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Random Thoughts on High School PE
As we celebrate the holidays and consider our New Year’s
resolution to personally lead healthier lifestyles, I was left to
ponder my own random thoughts on the positive aspects of high school
physical education (in part, because it seems like too often I only
hear negative thoughts from the mainstream media such as disinterested
students, unmotivated teachers, school violence, overcrowded classes,
obesity, diabetes, & increasing unhealthy behavior among adolescents).
After running my random thoughts past my college students, the
most popular positive thoughts included;
- Personal Fitness Focus & Less Competitive Team Sport Focus
- Moving Toward A Health Club Model With Personal Exercise Prescription
- Less Focus On Skill Development And More Focus On Playing Modified
Sport Activities
- Trying Really “Cool” Activities Such As Outdoor Adventure
Activities
- Developing Competence In Lifelong Physical Activities Of Personal
Choice
- Teaching “Consumerism” So Students Can Participate
On Their Own Outside Of School
To continue this theme, I will take each of the six random thoughts
above and expand each in its own section.
Jon Poole
Secondary Section Editor
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| Less Focus On Skill Development and More Focus on Playing Modified
Sport Activities |
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As noted above, if adolescent youngsters have not been turned
on to traditional sports and been provided an opportunity to improve
their skills before they reach high school, I believe we have
little chance to guide them to the proficient performance needed
to compete in interscholastic athletics. We can, however, offer
them a chance to engage recreationally and joyfully in modified
versions that will help them adhere to an active lifestyle.
One of my favorite teaching approaches simply uses the old notion
of never play team games with larger than grade level numbers.
Seventh graders, for example, would play no modified games larger
than 7 v 7. Eighth graders 8 v 8 and so on. This means, of course,
that full-sided soccer or flag football is replaced with several
smaller games. I’ve seen many teachers successfully play
three concurrent 5 v 5 mini-soccer games, rather than playing
one large 15 v 15 game (or sit out a few kids and play 11 v 11).
Then, the teacher can play three different modified versions of
soccer – for example, one 5 v 5 game may involve playing
with smaller goals and no goalies, the second 5 v 5 game may require
at least three teammates touch the ball before a goal is allowed,
and the third game might allow using hands to advance the ball
in the air, but only feet to score (or a myriad of other medications).
The point is not the merit of any one modification, but rather
the chance to provide the youngsters as many “touches”
as possible (rather than allowing higher-skilled kids to dominate),
as much overall activity as possible (rather than watching the
higher-skilled kids for fear of messing up the game), and an opportunity
to participate and compete in modified games where victory is
in the sheer joy of playing.
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| Personal Fitness Focus and Less Competitive
Sport Focus |
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As physical educators, many are initially interested in coaching.
Teaching regular PE classes during the day is an expectation, of
course, but coaching in the afternoon and evening is the chance
to work with student athletes who really want to be practicing,
training, and striving to gain the most from their athletic potential.
PE class too often feels like “pulling teeth” because
these students too often really do not want to practice, train,
or strive to gain anything. These students are not the athletes,
but rather the masses of adolescents who are in the most danger
of leading sedentary lifestyles as adults.
Let’s be honest…if a group of 14 year-olds, for example,
are not already pretty excited about playing basketball, soccer,
or volleyball…we are probably not going to be able to do much
to change their opinion during PE class. They’ve had those
(& others) sports throughout their middle school years and into
high school. For whatever reason, they did not develop a passion
for playing competitive team sports.
I believe that is one reason why we see so many high school programs
trying personal fitness approaches. Because, while those 14 year-olds
may not care too much about competitive team sports, perhaps they
do enjoy individual sports, or extreme sports, or simply looking
and feeling good from working out.
The following link provides information concerning the personal
fitness approach with the Physical Best program:
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| Moving Toward a Health
Club Model With Personal Exercise Prescription |
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Closely aligned with the personal fitness focus noted above,
many schools are redesigning their physical education spaces to
resemble health clubs. I personally know of several local schools
which have renovated old storage rooms to provide a “fitness
center” separate from the typical gymnasiums and athletic
weight rooms.
Stationary exercise bikes, treadmills, weight training machines,
and fitness classes in “adult” activities such as Tae-Bo,
Step Aerobics, Pilates, Yoga, and Spinning are not uncommon. Take
a good look at the winning PEP grants over the past several years
and it becomes clear that health-related physical fitness and
providing a health enhancing environment (i.e., a health club
model) is a winning idea.
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Physical education’s goal is to
help students find at least one activity they really enjoy,
help them develop (a) adequate skill to participate joyfully
at least at a recreational level, (b) an understanding of rules
and strategies, (c) the ability to participate safely, and (d)
an understanding of how to get started, how to continue to learn,
and how to stay involved and persist across their lives.
Dr. Leslie Lambert
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letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please
email one of the following Secondary Section Editors: |
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| Trying Really “Cool”
Activities Such as Outdoor Adventure Activities |
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Every year I am amazed when chatting with my college students about
their recent high school experiences….I will ask them about
participating in any really “cool” activities and they
invariably respond with something like, “we only did those
things in advanced PE.” My home state of Virginia requires
PE through grade 10. Advanced PE, when offered, is typically only
taken by athletes and often in entails off-season weight training.
What about taking advantage of the outdoor resources so near our
homes? One local teacher prepares his classes for a several hour
hiking day with weeks of history of the “rails to trails”
path, physical training such as in-class fitness walking with pedometers
and heart rate monitors, consumerism information on hiking shoes
and clothing, nutrition and hydration concerns, and finally, map
reading and compass use. Because of scheduling concerns not all
students will make the Saturday morning hike, of course, but others
will bring along parents and siblings. This teacher has instant
credibility and those parents support his program because they understand
his attempt to guide their children toward physically active lifestyles.
In my humble opinion, those are the kinds really “cool”
activities we should be doing in regular, not advanced, PE classes.
The following link provides a lesson plan idea from our friends
as PECentral.
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| Developing Competence in Lifelong Physical
Activities of Personal Choice |
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How comfortable are we with high school youngsters
choosing from a limited list of activities such as weight training,
fitness walking, tennis, golf, yoga, and running/jogging (among
others)?
We, as teachers, would need to figure out a way to schedule and
teach these activities and clearly that will make a big change
away from traditional approaches which include, for example, flag
football, soccer, and kickball in the fall, basketball, volleyball,
and floor hockey in the winter, and softball, ultimate frisbee,
and track in the spring.
Learning to make appropriate choices and taking personal responsibility
are key educational objectives when working with high school youngsters,
it seems to me a great step in that direction is by allowing some
personal choice and commitment to leading a physically active
lifestyle.
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| Teaching “Consumerism” so Students
Can Participate on Their Own Outside of School |
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Ultimately, whether youngsters adhere to a healthy
and active lifestyle once they leave our schools will be our legacy
as teachers. We can’t force them, of course, but we can prepare
them with the needed information to be intelligent consumers of
physical activity equipment and opportunities.
For many adults, running local 5K road races is a primary form
of exercise, a key to one’s social life, and a reliever for
the stress associated with mortgage payments, late reports, upset
spouses, and so on. Unfortunately, many do not know how to get
started in running or where to turn for advice. Physical educators
should provide high school youngsters with the needed information
such as the training program below from Hal Higdon, a senior writer
for Runner’s World Magazine, and where and how much to pay
for appropriate running shoes.
Again, we can’t force them to be runners, but we can give
them the best shot at success if they choose themselves.
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