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That leads, of course, to several
obvious questions; 1) How much practice
is needed to acquire a minimal level
of skill competence?, 2) What can physical
educators do to increase the chances
of their students gaining that needed
level of competence?, and 3) Is it really
possible for schools to "produce"
skillful movers who enjoy, and persist
in leading physically active lifestyles?
The search for the answer to a seemingly
simple first question of "How much
practice is needed?" is a fascinating
journey without a clear-cut final destination
or answer. The initial follow-up answer
is, "it all depends on what you
are trying to accomplish."
Several academic researchers including
Joseph Baker and Jean Cote of Queen's
University, K. Anders Ericsson of Florida
State University, Bruce Abernathy of
the University of Queensland, and Janet
Starkes of McMaster University, among
others, have dedicated several decades
trying to uncover the development of
expertise in many fields including sport.
Dr. Ericsson, for example, in his highly
acclaimed sport science book, The
Road to Excellence (1996), presented
compelling evidence that it takes a
minimum of 10+ years of intense involvement
and deliberate practice to attain world-class
performance levels. To put it another
way, Dr. Ericsson argues that approximately
10,000 hours of training/practice is
needed to develop expertise. This equates
to roughly 25 hours of deliberate practice
per week. Not surprising, but a clear
investment of time and energy is needed.
If a youngster and parents expect world-class
performance, or even a college scholarship,
then it's time to hire some additional
coaching and provide some additional
playing options. The NCAA published
a report entitled, Estimated
Probability of Competing in Athletics
Beyond the High School Interscholastic
Level, which shares data reinforcing
the notion that roughly 3% of high school
athletes will compete in college, and
less than 1% of high school athletes
in basketball and football will make
it to a professional league.
We should all understand, however,
that world-class athletes are rare and
way beyond the scope of K-12 physical
education. Yet, too often I do believe
we are "expected" by too many
in the public eye to be producing athletes
to compete on varsity interscholastic
teams during the middle and high school
years. Too many parents still see physical
educators as coaches who use PE time
for attracting athletes to their afternoon
sports. Yet, that's not really the question
many of us want answered…we already
know that producing athletic champions
with too little equipment, too little
time, too many students, and too little
administrative support is unrealistic.
We just want to know what we can do
to give as many youngsters as possible
a "fighting chance" to lead
a physically active and enjoyable lifestyle.
So how do we answer question number
two dealing with what a physical education
teacher can do to help students develop
sport competence? Researches Cote, Baker
and Abernathy shared in the textbook,
Expert
Performance in Sports: Advances in Research
on Sport Expertise (2003), edited
by Professors Stark and Ericsson, provide
a developmental approach to sport skill
competence that mirrors the "Diamond-Shaped
Curriculum" shared by authors Cathrine
Himberg, Gayle Hutchinson, and John
Rousell in Teaching
Secondary Physical Education: Preparing
Adolescents to be Active for Life
(2003), George Graham, Shirley Ann Holt/Hale,
and Melissa Parker in Children
Moving (2007), and re-published
in the teacher's guide for the Physical
Best Activity Series from our National
Association for Sport and Physical Education.
Essentially the younger elementary-aged
years, of roughly 5-12 (grades K-6),
are characterized as an opportunity
to engage in more "play activities"
where simply having fun with peer children
is a primary goal as we want to encourage
a joyful passion for movement. Fundamental
movement skills such as throwing, catching,
kicking, striking, running, and jumping
are emphasized by teachers and coaches
with opportunities to participate in
many different sport activities is encouraged.
Physical education teachers emphasize
the development of skills which make-up
more complex sports in later years.
The Diamond-Shaped Curriculum refers
to this as the "Building a Foundation"
stage where young children should be
provided a myriad of opportunities to
throw and catch, for example, all different
sized, shaped, and weighted objects.
But as this is the bottom of the diamond
shape, the focus is narrow (i.e., on
fundamental movement skills).
Using the old rule of "grade level"
for determining team size suggests that
elementary students should rarely engage
in team activities larger that a game
of 6 versus 6. Additional players provide
too much complexity and reduce individual
practice opportunities as higher-skilled
youngsters are less likely to pass an
object (ball, flying disc, hockey puck,
etc.) to lesser-skilled youngsters.
Further, many team sports reward aggressive
or assertive behavior that maybe very
difficult for lower-skilled youngsters.
Our undergraduate students in physical
education at Radford University, for
example, memorize the saying, "maximize
small-sided modified activities and
minimize full-sided traditional activities"
to focus on lead-up games that do not
require regulation rules, fields/courts,
or equipment. Young children are encouraged
to play numerous sports outside of school,
and steer clear of early specialization
unless their particular sports of choice
(i.e., figure skating, gymnastics, etc.)
are dominated by younger performers.
As youngsters age and develop more
skill, the middle school-aged years
of roughly 13-15 (grades 7-9) are characterized
as having a wider focus (mirroring the
diamond shape) with the primary goal
of exposing young people to a wide variety
of physical activities. Yet, those students
interested in playing a varsity sport
in high school are most likely participating
in fewer sporting activities outside
of school as we start to see greater
specialization. The school PE curriculum,
on the other hand, introduces more focused
sport skills and concepts that lead
to greater competence and confidence
in participating. Physical educators,
coaches, and parents should help these
young people begin to select certain
sport activities that they enjoy the
most. The Diamond-Shaped Curriculum
refers to this stage as "Exploring
Possibilities" or "Sampling
the Menu." One difficulty for middle
school physical education teachers is
weighing the desire to share as many
physical activity options as possible
with the need to have students demonstrate
a level of physical competence needed
to participate appropriately.
As the young people grow and develop
into high school students of roughly
16+ years old (grades 10 & up),
the expectation is that they are probably
participating in fewer overall physical
activities, but have focused on a few
that they really enjoy and feel like
they can perform proficiently. Physical
education teachers are less task masters
on skill development, but rather are
leading their students to problem-solve
and become more "self-managed"
as these young people will soon be leaving
the public school system and they need
to be able to help themselves lead a
physically active lifestyle. Since it
is unrealistic to expect many young
people to be proficient participants
in many different sporting activities,
the Diamond Curriculum refers to this
stage as "Choosing the Path"
or "Developing Expertise"
in a few activities that high school
students feel like they can continue
to participate in once they graduate.
The opportunity to make choices about
which activities they participate in
is critical in the success of this stage.
This is why, in part, so many high school
programs attempt to offer a multitude
of lifetime activities such as tennis,
golf, weight training, yoga, running,
etc. and allow students to select several
of their choice throughout the year.
It is also when we typically see a reduction
in offerings of traditional team sport
activities such as football, softball,
or soccer which are not widely played
beyond high school for most adults.
The Surgeon General's Report on Physical
Activity and Health (1996) reminds us
that less than 5% of adults over 30
years old participate in team sport
activities.
The bottom line for many physical educators
is the need to examine closely what
we are offering our high school students,
to see if we really need to be teaching
less…but helping them learn more.
That is, we need to be careful of trying
to teach too much, when instead, we
need to help secondary students gain
the needed "expertise" to
participate skillfully and joyfully,
and persist in leading physically active
lifestyles.
References
Baker,
J., Cote, J., & Abernathy, B. (2003).
Sport-specific practice and the development
of expert decision-making in team ball
sports. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,
15, 12-25.
Cote,
J., Baker, J., & Abernathy, B. (2003).
From play to practice: A developmental
framework for the acquisition of expertise
in team sports. In J. Starkes and K.A.
Ericsson (Eds.), Expert performance
in sports: Advances in research on sport
expertise, (pp. 89-113). Champaign,
IL: Human Kinetics.
Ericsson,
K.A. (1996). The road to excellence:
the acquisition of expert performance
in the arts and sciences, sports, and
games. Philadelphia, PA: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Graham,
G., Holt/Hall, S.A., & Parker, M.
(2007). Children moving: A reflective
approach to teaching physical education
(7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Himberg,
C., Hutchinson, G., & Roussell,
J.M. (2002). Teaching secondary
physical education: Preparing adolescents
to active for life. Champaign,
IL: Human Kinetics.
National
Collegiate Estimated Probability of
Competing in Athletics Beyond the High
School Interscholastic Level
Physical
Best Activity Series: available from
the National Association of Sport and
Physical Education. http://www.aahperd.org/naspe
U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.
(1996). Physical
Activity and Health: A Report from the
Surgeon General. Washington, D.C.
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