I’ll begin by stating clearly and confidently that the current traditional model of physical education in schools is broken. This is why as Director of Sport at a school in the UK I designed a different model that I believe is the future.  However, the purpose of this article is not to promote my school but to give you my educated opinion on why, what and how we can progress the future of physical education in schools.
I’m not setting out to offend anyone but it will pack a punch of honesty.  I appreciate also that I’m based at a private school in one of the most competitive areas in the UK, the Somerset area but I believe this mind-set is prevalent in the majority of state school as well as private schools. I come from 4 differing perspectives. Current Director of Sport at a school, consultant to a number of schools on physical education and wellbeing, ex dual professional sportsman and a current professional specialist coach.
So, what are the issues in the current system?
Due to the over emphasis on winning games on match days against other schools there is an unhealthy focus towards competition at a young age.  Why are 6-8 year olds [year 3-4] playing competitive games against other schools? Yes competition is important to a point as it teaches certain values like camaraderie and working as a team towards an end goal, but that can be done in house, away from the pressures of playing in front of parents and other unnecessary constraints. Â
The over-emphasis on competition leads to a short cut in skill acquisition, motor learning and physical literacy. It leads to an elitist mind-set where PE lessons become an extended sports/games lesson for the ‘talented’, ‘A team’ squad members. The remaining pupils would be entertained by playing games such as badminton, volleyball, basketball and other games that are not seen as the ‘main sports’ in the school curriculum. Â
All equally as important in the ‘games/sports’ session but due to tradition and a schools policy, would not sit in the main timetable, would sit in a tier below the main sports of rugby, hockey, cricket, netball, football etc.  I appreciate there are school out there that would say they do it differently and I’m sure some do, but as a whole this is the traditional ‘PE syllabus’ across the country. There are fundamental issues with this model.
Firstly its clearly very elitist and no child is elite before 18 years of age. Secondly, sport is not physical education. Â They work synergistically but require respect and careful attention as separate entities.
Due to the varying rates that young children go through the stages of maturation.  The more developed, in appearance, will always dominate sport at a young age. This was one of the reason I championed ‘BIO-BANDING’ in rugby 3 years ago. This leads to others not developing their skills and also the more mature player relying on physicality over technical and tactical ability to win sports matches.  This sells them short as they grow older and others catch them up. This will tend to lead to a high drop out rate of the so-called ‘elite’ players at the early ages. They haven’t the mental resilience to cope with now not being the best.
Ultimately this approach doesn’t suit anyone. The only beneficiary of this approach is a school and its targeted year group fixture card. This is also exaggerated by websites who publish school results and league tables. The over-emphasis on competition and one-upmanship in schools is leading to a culture of results driven over individual development approach that doesn’t have the needs of children as its core principle.
Too many children are not participating in sport because of it being perceived as elitist and for the select few, injury rates are increasing, children are burning out and suffering from mental as well as physical stress and are simply not getting what they need out of a physical education programme.
The programme I designed 4 years ago at Wellington School in Somerset is based on the principles outlined in the above book by Rhodri S. Lloyd and Jon L. Oliver. We have a theoretical as well as a physical element to our physical education lessons that are now called ‘wellbeing lessons’. Yes for 12 weeks per year our pupils sit in a classroom and learn the value of nutrition, where they actually cook [granola bars etc.], mental health and resilience and also the art of leadership.
The other 16 weeks are spent on foundational skills like kicking, catching, striking and throwing, locomotive SAQ based skills, such as learning to decelerate and accelerate and finally AMSC [Athletic movement skill competencies].
This is a ground breaking shift in schools and I recommend all schools follow the same path. PE is not sport!
But what happened before? Schools have always played competitive games.
Yes they did but it was built on a foundation of physical literacy developed in callisthenic-based physical education classes. They would also have ‘played more’- more free play. No rules, no coaching and no constraints. They were robust and resilient athletes. Kids have lost the natural ‘bounce’ in their legs.
The reactive nature of running, jumping and free play trained the stiffness in the Achilles tendon and ingrained the habit of explosiveness and reactivity in a child’s movement pattern. That ability has now gone! Simply performing sport and the repetitive skills involved in that sport doesn’t make you an athletic sportsperson.
I’ve walked a million steps but that doesn’t make me a champion walker
Sport is not about repetition. Repetition of a skill has to be purposeful and intentional. Without overload or variability a repetition is another opportunity to groove a poor habit. Constantly performing skills on a dysfunctional frame will ultimately lead to failure. In terms of injury or technical failure. So in fact the over reliance on practicing sport during PE lessons is having the opposite effect of what it is intended to do. It’s reducing the probability of successful motor learning due its repetitive mundane nature and a lack of RAS [reticular activating system] activation. It’s just simply too boring for it to have a long lasting positive impact on a child’s learning experience.
The key at the school stage of development is keeping them engaged and motivated. You need to maintain the trust they have in your skills as a coach. Giving them a different stimulus keeps them engaged
‘An organism isn’t interested in a stimulus it considers mundane. For effective learning to occur all non-reflexive stimuli must clear the RAS [Reticular Activating System]. This is in simple terms is the ‘ON’ button for the brain and motor learning’. Doing the same mundane non-stimulating drills without progression will never turn on the ‘ON’ button. This is why a lot of children fall out of favor with technical work. To turn the ‘ON’ button to the ‘learning mode’ the child needs to be engaged and open to learn. This is where the art of coaching comes in. Finding ways by adding variability to help the child’s progress to the next stage of learning.
There are 4 stages of learning and skill acquisition
- UNSKILLED [Incompetence]-UNCONSCIOUS
- UNSKILLEDÂ [Incompetence]-CONSCIOUS
- SKILLED [Competence]-CONSCIOUS
- SKILLED [Competence]-UNCONSCIOUS
Physical education programmes do not respect the stages of learning. Children develop at differing rates and need careful managing throughout the process.
The lack of respect to the stages of learning negatively impacts on the sports programme and skill levels of our children and also on their overall athletic development. Given the choice between practicing a backline move for a U11 rugby team over learning a functional squat pattern the former will always take priority in the current competition driven climate of school sports.
However, always having the same children perform these basic closed skills also doesn’t work. The child is bored. They may not want to admit it but based on my observation of sport at the highest level today, if it was about repetition we would have rugby players who could pass accurately over 20m, bowlers who could bowl straight and netball players who wouldn’t drop a pass. Skill acquisition is not about repetition. There’s so much more to it.
Sorry I digress. However based on the principles of skill acquisition and stages of learning it makes a strong case for not taking an isolated group out to practice more sport. More is not better.
How should a PE programme look?
Physical education programme should be void of any sport and focus on the physical literacy of its pupils and also provide a theoretical understanding of what is required to lead a healthy lifestyle. Children should be educated on the values of good food, coping strategies for stressful situation and general good lifestyle choices.
PE lesson don’t necessarily need to be solely about active exercise. It’s about educating children on the value of wellbeing, health and fitness and physical robustness. This can be theoretical based.  Returning back to my point on ‘pointless mundane skill repetition’, losing 1hr PE lesson to provide a lifelong message is a positive trade off in my opinion. As we know there will be a separate games/sports lesson in the week. THE TASK NOW IS FOR COACHES/TEACHERS TO UPSKILL AND MAKE THAT LESSON MORE PRODUCTIVE AND BENEFICIAL FOR EACH CHILD.
More is not better! Let’s be better at making it beneficial.
The practical element of PE needs to be entirely based on improving physical literacy. Guaranteeing every child is movement competent. Every child should be able to:
- Jump
- Land
- Explode
- Jog
- Sprint
- Accelerate
- Decelerate
- Change direction
- Remain stable in athletic positions
Regardless of what sport they do. PE needs to be the foundation of all movement patterns. Add to this the basic fundamentals of catching, kicking, striking and throwing you have a movement and skill competency system that is accessible to every child and adds long-term values to their sporting experiences: whatever their ability and aspirations.
Without the foundation of athleticism developed in a planned, periodised and structured physical literacy syllabus sport itself becomes a self-limiting experience for children in school. They simply don’t have the biodynamic and bioenergetic capacities to improve. This then becomes a battle of those who have developed sooner or those who place a greater value in their physical preparedness outside the confines of an educational institution
The majority of youth sport competition results hinge heavily upon the physical preparation of their players. For this reason, a young athlete with a high all around level of physical preparation, who has never played a particular sport, possess the prerequisites to quickly become the most skilled player on the team (particularly regarding land based sports) after participating in only a moderate amount of skill practices. This comes much to the dismay of the lesser physically prepared athletes who diligently hammer away at their, what in reality exists as, self-limiting skill practice James Smith
This is also fraught with issues as the same children are placed under a degree of physical stress that their bodies are unsuited to handle. Â The common scenario is one in which the calendar year is separated by school practice sessions and competition in various sports and also club and county commitments. As a result, the opportunity for a general preparation stage is impossible, consequently, only the most genetically gifted players are capable of experiencing significant advancement of sport skill.
The lesser physically prepared athletes actually, and ironically, further diminish their potential to advance their skill the more they practice it. Technical-tactical skill is only as good as its supporting physical preparation. In short it doesn’t matter how much you practice if you haven’t a solid base. Skill work will be like shooting a cannon off a canoe!
Furthermore, the repetitive practice of sport skills that are not executed with mechanical efficiency will continually stress the structures of the body that are already ill prepared to handle the load placed upon them. Technique underpins everything. The false desire to play more structured games quickly in practice, add more competitive fixtures and the reluctance to practice perceived [often the case] mundane drill work leads to a body that just can’t cope with variable stressors leading to a generation of ‘fragile’ athletes. Any variability outside the norm leads to failure.
Most talented early bloomers plateau very quickly due to a lack of general preparedness. Any improvement in skill acquisition and technical improvements simply haven’t the foundation to be accurate, effective, efficient and powerful.
Windows of Development for Young Athletes
Physical education lessons are the opportunities to provide general preparation training for children.
The problem with young children participating in the overload of practicing and playing the same sport throughout the year is that the majority of them do not yet possess a sufficient degree of general preparation to tolerate, let alone develop from, the frequency and volume of practice. Â Those who have the capacities are overused due to their advanced physical, technical and tactical capacities. Both potentially lead to injuries such as knee ligament injuries, lumbar disc bulges and shoulder labrum and/or rotator cuff injuries. All of which are symptomatic of illogical physical loading and most of which are preventable.
Schools need to place the child at the heart of every decision. Whatever their ability
The late Canadian speed coach Charlie Francis most accurately described the premise of this situation using a glass of water analogy. Nowhere is this analogy more apt that in a schooling environment where everyone demands a part of their pupils. Whether that’s music, drama, mathematics clubs or sport.
Particularly in regards to CNS intensive components (speed, power, strength training) the capacity to perform CNS work in total is finite. Charlie’s example uses a glass of water as being synonymous with an athlete’s CNS capacity (their gas tank if you will). Thus, the amounts of each intensive component must be carefully regulated in consideration of the whole. TO ADD ANOTHER STRESSOR SOMETHING MUST BE TAKEN OUT.
It essential to note that on top of these physical stressors these children have academic pressures, which are also continuing to grow. There is now nowhere to run for a child at school. Everything about their schooling experience is about league tables, pressures and competition. I for one don’t agree with it and will continue to do my best to provide a physical education programme that encompasses everything that’s good about leading a healthy and fulfilling life, inside or outside a sporting environment.
Life begins with a physical education.
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