The Need for Educating Both The Mind and The Body

Ever experience “Information Overload”? I am sure it is more prevalent in today’s era of “instant” information via internet and social media forms. In reading some extremely profound blogs by Martin Bissinger and Vern Gambetta, their messages hit on THE BIGGER PROBLEM with developing young athletes, and more importantly, young personalities.

Since both Vern and myself grew up in the same era of physical education, let me defer to his very insightful diagnosis of the current problem with “early specialization” and the lack of teaching fundamental movement skills either before, during or after specializing in a single sport. Here is a direct quote from a recent blog of Vern’s…

”When I started coachhing and teaching in 1969, that was probably the apogee of sport development in the United States. We were the dominant sporting nation in the world as evidenced by the dominant performances at the 1968 Olympic Games. There was mandatory daily physical education tuaght by trained educators. Sport was centered in the schools and coached by trained coaches. It was part of the educational system. In the elementary and  junior high schools there were after-school sports programs that featured participation over winning. By the mid to late 1970’s all this began to unravel. Mandatory Kindergarten through Twelth Grade daily physical education was dropped. Physical education as an academic discipline in college and universities was deemed not academic enough and physical education programs were dropped or the curriculum was changed to sport or exercise science. The mission of training Physical Education Teachers and coaches was severely compromised.”

I experienced all of the “changing” environment that Vern so eloquently describes. I was fortunate enough to have been PHYSICALLY EDUCATED in fundamental movement skills AND athletic movement skill competencies WHILE playing every sport offered by both elementary and junior high school IN each sport’s season.  I went on to college and majored in PHYSICAL EDUCATION, not Kinesiology or Sport Science or Exercise Science. The difference with being a Physical Educator and an Exercise Science graduate is DIRECTLY RELATED to the dilemma facing young athletes today.

Sports Science, Exercise Science and Kinesiology with emphases in Corporate Fitness, Gerontology, Physical Therapy and Sports Management IS NOT GEARED to turn out teachers. Why would we need teachers if we don’t have MANDATORY,  DAILY PHYSICAL Education?  I am talking real EDUCATION where teachers teach movement skills and allow for movement exploration within games and activities and STUDENTS learn.

Martin Bissinger’s recent blog (although his site is dedicated to hammer throwing, he goes far above and beyond in featuring a wide variety of  methods for coaching and teaching of skills) was a mix of various blog information he had read and found IMPORTANT on the development of athletes. Here is a short excerpt…

“American victories are won on the playgrounds of their school days.”(taken from German Newspaper Vossische Zeitung)  This quote was made back in 1912 after a dominating performance by Americans at the Stockholm Olympic Games. I found the quote in a book given to my by Jon Mulkeen: Sport Under Communism: The U.S.S.R., Czechoslavakia, the G.D.R., China, Cuba. A lot has changed in 100 years and the DECLINE IN PLAY AT AMERICAN SCHOOLS CAN ONLY HURT OUR PROSPECTS AT FUTURE OLYMPICS.”

Add the aggressive “marketing” of Personal Training,  Traveling Teams for soccer, volleyball, baseball, swimming, etc. and all the ONLINE TRAINING MATERIAL and you can see why we are on the EARLY SPECIALIZATION BANDWAGON.

What we have lost IS real education in foundational movements, posture,  body weight strength and power development as a result of the loss of BOTH DAILY PHYSICAL EDUCATION and free play with jump ropes, hula hoops, monkey bars, frisbees, roller skates, etc.

Instead, parents are opting for the lure of single sport programs that run year-round instead of the less expensive options of recreational sport play during each sport’s season and adding in Martial Arts training and encouraging free play in playground activities for younger children and bicycle, skateboard, rock climbing, etc. activities as they move up in age and ability.

My experience in the last 4-5 years has been one in which information from the internet has become “COACHING EDUCATION” for many volunteer coaches at the high school and sport club level. 

Here are some WISE WORDS from coach Bissinger, entitled The Dangers of Online Training Material…..

“Before you implement the latest scientific finding or advice from an online article, it is important to sifte the dirt from the gold. While the German sport scientists may overlook the value of an experienced coach, there is also a lot of content from less experienced coaches that should be OVERLOOKED. Here are a few tips from coach Steve Magness. His entire post has a more detailed discussion on the topic of weighing the value of training material.

Watch out for: 1) Complexification—Simple to complex answers.

                                    2) Long scientific sounding words for no reason.

                                    3) Use of Ambiguouspseudo scientific names:  toxins

                                    4) Proprietorialization of common sense-make common sense copyrightable, patented, and owned-repackaging of free/known ideas to sell them

                                    5) Fixation- One thing is the answer.

If they really understand it they’ll explain it in common terms. If they don’t they will dare to convince themselves and you that they understand it. AND ONCE YOU SIFT OUT THE HELPFUL STUFF, BE SURE TO UNDERSTAND IT BEFORE USING IT. SOMETIMES KNOWING JUST A LITTLE IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN KNOWING NOTHING AT ALL.”

What is DESPERATELY NEEDED IS NOT THE FINALITY OF SCIENCE BASED EVIDENCE but the mutual cooperation between Sport Scientists and Coaches. If we truly want to find out what works best for the variety of body types, maturation levels, natural talent and various training ages that come with every coaching endeavor, we need to educate ourselves to sound, scientific principles AND then use those principles to explore a variety of methods to find what works for each individual that we coach.

BELOW IS A PROFOUND ARTICLE BY JAMES MARSHALL OF THE UK that further illustrates the need for DAILY PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS (especially from Kindergarten through Jr. High).

How to create an outstanding physical education program

James Marshall

"If you screw up your kids, nothing else matters"

 

Physical education used to be about function: getting fit to help with a full day's work and then helping with the harvest. Now it’s about sport.

"A high-quality physical education curriculum inspires all pupils to succeed and excel in competitive sport and other physically demanding activities". U.K. national P.E. Curriculum Guidelines.
I have written previously about the role physical education has in the structure and well being of our society . Sadly this is still missing.

Last year at GAIN I was privileged to listen to Greg Thompson talk about his work at Farmington Schools. He also taught an example p.e lesson. Both were outstanding. Enthusiasm and passion linked with a detailed knowledge of the correct physical developmental stages for children.

Here are some of the key points I took.  I am trying to implement these within the courses I run, and also the work I am doing with my children's schools in Willand.

"Quality of design leads to user delight"

.The better the design of the P.E. program, the better the children will enjoy it.

Greg (a keen sailor) remarked that his boat has got a keel "Unfortunately P.E. doesn't. P.E drifts in the direction of the latest prevailing wind. Quality content is being blown off course by marketing."

Marketing can include "academic studies" that use school pupils as test subjects (Personal note: often the actual intervention is done by poorly trained undergraduates, rather than qualified teachers).
Moderately vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is one such wind, where heart rate is the only measure of work done. The "dance, dance, revolution" is another. "Fun is #1" is often the barometer of success rather than what is being achieved or giving the children physical skills for life (enough meteorological analogies now).
The one size fits all approach is great for MVPA or sports based P.E. But, the physical education specialist is an endangered species, we are on the precipice of them being replaced by $7 hour "fun leaders".

"The Moderately Vigorous Physical Activity movement has lead to a generation of college professors and young teaching offspring who have lost contact with quality movement. By pushing fun as a first priority, childrens’ “normal” has changed.  They expect physical education to be game playing.  Hard work is a rarity.  In our high schools, teachers fear making students in their classes perspire will lead to less students signing up for PE electives (= less teaching jobs)." Thompson.

The erosion of quality content leads to greatly reduced contact time and devalues the work of teachers. No one has said "calculus is hard, let's not bother" so why do we do it with p.e?
Questions you might want to ask of your child's school or of your own teaching:

• What happens to develop physical competence?
• What happens to develop skilful movement?
• What happens to develop perseverence?

Create an intoxicating environment

The Unicef definition of quality of teaching/education states that a good physical education teacher should be well grounded in:

• Motor Learning
• Athletic Development
• Social & emotional development
• Inter-personal skills
•  

If you add "observational skill" then you have someone who can perform "skilled assessment".  Does your child's p.e teacher have these skills?
What about following an advanced pattern that is based on observing elite performers? An example being copying throwing patterns of baseball pitchers for primary school kids. This is an "error model" (see Greg's comment below).
Instead, we should ask "Is there a known pattern of steps on the way to advanced?" We can then set task constraints to help the child get the right outcomes, remembering that the child has a role in this process.
For example: throwing. A West Indian cricket fielder may run 2 steps from the boundary and sling the ball to the wicket keeper, planting the left leg and shifting weight forward, rotating the trunk first, then the arm following through.
The key point is the lag time between trunk rotation and arm movement, so that is what the p.e. teacher should be looking at first, rather than the foot planting. 
There is no point looking at lag in the arm segments if the pupil stands face on to the target and throws the ball underarm. Instead, the teacher might create a task constraint where the pupil has to straddle a line that is parallel to the wall, then throw forcefully from lines that are progressively farther from the wall. 
They can then progress to standing side on to the target, then to having a slightly wider foot stance.
"The idea of creating a task that elicits a positive change without having to engage in a lot of verbal instruction comes out of Esther Thelen’s research on dynamic systems. 
The goal of the teacher using this approach is to pick a task that let’s the student “self organize” to the next level. So in the throwing example, a child who is not trunk rotating, begins to trunk rotate when we have them straddle the line and throw hard. 

We don’t talk about trunk rotation with 5-year-olds, we just show them how to put one foot on each side of the line and let them back up to the next color line when they can hit the wall from that one.  The task squirts trunk rotation out.

This is a "dynamic systems approach to development" (Esther Thelen).
It applies to running, skipping, sliding and jumping as well. Is your child being taught these skills?

Kids learn what they see

So much for the theory, how does this translate into a living, breathing entity? 
Greg is a great believer in using a playful approach and getting the kids to self organize. However, before this happens they need to have a "mind's eye picture" of what it is they are supposed to do. 

• Create mindfulness: devil is in the details. Give them a why: "This will make you a faster runner".
• Stop the class and show them the good person."I like to pick someone to be my “Eagle” and spot a skillful/on task performer. This puts the child into the role of observer.
• Environment must be right if a kid fails the task: do we give them another chance to succeed? Is it ok to make mistakes?
• Try to have contact with every child in each class : constant reminders.
• Kids learn what they see: we must walk the talk.
•  

If the children are taught the individual stages according to their ability, then they all progress. This is hard work though, as anyone dealing with 29 five year olds can testify! Greg has got those skills and practices hard at developing them.

Compare this to the games based model where children are asked to remember the rules of the game "only allowed to pass backwards, must run forwards".
Yet they are still unable to catch the ball without bringing it into chest, or are unable to run without their arms crossing the mid-line of the chest. Carrying a ball whilst running inhibits that development further and they will have a forlorn hope of passing that ball accurately!

Minor rant 

Unfortunately we are suffering from cultural amnesia as the latest generation of physical education "specialists" have graduated from a sports science background and have no inkling of what p.e could and should look like.
They may well have been a "sports leader" or "T&G ambassador" at school; they would have got a nice t-shirt or hoody and attended lots of talks. Ask them to climb a rope, or teach kids how to run, jump, skip or throw, let alone do a forward roll and they will look at you blankly. 

One 14 year old girl at a "p.e school" in Plymouth does only 1 hour of p.e, a week. In that 1 hour she goes to primary schools and tells those kids that they need to do more exercise! Yet, she is unable to do a single press up or run 400 meters without stopping: what kind of madness is that?

The good news is that there are many willing teachers who are keen to be shown skills that help them in their class.
Yesterday I did a multi skills club with Willand School, where we looked at throwing and hopping. We based this on the rubrics developed by Greg and his team. The two teachers were excellent at spotting the stages of development and coaching the children. 

It is possible to improve the quality of your physical education program? it requires good teachers, who have access to the correct information. More importantly, it requires vision and perseverance.