Flippa Ball / Mini Polo

Balmoral School enters teams from Year 4-6 into the Atlantis FlippaBall League Terms 1 & 4 each year. From 2024 we will be entering teams over the winter season in Terms 2 & 3. Games are played at Diocesan School Pool or Epsom Girls Grammar School Pool. FlippaBall is a fun modified waterpolo game and is played standing on the bottom of the pool. 

MiniPolo is for Years 5-6 for students who have progressed from FlippaBall and is a modified game played with students treading water. Please note, children are not able to play FlippaBall and MiniPolo in the same season. MiniPolo teams progress to Waterpolo in Years 7-8.

For your child to be able to play they must be able to comfortably swim a length of the pool which is 25m.  This is a prerequisite for being placed in a team.

To be part of a FlippaBall/MiniPolo team you will need to commit to Sunday games between 11.00am-6.00pm. Junior teams play earlier in the day.  We are fortunate that the league is running their Neptune Express programme which means the teams will have coaching before or after their games each week. We therefore will not be having early morning practices in the school pool. This coaching is included in the fee.

Every team will need a Sunday poolside manager to organise and position players and help them in their game. If a team cannot find a manager they will not be able to be placed in the tournament.

There will be a fee to play that will be added to the Edge Portal. This fee will depend on the number of players in the team. Fees will need to be paid at the beginning of each term. 

If you have any questions, please email sport@balmoral.school.nz

 

What’s Flippa Ball all about?

Activity: 

  • Play in the water is FUN and Flippa Ball gives the children the option of playing a ball sport in the water. Children of all sizes love it and it is an easy way for children to become active.

Teamwork: 

  • Teamwork is FUN and Flippa Ball helps children to understand how to play in a team so that different children with different skills can work together to achieve a goal.

Ball Skills: 

  • Passing and catching and the coordination required to do these things are the basic building block for playing many ball sports. This is a FUN way for children to learn and reinforce a skill that are FUNdamental and transferable.

Swimming:      

  • Swimming is a core skill. The level of our water competence is dropping. Flippa Ball gets children into the water having FUN. Swimming is part of the activity and the better you swim the better the children can play. This is a  FUN way to get children into the pool to learn and practice swimming.

Water Confidence: 

  • “My child was scared of being splashed – now he plays Flippa Ball!!!!”  We hear stories like this all the time. Flippa Ball is the  FUN way for children to feel comfortable in the water. Once they are confident they can go on to many other aquatic sports.

Aquatic Options: 

  • Many FUN options for continued activity in the water open up for water confident children: Swimming, Surf Live Saving, Surfing, Water Polo.