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.
What caught my attention was their disengagement in the lesson as they had no gear and their lack of capacity to feel that they could make a worthwhile contribution (that they seemed happy to continue). They were keen to let me know that they did not really know what was happening and had no possible solutions to my questions about play. However, as the lesson progressed, the questions I posed relating to fundamental strategies slowly began to be answered. For instance, when asked about how the team with braids could increase their ability to receive a pass, all three initially responded with 'Don't know!' However, when annoyed further (by me), they came up with credible solutions and were quite surprised that they had good solutions. They felt this was 'nerdy' but actually began to follow the play more closely and after encouragement, one student in particular, once given permission, went out to the team being observed and gave advice  to one of the players. When her advice was implemented successfully, her interest level came up again and by the end of the lesson she was really engaged.

Secondly was the play action itself. From a competitive sport view, the execution of movement skills was really poor BUT as our student had implemented the rule that dropping the ball did not matter, the play actually developed more coherently. While she did give instruction of the types of passes that can be thrown, these were not really implemented. However, it did not impact on play. As there was less space in the back half of the court, a couple of players stayed forward. Ironically those nearest the goals became the less experienced (and less skilled in movement skill execution because of this). However, as they had more space and two goals to score in, these students actually began to score and their confidence grew. One even began to start in the middle of the court and when there was some predictability about her move to one goal, she went the other way and while she dropped the ball the first time and lost possession, tried again and scored on the next play. Other students were almost forced to be involved as they were open and the ball was passed to them. When they then were successful with the next pass, they became more involved. As a result, a class they had been nominated as 'unmotivated' began to move (in the main) up and down the court and were really quite interested in the play. Our inexperienced goal scorer put six goals in the hoop, dropped the ball 60% of the time but walked away from the lesson feeling great as she had never scored before. She could also give a great possible answer when to move for a pass (she said when the person in front stopped looking at her). Thus her game understanding went up, she attempted lots of catches and she was a scorer.

Thirdly, observing one of the experienced players was interesting. At one stage she lay on the court and despite the fact her decision making capacity was significantly quicker than others, she still struggled to adapt. While she was not fully comfortable by the end and often refused to pass to inexperienced players who were open next to the goal, she ended up using the resources of the team a little better.

Finally, it reminded me of a question I ask our students after showing them video of beginners in play. They are asked to describe these beginners and they invariably say 'They are not trying and are unmotivated'. The initial impression of the class was this but how often do we mistake inexperience with a lack of effort or motivation. Beginners are slower at making decisions as their knowledge map based on their experiences is smaller and they often believe that they will be more beneficial for their team if they just stay out of the way. However, if they are not given the opportunity, they will never increase their knowledge map.

On this point, have a look again at your 'unmotivated' students. Are they unmotivated or inexperienced? ? How do you bring them into the game to up their experience? Do you set inclusive game play or set a large number of parameters (such as the drop ball rule) that exclude them learning?

Greg