Table of Contents
To Play Better and Increase Fun, Manage Expectations: A Golf Example
– Bradford Strand
Expectations in sport cause many athletes to struggle with their performance. Athletes enter competitions with high expectations and when things don't go as planned, frustrations happen and performance suffers. To improve performance and increase enjoyment, athletes need to learn to manage their expectations. This article uses golf science to help an athlete, Emily, better manage her expectations.
Articles
Integration of High Intensity Interval Training into Middle School PE Classes
- Christine Rockey, Pam Brown, Diane Gill, and William Karper
Because fitness and physical activity both tend to decline as students enter their middle school years, it is important to try to establish protocols and interventions to make these students enjoy being active. Further, it has been shown that shorter exercise sessions are more likely to be executed. Using a high intensity interval training (HIIT) station intertwined with usual instructional activities in a typical physical education class is one way to achieve these goals. This article gives direction on implementing this approach and provides results for a study to support considering it.
Helmet Fitting: One size does NOT fit all!
- Jennifer Plos, Renee Polubinsky, Miguel Narvaez, and Nicole Flaherty
Coaches play an important role in ensuring that safety measures, including proper helmet fit, are practiced in youth and high school football. As long as proper guidelines and safety checks are adhered to, helmets will function as they are intended for in injury prevention and protection. Studies have shown that approximately 84% of youth and high school football helmets are improperly fitted, thus demonstrating the need for continued education and increased competency among novice and seasoned coaches to meet the guidelines and standards for proper fit. The purpose of this article is to (1) provide an infographic as a quick reference guide that can be used to assist coaches and players in remembering the steps of how to size, check, fit, stress and recheck a helmet and (2) demonstrate the minimum criteria coaches need to proficiently implement to properly fit a helmet so best practices toward greater safety can be achieved in youth and high school football.
Developing Positive Relationships: Strategies for Building Strong Teacher/Student Relationships
- Zachary Wahl-Alexander, Gabrielle Bennett, and Jenn Jacobs
Although most teachers would acknowledge the impact realtionships with their students have on the environmental climate in their gymnasium, this topic has been scarcely discussed. To date, there are few papers focusing on tangible strategies for developing, building and enhancing the relationship between physical educators and their students. This paper outlines and provides tangible examples for how to initiate closeness and avoid conflict within teacher/student relationships, specific to physical education and other sporting contexts. Effective practical strategies will be presented, including setting high expectations for youth, fostering distinctiveness, using inclusive language, and speaking from one’s own experiences. In all, these best practices are applicable for the development of teacher/student relationships in any setting, but particularly physical education or a variety of other sport settings.
Departments
THEORY INTO PRACTICE
A Framework for Evaluating Movement and Sedentariness in Schools
- James David
When reevaluating the educational landscape and aiming to incorporate movement into the day, remember that all exercise is not created equal. We recommend creating a model to evaluate the level of student exercise within an organization. This framework can be used to evaluate exercise and sedentariness within an organization.
ADVOCACY IN ACTION
Physical Education is not “Special”!
- Doug Smith, Bob Beaudet, and Gayle Maddox
Traditionally in education, particularly in elementary education, curriculum areas such as PE, Art, and Music have been labeled with the commonly known term “specials”. In many cases, this term has simply meant that these classes include “extra” content that enhances the school’s overall academics when time is allowed. The scheduling of these classes is also typically viewed as a planning time or a break for classroom teachers. At the high school level, these extra classes are not always required, and students are sometimes allowed to be exempt from these “specials” programs by participating in extracurricular school activities such as band. Furthermore, these classes are often the first ones rescheduled when a gym or library needs to be used for other purposes such as picture day or book fairs. When these subject areas are viewed as flexible or expendable, there are missed opportunities to benefit the whole child. This is especially true with physical education courses that provide the necessary tools for learning how to live a healthy lifestyle. Thus, this article seeks to highlight the importance and critical need for health and physical education to be provided as an essential or required subject rather than just a special or an extra class.
COACH'S CORNER
A Coach’s Role in Health and Safety when Traveling with a Team
- Keilea Sumrall and Sharon Rice
Coaches serve in a unique role to oversee health and safety with their athletes especially when traveling with the team to sporting events. If there is no athletic trainer to take charge in prevention or management of injuries, the coach will need to assume that role. Coaches should understand the importance of their role and know how to implement five key items when working and traveling with athletes. The five key items will be discussed in this article to provide coach’s applicable tips to promote overall health and safety of athletes.
EDUCATOR'S CORNER
Strategies for Weight and BMI Discretion when Administering the FitnessGram
- Robyn Whitehead and Sharon Rice
The purpose of this article is to provide strategies for PE Teachers/Coaches on how to obtain weight and BMI readings discretely from their students. Continuing to acquire weight and BMI readings where the students can see and know their own readings, and the readings of their peers can lead to serious unplanned concerns. These concerns include the unintended harms of body image issues that could lead to eating disorders. In this effort, we argue for the use of the following strategies as a preferred framework for PE Teachers/Coaches to discretely take the weight and BMI readings disclosing the results.