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Two people are observing a swimming lesson. The instructor is standing on the side of the pool and demonstrating the arm action of the front crawl /freestyle stroke.
Observer One: The coach looks like a really good swimmer. Observer Two: How do you know? Observer One: Well look what she's doing; she's swimming! Observer Two: No she's not; she's just demonstrating the stroke. We won't know if she can swim unless we add water.
Adding water is adding the context of the skill to your lesson. It is having a game that requires chest passing, dribbling, or kicking to see if the technique can be performed in the context of a game. Standing still pushing a ball back and forth with hockey sticks is not hockey. A game that only allowed push passes would let you see if the hockey players could push pass in hockey and whether they needed specific technique instruction.
Play as expressed by children has rules and rituals; concepts of fair play and total involvement. Games made up by children involve everyone – they don't have subs or benches or playing rosters. Their play and made up games are full of action. You do things; you don't stand and watch. My introduction to teaching games to novices or even new concepts to elite players tries to replicate those qualities. They have simple movements that most people can perform competently and the games start by teaching the shape of the game or sport and illustrate its structure.
The games and introductions in the publications available on this web site have lots of action, require the use of tactics and decision making used in the adult games but at a level appropriate for novices or experienced players. In doing so they provide game experiences for the novice of what the adult elite version of the game might feel like and they provide challenges for the more mature player.
The publications and opinions shown on these pages are, unless otherwise stated, those of Dennis Slade, author of the introduction to hockey using a Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) small games approach, Stick2hockey and his new text on games based learning published by Human Kinetics USA, Transforming Play: teaching tactics and game sense.
Two people are observing a swimming lesson. The instructor is standing on the side of the pool and demonstrating the arm action of the front crawl /freestyle stroke.
Observer One: The coach looks like a really good swimmer.
Observer Two: How do you know?
Observer One: Well look what she’s doing; she’s swimming!
Observer Two: No she’s not; she’s just demonstrating the stroke. We won’t know if she can swim unless we add water.
Adding water is adding the context of the skill to your lesson. It is having a game that requires
chest passing, dribbling, or kicking to see if the technique can be performed in the context of a
game. Standing still pushing a ball back and forth with hockey sticks is not hockey. A game that
only allowed push passes would let you see if the hockey players could push pass in hockey and
whether they needed specific technique instruction.
Play as expressed by children has rules and rituals; concepts of fair play and total involvement. Games made up by children involve everyone – they don’t have subs or benches or playing rosters. Their play and made up games are full of action. You do things; you don’t stand and watch. My introduction to teaching games to novices or even new concepts to elite players tries to replicate those qualities. They have simple movements that most people can perform competently and the games start by teaching the shape of the game or sport and illustrate its structure.
The games and introductions in the publications available on this web site have lots of action, require the use of tactics and decision making used in the adult games but at a level appropriate for novices or experienced players. In doing so they provide game experiences for the novice of what the adult elite version of the game might feel like and they provide challenges for the more mature player.
The publications and opinions shown on these pages are, unless otherwise stated, those of Dennis Slade, author of the introduction to hockey using a Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) small games approach, Stick2hockey and his new text on games based learning published by Human Kinetics USA, Transforming Play: teaching tactics and game sense.
