Two men from Cardiff have come up with a way for everyone to stay active and connected with sport, from the comfort of their own home, no matter what their age.
Rob Oyston and Alex Lock have channelled a shared passion for getting everyone active and helping people, into an idea that has ensured that elderly and people with disabilities could enjoy the benefits of playing adapted versions of sports that they love like Rugby, Football, Tennis and Netball.
The idea, ‘Mobi-Game’ is a way to stay active and connected with sport, whether you are nine or 109-years-old.
Rob said: “We want[ed] to give people the opportunity and realise that it doesn’t matter what age you are, you can be suffering conditions, but you can still develop, still learn, and you can still have some unbelievable experiences.”
Founded in 2018, Rob and Alex have created and shared ‘some unbelievable experiences’ with residents of care homes in Basingstoke, Bristol, Cardiff, Chepstow, Newport, London and Reading.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus, Rob and Alex recognised that isolation, loneliness and inactivity would be an even bigger challenge for the ageing population and despite the challenges this has brought to their business, they felt that they wanted to do something positive.
The pair therefore decided to start delivering free live online sessions Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10am on their Mobi-Game Facebook page, so that anyone who wants to can join them to get active, play some games, listen to music and reminisce.
They are also delivering interactive video link sessions direct to some care homes to keep residents engaged and active through fun games.
Rob and Alex also run ‘Sports Xtra’ through their physical activity programmes and after school groups all across Great Britain.
With the challenges COVID-19 brought to that programme, the pair still wanted to bring enjoyment to children from the comfort of their own home.
They both understood how important it was going to be to offer children and their families the opportunity to have access to structured, fun sports activities and learn new skills whilst being safe at home.
Both being fathers, Rob and Alex, were also aware that they needed to make it exciting, to capture and retain children’s attention spans.
With a teaching background and 15 years of delivering physical activity programmes together across the UK, Alex and Rob went about the task of jumping out of their comfort zones to ensure that children and their families were provided with story-based activities in line with school curriculum’s to assist with home-schooling.
Alex and Rob have since been offering free live online sessions from Mondays to Fridays at 11am, a personal interactive session with families to develop specific sports skills, online parties to connect children and celebrate together and even an interactive zoom group football class on Saturday mornings.
Rob added: “This has been a tough, but amazing fast-paced journey and seeing the feedback, videos and photos of children having a great time, as well as people tun[ing] in to take part from across the globe has been a real joy and especially considering we were two social media challenged coaches in their late 30’s before this all started!
“It’s amazing that we are impacting so many children through our programmes that are not just sport, but Sports Xtra!”
The pair most recently teamed up with The Royal Mint Experience on Facebook to deliver a Peter Rabbit narrated story.
You can learn more about their interactive sessions on the Sports Extra Facebook page.
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