:I thought that was just going to be football, but apparently not no, I think all his background is initially in football, but sport focus is a camp. It's multi sports. In fact, it's loads of stuff. I'm looking to Brian off camera.
Speaker 2:There was a scientist, scientist, that was balloon fun fact did you know that James took part in the animal balloon making? I do, and he actually racked up over 8k in views on our YouTube shorts 8,000 views.
Speaker 1:I think it's one of our most popular YouTube shorts and it's like a 20 second video of him failing badly. Sorry, james. At Balloon Animal Making.
Speaker 2:Ray. So this is what happens when we put actual people from Class for Kids, and not just us, on social channels it blows up, it goes viral yep, so like maybe this is a lesson learned it maybe is, but I think there are a few more lessons that people can learn from this podcast I'm very proud of it, we jump into it. I think we should just get stuck into the podcast ollie with james so thanks again for having us down today, ollie.
Speaker 4:It's been a fantastic day just to see how you and the guys run the the camps. I suppose the first question I have is why did you get involved? What made you get started?
Speaker 3:um, well, it's been great to have you guys in, so thank you very much.
Speaker 3:We've been very excited about this for a while, so really grateful that you guys have come in today.
Speaker 3:In terms of our journey as a company, started off as a one-man band, being a PE teacher and a football coach, working at various levels from academy down to grassroots and semi-pro football, and kind of organically started the company through doing less high level coaching for football and focusing more on grassroots teaching PE lessons, clubs and then again naturally saw a gap in the market for holiday camps and some of the schools that we've been at as an organization we've been at for 16 or 17 years, where I started as their PE teacher and now we come in and do programs at their schools probably 12 months of the year.
Speaker 3:So the holiday camps that really there was a big demand for it. In terms of the school that we're at today southwest London, lovely location, lovely school, lovely premises, um, and we started probably about two years before, maybe a year, 18 months, before covid, and then, being an ofsted registered provider, we were able to run our camps through covid, which was obviously great for uh, for parents and children give everyone a little bit of respite, um, and we've sort of just grown, you know, slowly, slowly, from there, um, and that's where we are, yeah today fantastic, and obviously he's touched on a bit about the after school and the seasonal camps.
Speaker 4:So how do your seasonal camps differ from your after school programs?
Speaker 3:um, we try and offer a wide range of activities and I think, ironically, when we started, sports was our focus, but now sports is no longer just our focus and we try and offer activities that are going to keep children engaged and entertained. You know, through 8.30 to 5 o'clock when we're running and, as you've seen, today we've got some special activities on. As it's Friday, bouncy Castle magicians come in, we do things like arts and crafts, we do Lego, we do dance, gymnastics. I think a busy day full of activities is what we aim for each and every day.
Speaker 4:Excellent and in terms of obviously you run the camps all through the year. What's the best season for running the camps?
Speaker 3:Summer, I'm going to say, given the great British weather that we often have. You know, running for six weeks is obviously our busiest time of the year, Running at multiple sites up and down London and Surrey, and I think when we're outside that's when we're at our best. You know, obviously the weather plays a part, but given that we've got such great environments to run our camps in, we've always got options halls, classrooms there's always an alternative option to run activities, but definitely the summer Great In terms of the challenges of running a camp.
Speaker 4:Can you talk about those? What you know, somebody that's maybe not running camps looking to do camps. What's that challenges with you guys face?
Speaker 3:I think getting staff and getting the right staff in is paramount. I think you know we, we we have a saying at the company which is you know, we're only as good as our last day of camp Um and you know, getting the right team and the right blend of team um in to to work with our organization is very, very important. Um, and and just be and just being professional in everything that we do and trying to get better every day and learn from the previous camp and try and find ways that we can make things more interesting, engage more children and keep everybody happy.
Speaker 4:Really, Well, I know a wee bit about your background. You've been a PE teacher. Some of your coaches obviously went to school. Yes, you've another teacher, so they obviously trust you. You trust them and I think you know, looking at what the coaches are doing out there, they're doing an excellent job. The kids love them, um, so you've definitely got a good bunch of coaches out there thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of our, a lot of our coaches have been ex-pupils, um, that were either taught by myself or a member of the team, and I think we're quite proud of having that very, you know, natural, organic, different recruitment policy whereby, you know, we've got children or young adults now that have, you know, gone to university and are coming back in and are looking for part-time roles within the company, and we have those. And when you've known somebody since they were five or six and have met their family and have no, you know, it's a real nice spin on what we do and it always is lovely when you've known somebody since they were five or six and have met their family. It's a real nice spin on what we do and it always is lovely when you've got, for example, head teachers that come into schools or teachers that come into when our camps are running and they'll often bump into ex-pupils. There's a lot of good stories that come from that and we're very happy with our team and I'm very proud of what we've done there.
Speaker 4:No fantastic story to tell. We're very happy with our team and and I'm very proud of what we've done there. No fantastic story to tell in terms of the after school side of things and what activities do you do in your after school care programs?
Speaker 3:um, so we run a wide range of sports, obviously your traditionals, you know, your multi-sports, your footballs, your dodgeballs, your cricket, and then we also do lego as well, um, as a separate organization that we also use class for kids for, and it's been very, very helpful in helping us grow that. But as it's only an hour, we try and squeeze in as many different things as we can, but a lot of mainstream sports no-transcript fun games, love it, fun games, that's it.
Speaker 3:You know. I think everybody you know you'll always have those children that are reaching in the classroom ready to come to an after-school club. And that's what we want, you know. We just want to. We want to get those children out and and playing as many fun things as possible, um, in as many different sports as possible yeah, and what would a typical day look like in an after-school club?
Speaker 3:um, registration, um bit of chill time, maybe a bit of snack time, people putting on, you know, getting changed into pe kits or football kits if they needed to um, and then making their way out for some fun warm-up games. Um, and you know, many challenges, many exercises that are themed around the sport that we're doing, and then every lesson we'll have an element of technical and also some game related exercises as well.
Speaker 4:Fantastic In terms of age group. What age groups do you cover?
Speaker 3:So we go from four to 11 and work in the primary school sector.
Speaker 4:Excellent, ok, and how do you choose what activities for after school, and even camps as well, to go on that?
Speaker 3:I think, after school clubs you're always going to be, you know, your popular sports always going to be big hitters. Yeah, I think one of the things that we've looked at doing is running, you know, in a 10 week teaching block, possibly three, four or even five different sports, because we think that that is able to, you know, target more children, get our numbers up a little bit higher. And if we were doing, say, five different sports in 10 weeks and doing one sport for two weeks each, you know we've had a little bit of progression through five different sports as, uh, that will be one option and then other options are just focused on a football club or just a dodgeball club or, you know, a specific sport and you'll find yourself a child will try a sport for the first time, absolutely nail it, love it and it snowballs from that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100%, 100%. I think getting as many children involved in as many different sports is a really good thing to do. We always promote, you know, other children trying at lots of other clubs that we don't specialise in. That, you know, will help them to progress and develop in their own, in their own sporting endeavors and I suppose a big challenge for clubs will be to keep it fun, exciting, fresh.
Speaker 4:How do you do that?
Speaker 3:um, I think one of the big things is that we will ask our coaches is would you do that lesson? Yeah, so if you wouldn't do that lesson, why are you doing it right? Would you if we were playing that game? Would you like to play that game? And if the answer is no, well then don't do it. If you would like to be in that lesson and you would like to be involved in that game, that's probably a good sign.
Speaker 4:Great answer and I take it the coaches will join in activities as well.
Speaker 3:100 do have to often remind some of our younger members of staff that they are here to coach and teach and not to, you know, not to get one up on the uh on some of the older children during uh, during play times and games.
Speaker 4:But yeah, we definitely, we definitely try and get involved as much as we can I'm sure you've got a few stories, so what's the funniest thing I could have ever done in one of these then?
Speaker 3:uh, I think probably going back to me maybe teaching in front of a whole big class and having a demonstration of a particular technique being done and then getting absolutely walloped in the face with the football. Yeah, in front of about 35 children, which was fantastic, and then having to take it on the chin and just turn around and smile and pretend like it didn't happen.
Speaker 4:No, brilliant, and I think these clubs give back to the community. And how do you see the impact to the community and even the child attending?
Speaker 3:Well, I think we have a lot of. We're very, very fortunate we have a lot of parent engagement. The local communities that we work in are very grateful for the work that we do. We offer lots of promotional sort of free sessions, free tasters, free camps. We try and engage with the local community as much as possible. We've got some organizations that work in the community that come and help us.
Speaker 3:So during our holiday camps, for example, we have a local provider who is a mum at one of our schools. She started a small business during lockdown providing children with healthy and nutritious meals. We worked in partnership with her to scale her company up and she now distributes to six of our holiday camps feeding, you know, a couple of hundred, if not a thousand, children a week during the holiday camps that we've run in partnership with local councils as part of the half program. Um, so yeah, we're. You know there's always more that we can do in the community, but I think being a big part of what's going on, but in a positive way in any community is something that we really want to be doing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's fantastic and you touched on it as well, but it's working with the parents to make sure that that is, you know, a natural fit for the kid and the community as well. It definitely definitely helps, so do you. I suppose you'll have some parent engagement to make sure you're getting the best from the classes for the kids then yeah, yes, yeah, 100, we will.
Speaker 3:We will always ask for parent feedback, we'll send back feet, we'll send out feedback forms, we will make ourselves vulnerable and exposed to any kind of feedback, obviously positive or indifferent. You know, we welcome it all and we just want to learn as much from the customer experience as possible to see what we can do, to do things better, excellent, excellent, and are there any new activities that you're planning to put into the program?
Speaker 3:um, I think outsourcing to providers that do things that are very different to what we do is a really good thing to do, and I think partnerships with local community ventures and organizations is really important. Some of our sites are in parts of Surrey that have local farms and we get petting zoos in and we try and we do things that we wouldn't be able to facilitate. Growing that part of our holiday camp provision and working with other other providers um to give the children fun and engaging ways to, you know, enjoy their day with us is something we're big on doing excellent, excellent and terms of the vision for sports focus coaching.
Speaker 4:Where do you see it going in the future?
Speaker 3:um. Keep engaging as many children as possible, keep a good core team of staff, keep growing at the right rate and not getting too big too quickly, being humble, remembering where we came from and we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I suppose then, if you could try any dream activity, what would that be then?
Speaker 3:Ollie Dream activity that we could have at a camp. Yes, hmm, that is a very good question, uh, something you could maybe add into the program, for example I'm I would be a massive fan, although we definitely don't have it in the budget to get an enormous inflatable assault course.
Speaker 4:Oh nice yeah, soon it gets back down for that then 100.
Speaker 3:We'll get you guys down for that, um and, and you know, watch this space because I'm thinking because total wipeout water sports, a whole the whole shebang. Um, yeah, I look forward to the risk assessment on that, but um, yeah, we're, we're.
Speaker 4:You know it's in the pipeline, it's in the pipeline in terms of obviously you are giving back to the community. You're making memories for kids. You know you're spending a lot of time with the children. I suppose the next chapter of that is seeing them getting older, growing up. Their siblings will be coming back as well. Word of mouth Is that how your club has grown over the years.
Speaker 3:Yes, I think we've been very lucky with having you know customers talking positively about what we do. You know in WhatsApp groups and on social media and in the playground and you know talking positively about what we do. You know in whatsapp groups and on social media and in the playground and you know good word spreads and you know if you do something properly and you do it well, hopefully more people will jump on, and we've been very fortunate with that. Um and and yeah, we we hope to keep growing, you know, as much as we can with with people that are happy to share their happy experiences with us or for experiences they've had with us at camps, rather.
Speaker 4:Yeah, brilliant, and I suppose then for you what's the most rewarding part of the job?
Speaker 3:And I think seeing coming into sites and seeing kids safe, happy, fun, and seeing our staff engaged at all times and really having a good day, and I think one of the big things you know, especially with a long day of a holiday camp from an 8.30 to 5, you know, if you're constantly looking at your watch, the day's going to go quite slowly. Yeah, of course, and one of the things that we always say to the team is you know, if you, if you look at your watch and the day's going really quickly, that's a good sign and it means that everyone's having a good time and so are you, and that rubs off and it's got, creates a really good energy and a really good buzz about a camp. So I think seeing everybody you know engaging in activities and having fun is what brings a big smile to my face excellent, and I could see that today because the kids were itching to get back out after lunch.
Speaker 4:So no, you're doing something right anyway, that's for sure. Thank you. And if you could give, I suppose, a one piece of advice to a parent who was looking at an after-school club summer camp, what advice would you give to that parent?
Speaker 3:um, interesting, I'm now a dad, uh, of a lovely two and a half year old uh who will be attending camps very soon. Um, and I think looking for a friendly face to put to a company I think is really important and I think, you know, customer service is something we're very big on, um and I you know, and it's great to send emails, it's great to look at posts, but I think picking up the phone and having that engagement, um, and, and you know, someone putting in attention into your child prior to them coming, is really important, um, and I'd say, yeah, you know, time spent on the phone is important fantastic, and again that question.
Speaker 4:But I'm going to think of it as someone, a club who's maybe not running camps. They're just running, you know, term time classes, maybe looking in at after school. Any advice you would give to another coach, club owner.
Speaker 3:I think find a good venue. You know we started a long time ago doing stuff on Commons and obviously that's fairly restrictive. You, you know, in terms of what you can offer, and I think finding a good venue in a good facility is is paramount in an area that you think you've got. You've got a good chance of hitting good numbers, um, and something that is going to bring something extra to a school. You know a school should be proud to partner with your organization. You know, and I think if you've got a good school, that good school is going to want a good provider during the school holidays and finding the right school is very, very important, or the right venue or facility.
Speaker 4:Yeah, fantastic. And finally, for all the kids listening, what one piece of advice would you give to a kid that's coming to a summer camp or an after-school club? What would the advice be for that kid to come?
Speaker 3:Be open-minded, be be yourself. Uh, be, be, be polite. You know um, look after yourself and the other children that are at camp. Be a good person and you'll have a lot of fun that does a man with ambition it is.
Speaker 2:I think that summarizes the podcast very well, and that was a man with ambition it is. I think that summarises the podcast very well and that was a man with ambition. Five words, I just sound like a robot there. I think Ollie is very ambitious and you think of you know what he's done with sports focused coaching and what he's looking to do. It's kind of one not for staying stagnant. Then, you know, sometimes we can get quite comfortable with where we're at of a job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're definitely out of a job soon.
Speaker 2:I know, but back to Ollie. Back to Ollie. We're obviously in the middle of camp season right now as we're recording this podcast that will go on. The Scottish schools are just starting their holidays. English schools will go on holiday in July, so there's lots of exciting things going on for all of our clubs at the moment who are running camps or workshops.
Speaker 1:What camp would you like to go to? Right across all of our activity types. If you had to go to a camp this summer, where would you go?
Speaker 2:Actually, am I allowed to say the club name? Yeah, I would go to Project Fashion because I've heard that they are doing some pretty interesting stuff and there might even be some little snippets coming out on social soon about what they're doing, because I think it would be really good to go and learn how to make something.
Speaker 1:I'm really bad at sewing and all that kind of stuff, so I'd probably go there I think I'd be good too and shout out to Project Fashion yeah, there's things coming down the line in that space, I believe. Is that correct? Producer and videographer and master of this studio, brian, we're getting a thumbs up.
Speaker 2:What camp would you go to?
Speaker 1:If there was a music one, probably, but you wouldn't like that, because then I'd be pulling at the guitar and giving it ding, ding, ding ding that wouldn't be any different.
Speaker 2:But anyway, what Ollie's doing as Abba Parker's going to move back to Ollie, because I can't handle the thought of you and a guitar what he's doing is absolutely amazing. James obviously did a really good interview with him and you know he's got 200 kids at the moment. Into next year we're going to see big things as he starts to focus on, but you know he's already doing multi-sports. He's got scientists, balloon makers. He's giving kids something that they want to go to and you know that's not to say that other people wouldn't want just necessarily go to a football camp, but there's this multi-activity space where kids can explore and actually get a little bit creative and still have the core foundational sport there. So you've sold it to me. I'm changing my camp. We're going to Ollie's camp, I think we both go to Ollie's camp.
Speaker 1:Okay, ollie, we're coming to your camp, to your camp um, but no fantastic interview, and I think there's only one thing left to do here, and that's to say bye.
