AFL Training and the 'Gifted' Player - Another instance

Ron Barassi, the legendary AFL coach and player suggested that players should not be proud of natural ability: it comes from their parents. It is what they do with it, the work they do that really will make them worthy as players.

As I watched may AFL team training tonight I again observed the reaction of some of the most naturally gifted players (but not all) as they tried to resolve a problem.

What is good Physical Education?

Had a fascinating discussion with a couple of PE teachers the other day regarding the purpose of PE, the aim of PE programs and the validity of assessment and units in PE. As a result of this, I decided to view the website of the major employer of PE teachers in NSW to find out what they believe makes 'a good PE lesson'. It was very interesting. I never realised that ‘learning’ in PE has all but disappeared! There is the word ‘development’ but this seems to be the only link. I suppose one could argue that PE encourages to ‘learn’ to love Physical Activity but key elements included a lifelong positive attitude to Physical Activity, the obligatory ‘fun’ and tasks that everyone can achieve through motor skill development, with this presented as the unarguable ‘truth’ as to why students don’t like PE.

Net Court Game Play

Had a group of non PE students training to teach the subject and had them doing the usual game we developed to enhance understanding of net court sports. We set up the tutorial with a game of 8 aside Newcombe ball and then expanded this to Volleyball of the Badminton court. Of course we added that they had to use the dig (forearm pass), set and spike, serve correctly and use the rotation system on serve. As always they had very few could execute, most had very little idea of the rotation and most avoided the ball by choice, pulling sleeves over wrists to stop the ball hurting (a sad reflection on their school experiences in volleyball and the capacity of the method used in the time available to teach them).