The Tipping Point

I was having discussion with a colleague and we were talking about the moment in a class where we try to create the balance between confusion and understanding for the students and they then run with the information and make some really great leaps in learning. We did not know what it was called but I mentioned the idea of a 'tipping point' (with Malcolm Gladwell's book in mind) in a lesson, the particular moment in problem solving that can tip students seemingly in three ways, on the path to understanding or to disengagement or complete passiveness. It seemed to me the mark of the expert teacher was the skill of creating the appropriate difficulty in the set problem, then recognise this 'tipping point' moment and then bring all students through the learning experience with the appropriate balance of discomfort and reward.

The Impact and Influence on beliefs of Coaching and Training

Being a teacher and a coach is a fascinating and frustrating challenge at times. The issue with our line of work is that
1. Everyone has been to school and
2. Everyone seems to have been coached by someone
3. Everyone has an opinion on what is best based on this
4. Nearly everyone has tried a method of getting fit

Of course, no matter how experienced we are, we take with us elements of that coach or player and it is this that forms our beliefs on what should be an appropriate session.

Isn't it amazing what 5 and 6 year olds can do?

I have been involved  / elected (as you do) with the coaching my youngest son's 6 years soccer team and as a result, two other small sided teams. Neither of the boys can escape, I think that is why my daughter does circus: Dad can't hassle her, even though I try to get her to think of how she can use the elements of composition when putting together her tissu routine - she did have her turn for three years). What has been interesting is the idea of small sided games and the narrow view of 'skill'. The aim in the manual is to get a similar level of 'skill' and develop 'skill' for the players so that when they move through the ages, there is consistency. Thus it seems many clubs band the teams together and then have elements of passing and trapping and kicking at different stations. At the end, all of the kids play. Even noted soccer afficionado and commentator, Craig Foster, notes the importance of this development but again it is such a narrow view of skill, it's the specific movement skills of football. Unfortunately, the

Why does our senior course in NSW have no movement?

I have been looking with interest at the Stage 6 Dance syllabus. It really leaves the PDHPE Stage 6 course for dead when we look at the content. The main reason? It actually assess movement and student's use of movement.

One of the biggest weaknesses of the PDHPE syllabus in NSW is that we study and assess concepts related to movement, well, sitting down. One of the key elements of the syllabus is assessed through pen and paper. In Dance, the students get to choreograph, they get to costume, they get to study history, they examine the elements of biomechanics and physiology in depth and most importantly, they get to dance. They have a key assessment component involving movement. It is the same with music, the students get to perform!

'Talk' and its implications

Hi All,

Had the opportunity to watch some 12 year's representative games in AFL on the weekend that my son played in. Had a little listen to a number of coaches (had to be discrete when listening to the other team's coaches) and all had a common theme that came up, that of 'talk'. All coaches mentioned that 'we need to up the talk' as a key indicator of implementation of the strategies and tactics which would assist the individuals make decisions in relation to play. I have often wondered about talk and how often we teach it (or don't). Models such as TGfU and Game Sense don't deal with this vital component but I suspect that is because the models still don't completely accurately and completely represent the complexity of game play or the authors have realised that the coaching and PE world were not ready for this as well as strategy and tactics and decision making.

AFL Training - Thursday Session

Just a quick post about the follow session. Of interest was the 15 years players who came over and wanted to join the session with my team. I am very lucky that their coach is very tolerant of me imposing my ideas on his sessions. We followed up Tuesday's session with a repeat tonight with all really keen that they could play for an hour. The quality of play was much better as the players understood the functionality of the game's rules and could really understand how to operate in the restrictions (self imposed and set by the rules that we added to create the circumstances that we want to develop). What is occurring is that the players are gradually developing more of a sense of responsibility for their own play. They are quite keen to take the time to set up their plays and gradually realising that they are responsible for plays that need to be made off the stoppages and the movement within the zones.

AFL Training

Hi All,

Ran an interesting session at AFL training last night and thought you might want to give it a go in your invasion units. Most of the players range between 11 and 14 years of age so suitable for Year 6/7 students but also for older students but I have also run this with 10 year olds in football (soccer). The great thing is that it is suitable for all types of invasion games, especially football, netball, basketball, ultimate type invasion sports.

We want to develop the principle of play (or tactic or action rule - same thing) of running through the lines, in that we want the full back of half back flank to run past and provide an overlapping option or the half forward to run back and receive a pass and the winger to run on and fill the vacant forward flank position.

PE Invasion Games 2

As I mentioned in the last blog, our student ran this lesson at the Local High School she is doing her PEX at. She did a really good job after 'letting go' of trying to tell he students the passes they needed to throw. I had a keen interest in the play and the following elements really caught my attention.

Firstly, I had numerous conversations with three students who were on the sideline.

PE Invasion Games 1

Had a look at one of our PEX students today teaching a Year 9 Girls group in Invasion Games. Her summary of the class was that they were fairly inactive and not really motivated. I have included the lesson / unit I advised her to run and was wondering if anyone wants to try it. I'll post the results of her lesson on the next blog.

The email to her went as follows.