Year End Blog

Over the past semester I have had the pleasure of participating in one of the funnest university courses that is offered here at TRU. With this class, I have had the opportunity to learn and play new games, that I will definitely take with me throughout my own teaching career. This class has given me the opportunity to work with people that I would probably not normally have worked with (ie first group project) and step out of my comfort zone in doing so. PHED 1280 also gave me that extra confidence with my public speaking/presentation skills, with having to present 2 group presentations to the class.

The 2 models of teaching games, that this class focused on were, the social and personal responsibility model and the teaching games for understanding model.

The social and personal responsibility model has 5 main levels of focus. They are:

1. Respecting the Rights and Feelings of Others
2. Participation and Effort
3. Self Direction
4. Helping Others
5. Incorporation Outside of the Gym

The main focuses of the model listed above will really help children or students of any age take what they have learned in their PE class and apply these fundamentals outside of the gym class and into their everyday lives. I believe that this model is an essential tool for children to learn skills that can be beneficial to many aspects of their lives.

The teaching games for understanding model has the emphasis of teaching game appreciation and decision making for the game before even playing the game. This approach allows students to really understand the concepts of the game and play modified versions of the game before having to actually participate in the full version of the game. This model allows children to learn how to make practical decisions and appreciation for the game before the emphasis of skill execution is emphasized.

These two models of teaching, though different, when used simultaneously can be very beneficial. By using each of these models as an instructional method in a PE class, a teacher is now giving the students an opportunity to learn how to make practical decisions of a game, while at the same time they would be learning skills that could benefit them outside of gym class.

 

Maintain Possession of the Ball

In this entry I will focus specifically on the tactical problem of maintaining ball possession. This tactical problem occurs when player's on offense are attempting to keep the ball out of possession of the defending players; whilst the defending players are trying to regain possession of the ball.

To overcome the tactical problem of maintaining ball possession in the game of basketball, a coach and/or instructor could play numerous games that would help players of all levels learn to overcome this common tactical problem.

One game that can be played to help players overcome this tactical problem is a game called "Corner Spray".

To play this game you must first divide the players up into groups of 5. There will be 3 players on one team and 2 players on an opposite team. The objective of this game is for the 3 players to maintain possession of the ball while the 2 defending players are trying to intercept the ball amongst the other team and regain the possession of the ball. This game requires the use of 4 pylons, that will be used to mark off a square like in the image below:

 

The team that has possession of the ball is not allowed to dribble or run with the ball. They must pass only to their other teammates if they are at a corner of the square at a pylon and only 1 player is allowed at a pylon at a time. This game is played for 2 minutes or until the defensive team regains possession of the ball, than the defensive players are switched out and new defenders take their place.

A few questions that you could ask the players after playing this game to help with their understanding of this game and to help with their understanding of this tactical problem are:

1. Who should you pass the ball to in order to maintain possession of the ball?

2. When should you pass the ball? Is the player open? Not open?

3. How can the player with out the ball move to support the player that has the ball?

 

A second game that could be played to help players work on this tactical problem is a game called "Hoop Ball".

To play this game you will need to split the players up into groups of 6. This game will be played using half of a full sized basketball court. You will also need 4 hula hoops to play this game as well. 1 group of 6 players will be a team who is on offense, while the other group of 6 players will be on defense. The goal of this game is for teams to try to pass to their teammates who are standing in a hula hoop in order to score a point. However, you may only remain in a hula hoop for no more than 3 seconds. Dribbling could be allowed or not, depending on the instructor/coaches intentions. Once the ball is intercepted by the defensive team, the 2 teams switch. So now the team that was on defense is on offense, and the team that was on offense is now on defense.

The setup of this game could look like this (the placement of the hula hoops can be varied):

 

There is no time limit on how long this game is played. The coach could do a maximum points tally, for example the first team to achieve 15 passes to a player inside the hula hoop wins. This would give the players the incentive to maintain the possession of the ball for as long as possible. 

Some questions that you could ask the players after playing this game to help with their understanding of the game and to help with their understanding of the tactical problem are:

1. Who should you pass the ball to in order to maintain possession of the ball?

2. When should you pass the ball? Is the player open? Not open?

3. How can the player with out the ball move to support the player that has the ball?

Creating Space

 

Some common tactical problems that occur in the invasion game of basketball on offense are  maintaing possession of the ball, attacking the basket, creating space in the attack and using space in the attack. Some common tactical probelms that can also occur in basketball while on defense are defending space, defending the basket area and regaining possession of the ball. 

 

In this entry I will focus specifically on the tactical problem of creating space. This tactical problem occurs when an offensive player is trying to make more space available for themselves and/or others on their team in order to create a scoring opportunity.

To overcome the tactical problem of creating space in the game of basketball, a coach and/or instructor could play numerous games that would help players of all levels learn to overcome this common tactical problem.
 

One game that could be played to help players overcome this particular tactical problem is a game called "Keep Off".  

For this game you split your players up into groups of 3. There will be 2 players on offense and 1 player on deffense. Once the players are divided up into teams of 3, designate smaller areas that they will have to play in; for example, the basketball key would be a good size. However, the emphasis is not to try and score a basket in this game, it is for the offense to maintain the possession of the ball for 2 minutes, while the defense is trying to regain possession of the ball. In order for the offensive team to maintain possession of the ball in this game they need to create and utilise open space around the one defender.

A diagram to illustrate what the setup would could look like is as follows:

The x's being the two players trying to keep the ball away from the 1 defender "o".

So questions that you could ask the players after playing this game to help with their understanding of this game are:

1. Who should you pass the ball to?

2. When should you pass the ball?

3. How can the player with out the ball support the player with the ball?

 

A second game that could be played to help players overcome the tactical problem of creating space is a game called "Tag Ball".

For this game you split the students up into groups of 6. There will be 4 students who will be the attackers and 2 students who will be the "taggers" (defenders). This game will be played in one quarter of a basketball court (or half a court of a half court basketball game). The taggers will try to attack the player only when they have the ball. A point is rewarded to the defenders each time the successfully tag the attackers ball during an attempted pass. Each pair of taggers gets 1 minute to see how many tags on the basketball they can achieve.

A diagram to illustrate what the setup would look like is as follows:

The x's being the players who have possession of the ball and are trying not to get the ball tagged by the o's who are the defenders.

Some questions that you could ask the players after playing this game are:

1. What is the best way to pass the ball to other players?

2. What is the best method to achieve the greatest number of tags?

3. How can the interceptor position their body to pressure a passer and reciever into error so that the interceptor can touch the ball?

 

 

 

Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI)

Below is the GPAI (game performance assessment instrument) that I had found is for the sport of basketball.  

A GPAI is intended to assess the performances of a sport and give the performances a rating depending on how well the performance was done. I liked this GPAI the best out of the ones that I had found because it was an assessment of not only 1 tactical problem but for 4 common tactical problems that occur in the game of basketball. The tactical problems assessed in this GPAI are how well the players were able to perform:

 

1. Decision Making

 

2. Skill Execution

 

3. Support

 

4. Prevent Scoring

 

The components and criteria for each common tactical problem can also be very easily identified right on the GPAI itself. As well, this GPAI in particular has very clear evaluation guidelines which are labelled under the "Scoring Key" and "Overall Performance Key".

 

The way that this particular GPAI works is that, each player is recorded by their name and/or number and their tactical problem is evaluated by a letter from the scoring key (either A or IA, E or IE). As well as having their tactical problems rated by a numerical system by the overall performance key (numerical ratings from 1 to 5).

 

There is also space on this GPAI for the evaluator to include comments or suggested improvements, which I think is a great area to include in a GPAI assessment.