Year 2 Ball skills: hitting and striking worksheet

“Aim Before You Hit” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 2 PE unit “Ball skills: hitting and striking”, for children aged 6 to 7, and takes about 24 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 31 to 36 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Aim Before You Hit

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 2 · PE · about 24 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can aim my racket head at a target before I hit the ball.

A Look back3 min

1.
Jump and land softly. Circle the missing step in the chain.
Bend your kneesLock your kneesStand on tiptoe
2.
Before a ball game, what should you do first? Circle it.
Check the space is clearShout and run aboutKick the ball hard
3.
Stand still on one spot. Circle the last step in the chain.
Hold stillRun offClose your eyes

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola wants to hit a soft ball into a hoop on the lawn. She starts with her eyes on the hoop.

A soft ball on a lawn beside a hoop lying flat on the grass

Watch me

First, Ola looks at the target.

Next, she points her racket head at the hoop.

Last, she swings and keeps the racket moving towards the hoop.

Now you

1.
Circle the step that comes first.
Look at the targetHit as hard as you canRun to the ball
2.
Write the missing middle step in your own words.

C Your turn8 min

Read each question. Then try the moves with a soft ball and your grown-up.

1.
Circle the step missing from the end of the chain.
Follow throughDrop the racketTurn your back
2.
Join each coaching point to the word it matches.
Look at the targetPoint racket headKeep swinging forward
Follow-throughAimFocus
3.
Use a soft ball and a hoop or cushion on the floor. Make three tries. Mark each try: a tick for a hit, a cross for a miss.
4.
Start by standing side on to the target. Then number these steps 1 to 4 in the right order.
1. Keep swinging towards the target
2. Stand side on to the target
3. Swing the racket through the ball
4. Point your racket head at the target

Say it out loud: Where did your racket point before each hit? Show your grown-up.

D Spot the mistake3 min

Kit says: “Hard hits always go where I want.”

1.
Why is Kit wrong? Write one reason.

E Think deeper4 min

A wooden bat leaning against a garden fence beside a soft ball

1.
Name two things you can do to aim better. Say how each one helps.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Aim Before You Hit · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. Bend your knees If your child circles Lock your knees, stiff legs jolt the body. Ask them to bend their knees to land softly.

2. Check the space is clear If your child picks Kick the ball hard, a hard kick is not safe indoors. Ask what could be near the ball first.

3. Hold still

B

1. Look at the target If your child circles Hit as hard as you can, power comes after aim. Ask them to look at the target first.

2. Look for: A step saying the racket head points at the target. If your child writes about hitting harder, ask: where does the racket point before the swing?

C

1. Follow through If your child circles Drop the racket, the racket must keep moving towards the target. Ask where the racket goes after the hit.

2. Look at the target → Focus; Point racket head → Aim; Keep swinging forward → Follow-through If your child joins Look at the target to Aim, ask: what do you do with your eyes before you swing?

3. Look for: Three marks in the tally, one for each of the three tries, ticks or crosses.

4. 1 Stand side on to the target · 2 Point your racket head at the target · 3 Swing the racket through the ball · 4 Keep swinging towards the target If your child puts the swing first, ask them to set up and aim before they swing.

D

1. Look for: Says that power without aim sends the ball anywhere, so hard hits do not always go where you want. If your child agrees with Kit, ask: where did your hardest hit go? Then say aim matters more than power.

E

1. Look for: Two aiming actions, such as looking at the target or pointing the racket head at it, each with a reason.

Words to use

Say“Where was your racket pointing before the hit? What did you see when you looked at the target?”

Instead of“Hit it as hard as you can and see what happens.”

After the sheet

Clear a space away from windows and breakable things. Use a soft ball and a rolled-up newspaper or a wooden spoon. Stand by and watch, then take turns to aim at a cushion on the floor.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

5 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Swing Through the Ball(with a plan)
Hit It Away(with a plan)
Hitting into empty space(with a plan)
Power and aim(with a plan)
Hit into the space(with a plan)

Every Year 2 PE worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

The full StudyDen plan adds the lessons themselves, marked as your child works, with the worksheets included. It is 7 days free, then £29.99 a month.

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