Teaching sports to kids

Dear ,


Last week, I discussed the merits of 'Progressions in Teaching'.

This week, I want to show you a contrary style of sport education
known as 'Teaching Games for Understanding' (TGfU for short).

TGfU (Griffin, Mitchell & Oslin - 1997) is a method of sport
education which highlights key areas of tactical understanding
for young athletes.

In this method, sports are classified according to general
principles of similarity (field/running sports, sports played
with hands or feet etc) and the general tactics and strategies
appearing in each class are taught.

The defining rationale of TGfU is that tactics are taught prior
to specific skill development for 3 separate reasons:

1) When teaching skill, lengthy explanation and instruction
time require athletes to practice and re-produce skill sets,
without the benefit of being able to apply them in game
settings.  This can become boring and very disenchanting for
young athletes.

2) By asking young athletes to learn tactics first, they will
gain a better appreciation for the purpose and eventual
application of the skill, thereby potentially exhibiting an
increase level of adherence during game situations. 

3) The tactical relevance of each class of sport will allow
the young athlete to better embrace and excel within the context
of other sports of the same class.  The offensive strategies
associated with basketball, for instance, will carryover to
other sports such as hockey or soccer (finding the open space,
quick ball/puck movement and spreading the defense are all such
examples).

An example of what TGfU looks like in practicality is offered
in "Designing Effective Instructional Tasks for Physical
Education and Sport" (published by Human Kinetics).

Have a group of young athletes 'invade' the offensive zone of
an opposing team using the following strategies:

- Pass the ball to each other using quick '1-touch' rules
- Dribble the ball (with hands or feet) quickly into the zone
- Instruct the athletes without the ball to move to open space
- Encourage athletes to 'head fake', 'pump fake' or 'cut-back'
- Have the athletes look to 'score' by kicking or throwing at an
object.

Personally, I have found TGfU to be an incredibly fun and
non-specific way to teach young athletes the tactics and
strategies associated with certain classes of sports.

How can you use TGfU in your next volleyball, football, soccer,
baseball or basketball practice to improve the overall skill,
tactical awareness and general fitness of your young athletes?

Be creative and give it a shot...

... I would LOVE to hear what you come up with!

Email me at brian@developingathletics.com

'Till next time,

Brian