Developing Young People & Coaches: A wise investment

Since my last post I have been deep into exploring a variety of views on how best to promote true, LONG TERM ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT within our community schools and youth sports programs. What seems to JUMP out at me from many of the respected “experts” in both education and coaching, IS THE NECESSITY to provide quality teaching and learning environments.

 

Consider that fact that Physical Education teaching in this era DOES NOT involve “teaching” movement skills and/or developing physical skills to enhance the movement skills. 

Kinesiology has “replaced” Physical Education as a College Degree with colleges turning out “Personal Trainers”, “Corporate Fitness Specialists”, "Strength and Conditioning Specialists” and a variety of OTHER professional endeavors that have sprung up to take advantage of the FITNESS BOOM. Make no mistake, Fitness IS big BUSINESS.

So, where are your children going to learn FMS AND AMSC Skills?  Who will teach them?

Unfortunately, the answer has become participation in a sport or two that is chosen BEFORE any foundational movement skills have been taught. More often than not, this snow-balls into year-round participation in a sport or maybe two sports. Coaches are mostly ex-athletes in the sport with little or no education in "teaching" or "learning" skills that most teachers utilize in their profession. These coaches may be very competent in their knowledge of sport skills but we must remember they are teaching "people" first, not skills. 

 Coaching IS Teaching...but requires no Certificated Education or Degree which is something that should be taken into consideration by High Schools and organized Sport Club Teams. 

Why not develop Coaching Classes through the local College or Jr. College whose aims are teaching the fundamental learning and teaching processes needed to successfully teach all age, maturation and talent levels. 

Even worse, those looking for an edge for their 10-14 year olds, hire a Personal Trainer IN ADDITION to adding to the time their child spends in sport skill practices and competitive contests/games.

It is greatly disturbing to see children under the age of 14 running 10k’s and Half Marathons or competing in Half Ironman Tri-athlons! This is mostly a reflection on the parent's interest in the sport and their influence on their children's involvement in "training" seriously for endurance events.

What is the hurry to specialize, to get bigger, faster, stronger (not that it transfers over to a specifi sport anyway)?

Is there a place for “Creative Free-Play or Movement” in the education of our k-4^th graders? If so, can this be expanded upon with a progression of movements and implements to enhance physical skills like strength and power through Play in a variety of activities?

Why is there such an emphasis on WINNING at such young ages when we need to be promoting the process of learning a variety of skills during elementary and jr. high ages?

So, while I put together my next post, PLEASE READ THE GREAT ARTICLES BELOW (I EDITED ERIKA ANDERSON’S A LOT TO HIGHLIGHT WHAT WAS MOST RELEVANT TO THIS POST) by Erika Anderson and James Marshall.

Before scrolling down to the articles, here is a short dialog between two elite coaches/experts that will to stimulate “thought” on ways to best teach youngsters.

Teaching is Taken, not Taught 

Most will agree, if learning is to occur there must be a 'student' and a 'teacher'.  However, most may not agree on the means by which learning takes place.

Learning does not take place when the teacher gives the instruction to the student.  

Learning does take place when the student takes the instruction from the teacher.  

A student must be among the most active of participants within any educational environment.  Once a student's active participation in learning begins to occur, the lessons can become more difficult and thus more effective.

In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.---Kelvin Giles

The best 'corrective exercise' is proper movement coaching from day 1---retweeted by Vern Gambetta in response to Giles’ above statement.

 In my next post I will be presenting a list of ingredients necessary for educating coaches, parents, teachers and young athletes on how to best create an environment where learning is THE PROCESS and THE GOAL of coaches, teachers and young athletes. An environment where everyone truly WINS.

LTAD: building young people--- (notes from lecture by Finn Gunderson, instructor at Burke Mountain School).

by  James Marshall

"Life is a process, but it's hard to get through to the kids"---Finn Gundersen

"What is LTAD?" has been demoted to a project question for students, a scientific discussion, or a PDF issued by National Governing Bodies (NGBs).

But, in my opinion, it's about people: coaches, parents, teachers and, most importantly, the children.
Gundersen really brought this to life in this excellent seminar, based upon his work at Burke Mountain School in Vermont.
It starts with a foundation of:

• Trust.
• Honesty.
• Respect.

If you trust the athlete, then you can give them some freedom to act. Gundersen has no "leaders", instead, everyone is a leader: everyone takes responsibility.

I like this aspect, I see far too many youngsters walking around with "sports leader" or "physical leader" t-shirts: what about everyone else? 

With no peer groups, no heroes, no rewards and privileges "everyone is responsible for the community". The kids have to do chores such as washing up straight away.  There are no gradings of ability such as ABCs and labels are avoided.

"Never underestimate your intellectual and athletic ability" is what Gundersen tells the kids. He tells the coaches "You're not there to pick out a winner, you are there to coach all of them."

He told us "Don't let teachers get away with it." NO LABELS, we have to give HOPE to every kid in the program.

(Compare that to a teacher who said I would never produce a good school gymnast because I was "working with the dregs": how to write off 7 year olds.)

Coaches have to be patient, have belief in what they are doing and be non-judgmental.
This may sound a bit soft and cuddly, but the work at Burke Mountain School was designed to teach the kids desire, and help them to go after things they wanted. 
This requires Hard Work in:

• Community
• Academics
• Athletics

Some of this came back to PTA (Pain, Torture, Agony): they had to run in the rain and cold. They learnt how to suffer. Take “the harder, the better “ approach, not the line of least resistance.
If you think that is harsh, think about the new medical term "Exercise deficit disorder" where kids are put in front of a screen for 3-6 hours a day with no play time.

The reality of LTAD

Gundersen highlighted some of the LTAD issues they face: it's as much a management strategy as it is a science.  

• Sport vs sport conflict: sports trying to get the best kid earlier and earlier, competing with each other.
• 25% of kids in high school do NOT like to compete, 50% like to, 25% can take it or leave it. This must be accounted for when planning physical activity.
• Everyone has a different genotype, everyone therefore has different needs.
• Early vs late maturers: there is an arms race within certain sports such as skiing with a smaller pool of athletes and fewer clubs being able to support good competition levels. This can result in over investment in the early maturer, when all evidence shows that late maturers do better.

The Profession of Developing People

With his vast experience, Gundersen has realized that he is in profession of developing people: it is not about the facilities. Whether the people are the coaches or the athletes, that is where the investment and development must take place.

He looks for certain personalities: do the coaches have an operational mindset? Are they interested in continuous improvement? Do they accept responsibility? Are they accountable? Is there role clarity and acceptance of that role?
If the coaching structure and set up works, then the young athletes will get a better experience.

This was a great seminar, and Finn was available to talk the whole week, so I was picking up lots of tips from him. A very genuine and engaging individual: a lot of sporting bodies in the country would benefit from his advice.
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Want To Be Great? Make Yourself Uncomfortable

By Erika Andersen

In the words of Alan D. MacCormack, faculty head of the Harvard Business School’s FIELD program, “We are talking about the ‘knowing-doing gap. The very first time you put theory into practice, you learn all the challenges associated with applying the theory.”

The FIELD program gets Harvard MBA students out into the real world, to do the leadership equivalent of actually building a cabinet.

FIELD [is] a hands-on experiential learning program that has arguably revolutionized education at HBS more than any development since the introduction of the case-study method 90 years ago. In three modules FIELD teaches students that what they have learned about business in the classroom doesn’t always hold true out in the world.

The students first spend five weeks getting a grounding in the human skills core to good leadership and management: feedback, listening, coaching, emotional intelligence, and team dynamics, among others – as well as participating in simulations geared to take them out of their comfort zone and learn to respond well to unlooked-for situations.  
It’s learning to build cabinets by building cabinets. (OR LEARNING TO COACH BY COACHING) It’s how learning needs to happen – especially now, when the world – and the world of business (and coaching/teaching for that matter!) –  is changing  second-by-second.

And it’s much less comfortable than listening to a lecture or reading a book. McCormack notes that the minute the FIELD students get out into the field, their assumptions start getting blown up. ”Often within that single day, everything they thought was the right answer becomes the wrong answer. Being there on the ground and observing yourself is different from learning something in a report from afar.”

He goes on to talk about how humbling it is for these kids – all of whom have done very, very well all through high school and college, and who think of themselves, I’m sure, as the best and brightest – to get out into the real world and discover that they’re not very good at this and have a lot to learn.

When you’re really learning – acquiring new skills or understanding, behaving and operating in new ways – you’re going to be a novice.  That means you’re not going to be an expert, and you won’t have all the answers.  You’ll make mistakes and have to ask “dumb” questions, and you’ll have ideas that you think are genius that will turn out not to work at all.
And becoming comfortable in that situation – staying curious and open and continuing to explore and improve – that’s the essence of real learning.  

Because the people who become great – no matter their field or area of endeavor – are those who are willing to be uncomfortable over and over again on the way to mastery.  If you can continually challenge your own preference for being good at things, for being competent – and be willing instead to be in that awkward place of “I don’t really understand this right now”…well, then the 21st century is yours for the learning of it.

FREE PLAY vs. SCREEN TIME: Think MORE Recess time & Less Access time!

In my last blog I talked about the irony of the fact that many European countries studied how the United States’ educational system developed such good athletes with a daily regimen of “basic-to-advanced” movement skill education in elementary level students and how this developed a core of young athletes that succeeded in the many events and sports in the Olympic Arena.

The IRONY lies in the fact that at present, those countries that followed our example still educate their K-8 students in movement skill development while we here in the U.S. have reduced physical education and recess time.

In addition, movement skills progressions are rarely taught, and if so, only a limited time is spent with little or NO progression and coordination through the grade levels. Fitness programs have fallen by the wayside.

In contrast, European schools, through skills testing, give 12-13 year old students a good idea of sports they have the most skill and the physical qualities to best succeed in sports or activities of their choice.

 In the U.S., parents have turned to “specializing” their children in a sport or two as a way of insuring they get enough physical activity. Sport skills are NOW taught BEFORE youngsters ever acquire the FMS or AMSC skills that would benefit them in any sport regardless of their level of natural talent.

As I have been writing about in many blogs, most of the sports heroes of the past few generations played multiple sports and many grew up playing on playgrounds with other kids before moving on to playing the major sports in their seasons (football, basketball, baseball) on local play fields with neighborhood kids.

 I should add to that the fact that there was no ADULT supervision of these neighborhood games. Adult coaching was limited to a child and his/parent throwing, catching, hitting, shooting hoops, dribbling, etc. at home.

Of course, that was before video games, smart phones, MP3’s, etc. Where is FREE PLAY? In many of the backgrounds of successful professional athletes you will find a childhood foundation built upon “finding” a passion for an activity they experienced in free play with other children.

For example, many Pro Cyclists learned to ride a bike as a “playtime” activity and developed an interest in BMX cycling with neighborhood or school friends. This developed into BMX competitions and later into Mountain Biking and/or Road Cycling. THERE IS A PROGRESSION OF SKILLS HERE. Each of the types of cycling provided a base as well as a true desire for another types of cycling skills.

In Australia, you will find that TRACK CYCLING has provided a successful foundation for many of the Australian Pro Cyclists on the World Tour. This is also the case in Great Britain.

Both countries can boast developing cyclists who HAVE WON BOTH Pro Road Races, including THE TOUR de FRANCE and Olympic Gold Medals on the TRACK.

In addition, both of these countries have a physical education system that “educates” children in the basic movement skills and physical skills along with the basics skills of multiple sports.

Specialization in Sport at ages before the ages of 14-16 (sports like gymnastics require early age development) will yield few success stories.

Think of having 7^th or 8^th graders enroll in Calculus before ever taking Algebra, Trigonometry, etc. YES, there will be a few who have the “genetic” gifts to enable them to make this move successfully, but nowhere near the total of students who can eventually succeed in passing Calculus with the proper foundation of classes and progression in learning skills.

Do we want to become a country of SPECIALISTS with fewer INNOVATORS and well-rounded thinkers?

Do we care about rising levels Obesity and lack of fitness in our population?

 Is it a concern when children spend their free time (in front of a screen of some device) playing video games or texting with poor posture? What will be the result of all this time devoted to “screens/devices/social media” and very little, if any on true “physical play”?

 Will “free play” disappear from the early childhood years?

PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE ATTACHED from NPR in this blog AND ACCESS THE ARTICLES DESCRIBED WITHIN THE ARTICLE that interest you. Perhaps this will IGNITE some serious thought ON LENGTHENING RECESS, RETURNING “THE EDUCATION” TO P.E. AND, IN AN EVEN EASIER AND LESS EXPENSIVE WAY, getting youngsters outside to play on a daily basis…with other children!

Good parents do not give their children what the children desire, rather, they give their children what they need to grow and mature successfully in all ways physically, mentally and emotionally.

Your child’s success in sports does not indicate what kind of parent you are. BUT, having an athlete that is coachable, respectful, a great teammate, mentally tough, resilient and tries their best IS a direct reflection on your parenting.

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Scientists Say Child's Play Helps Build A Better Brain

by Jon Hamilton  NPR

This week, NPR Ed is focusing on questions about why people play and how play relates to learning.
When it comes to brain development, time in the classroom may be less important than time on the playground.
"The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain," says Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. "And without play experience, those neurons aren't changed," he says.

Our friends at MindShift have been looking at the role of play in learning. Play is as much a part of childhood as school and an organic way of learning.

 Check out these articles that dig into play:

Let 'Em Out! The Many Benefits Of Outdoor Play In Kindergarten

 

Rona Richter/MindShift

How Free Play Can Define Kids' Success
Free, unstructured play is crucial for children to build the skills they'll need to be happy, productive adults.

Harnessing Children's Natural Ways Of Learning
At a school where free play and exploration are encouraged, children can educate themselves under the right conditions.

Despite Benefits, Recess For Many Students Is Restricted
Many children in public school are getting less and less time outside, despite the documented benefits of free play.

It is those changes in the prefrontal cortex during childhood that help wire up the brain's executive control center, which has a critical role in regulating emotions, making plans and solving problems, Pellis says. So play, he adds, is what prepares a young brain for life, love and even schoolwork.
But to produce this sort of brain development, children need to engage in plenty of so-called free play, Pellis says. No coaches, no umpires, no rule-books.

"Whether it's rough-and-tumble play or two kids deciding to build a sand castle together, the kids themselves have to negotiate, well, what are we going to do in this game? What are the rules we are going to follow?" Pellis says. The brain builds new circuits in the prefrontal cortex to help it navigate these complex social interactions, he says.
For a long time, researchers thought this sort of rough-and-tumble play might be a way for young animals to develop skills like hunting or fighting. But studies in the past decade or so suggest that's not the case. Adult cats, for example, have no trouble killing a mouse even if they are deprived of play as kittens.

So researchers like Jaak Panksepp at Washington State University have come to believe play has a very different purpose: "The function of play is to build pro-social brains, social brains that know how to interact with others in positive ways," Panksepp says.

An added bonus is that the skills associated with play ultimately lead to better grades. In one study, researchers found that the best predictor of academic performance in eighth grade was a child's social skills in third grade.
Another hint that play matters, Pellis says, is that "countries where they actually have more recess tend to have higher academic performance than countries where recess is less."

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.