Why do we need a different approach to teaching athletics?
The Olympic and Paralympic games this year, and London 2012 will generate a significant degree of interest in Sport, athletics in particular. Sustaining that interest and nurturing it into potential medal winners for 2016 will be a challenge. Schools will play a vital role in developing this talent, but have to face up to change and adapt their approaches if they are to make the best of the young talent available to them.
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Pupils’ lives are now more complex - With many competing pressures on their time, and within an environment of instant gratification, they do not necessarily acquire the habits associated with long-term skill development;
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Teacher training - Primary school is a key environment in which to develop the fundamental principles associated with running, jumping and throwing. Yet on teacher training courses primary teachers only receive between 5 to 9 hours instruction on how to teach all sports. In addition, far less secondary school teachers complete a 4 year B.Ed training course and are not familiar with the technical aspect of all the various events;
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Delivery of athletics at school - Many teachers deliver athletics in the way that they were taught, with little year on year progression, and do not feel comfortable with teaching the basics;
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Health and safety regulations - Make it increasingly difficult, particularly in the secondary environment, for schools to teach the technical events adequately even if they possess the specialist equipment, which many do not;
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Shifting the focus from games - Many secondary school teachers come from a games background and feel challenged when teaching gymnastics, dance and athletics. There will be no requirement to deliver athletics within the revised PE curriculum;
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Traditional provision - Much provision is of a very traditional nature, where the perceived need is a focus on measuring performance in order to get teams out for area, district, and county trials or for school sports days.
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Competition - The very narrow athletics focus of only preparing children for competitions (where selection often is based on physical maturity) excludes many children from the opportunity of experiencing a wide range of events, at which they might excel when they grow and develop.
The following FAQs are intended to throw some light on how to change current approaches.
Q1 Where can I buy it?
Q2 What is Elevating Athletics?
Q3 What is the overall focus behind the Elevating Athletics Approach?
Q4 Why is it important that schools support the development of athletics?
Q5 What can I do to improve athletics in my school?
Q6 I come from a small primary school and wear many hats; I simply don’t have the time to deliver Sport properly
Q7 What sort of competitions should we run now?
Q8 What approaches should we take with gifted and talented children?
Q9 How do I know if one of my pupils is really talented?
Q10 Why do some of my good young athletes fail to progress to adult level?
Q11 How can I inspire young sports people to channel themselves into athletics rather than other higher-profile sports?
Q12 What other advice could I give to a young aspiring athlete?
Q13 What the advice you would give to sports coaches who come into deliver Out of School Hours clubs?
Q14 How can we deliver athletics when our budget does not provide funding to pay for specific equipment?
Q15 I come from a small school site and we do not have room for athletics?
Q16 How can we deliver athletics when events have been banned due to Health and Safety restrictions?
Q17 We are a school with very experienced and qualified staff and have a long tradition of winning schools athletics competitions, why should we change our approach?
Q18 How can I ensure that my delivery is more inclusive?
Q19 I agree with the ideas behind Elevating Athletics but know that other staff want to deliver in a traditional way, how do I overcome this challenges?
Q20 We already deliver our athletics in this way, but I want to know how to help them improve their technique, how can I do this?
Q21 The pupils that I work with are simply not fit enough to do athletics. What would you advise?
Q22 I work as an SSCo within a School Sport Partnership and pupils from some Primary schools start their secondary schools with a high level of skill, but others come with virtually no knowledge of athletics at all.
A1 Where can I buy it?
Follow the link to the YST website
A2 What is Elevating Athletics?
Elevating Athletics is a set of resources designed to place running, jumping and throwing at the heart of school physical education and to support teachers in delivering athletic activity in an inclusive, exciting and engaging manner.
Elevating Athletics is written by physical education experts with extensive experience of teaching and coaching athletics at school, club and international level.
Elevating Athletics is written to conform to curriculum requirements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
It has been delivered to every State School in the Uk and is available from the YST website
A3 What is the overall focus behind the Elevating Athletics Approach?
- To bring the sport of athletics to life and make it accessible
- To provide teachers with a creative and practical resource that will help them encourage and motivate youngsters participate and achieve in athletics
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To ensure that athletics is taught in a more inclusive and engaging manner, with modern approaches that are less reliant on formal didactic delivery and focus more on learning
- To ensure all children receive a positive experience of athletics, where the emphasis is on participation, enjoyment, mastery and the acquisition of skills, so that they maintain interest in the sport.
· To create a greater understanding that running, jumping and throwing underpin the vast majority of sports, and ensure children acquire and develop these skills throughout their education
- To reach out and appeal to a much wider audience of young people to ensure we have a sustainable number of 16-17 year olds in the sport, who are committed to competing at senior level.
A4 Why is it important that schools support the development of athletics?
It is probably more a question of supporting the development of athleticism, certainly up to aged 13/14.
Good teaching at the very early stages is crucial, along with appropriate year on year progression. It takes time to develop the fundamental skills and understanding associated with movements underpinning the ability to run, jump and throw.
A5 What can I do to improve athletics in my school?
Support and encourage others to attend CPD. It is essential to help to bring about an enlightened approach to our sport. The aims are: inclusive learning methodology; less reliance on developing the performance of an elite few; and more focus on acquiring skills and understanding.
This is often achieved by planning lessons based upon delivering activities that support the development of how to run, jump of throw, as opposed to just doing the events. This is easy to achieve in Primary schools, and should be carried on in Secondary schools up until students are 13/14 where some of the early imbalances of maturity start to be addressed and appropriate levels of fitness have been developed.
Initial Teacher Training institutions are teaching graduates to deliver in this way, but some schools have a mindset that is very focused on traditional delivery. Achieving the notion of lesson organisation based upon 15 lines of 2 pupils, not 2 lines of 15 would be a good start.
A6 I come from a small primary school and wear many hats; I simply don’t have the time to deliver Sport properly
Primary schools teachers are under huge pressure; particularly those charged with the role of Primary Link Teacher. We recognise that Primary schools are awash with initiatives, projects and schemes, all of which have to be fitted in with the day job. Some School Sport Partnerships have appointed Primary PE specialists and this may become more common.
However, Elevating Athletics contains many short simple activities that can be delivered on a little and often basis through out the day. Hold a balance on one-foot competition while waiting in a queue for example or use any of the simple warm up games as the topic for brain breaks. All of the activities develop some aspect of fundamental movement skills and could be delivered throughout the year.
A7 What sort of competitions should we run now?
UK Athletics has a national competition framework, which advocates good practice for athletics competition. The whole system is under review to ensure that we have a format that better suits the needs of children and young athletes and integrates well with other competition structures.
Children need to learn to compete; it is an essential life skill. However, competition can be team based, inclusive, and framed in terms of personal improvement: it doesn’t have to be about someone always crossing the line last. Many of the ideas are discussed and explored during the CPD courses.
A8 What approaches should we take with gifted and talented children?
The identification of gifted and talented children is another one of those key debates going on at present. Schools clearly play a part in nurturing the aspirations and performance of young people. However, there is a strong argument for ensuring that children receive a very broad and balanced Physical Education. It is very easy to pigeonhole young children into a sport or event before they reach puberty, which may not be what they are best suited for. In addition, physical prowess at a young age – which is more often an attribute of early maturity, is not the only factor to consider. For instance, late developers have to learn to cope with losing and come on well later in their sporting life.
Many young athletes experience success in our sport because of early maturity, but fail to maintain a comparative level of success when they get older and their peers catch up with them. Helping them identify long-term goals, without taking away the enjoyment associated with their current successes, is important. Promising young athletes should be given the choice of visiting local athletics clubs and the school club links process is an ideal mechanism to facilitate this.
A9 How do I know if one of my pupils is really talented?
The Power of Ten, which was launched in 2006 to transform athletics by 2012, is all about improving performances in every event, every age group (from Under 13) and every region throughout the UK. The Power of Ten is based around a rankings system and website (www.powerof10.info) and is certainly making a huge difference in highlighting current young performers. However, developing that talent is a complex issue, involving developing movement skills, technique, fitness, mental approaches and lifestyle. It is another area under review. One of the best uses of the site for young athletes is to help them identify their improvement over time, as opposed to comparing performances.
A10 Why do some of my good young athletes fail to progress to adult level?
There is considerable research to show that performing well as a young athlete is not a good indicator of being able to perform as an adult. There are many reasons for this.
Being gifted and talented as an athlete adds different pressure from those who take part in team sports: you have to cope with the pressure of competing as an individual. Some good athletes find this hard. In addition, some fail to cope with failure after significant success as a junior (often a consequence of early maturity). There is considerable anecdotal evidence of young athletes being pushed too far too soon, perhaps by coaches who focused on their own needs rather than their athletes. Transitions always make continuity hard: between schools, going to university etc. There are so many factors involved, and talent only takes you so far in athletics. Motivation, perseverance and commitment to training are all very important if an athlete is going to make it to the top. Finally, the lives of young athletes are busy and complex, it is sometimes hard to fit it all in.
A11 How can I inspire young sports people to channel themselves into athletics rather than other higher-profile sports?
Not an easy question to answer, especially with the amount of media coverage that some sports attract. However, athletics regularly attracts a number of good athletes who have left other sports: footballers for instance who often have a range of natural springing and jumping talent, or gymnasts who are potential pole-vaulters. The benefit is that they enter the sport older, which is not an issue to us since some of our most successful current and past athletes came into our sport in their late teens.
A12 What other advice could I give to a young aspiring athlete?
This very much depends on the age of the athlete: for anyone less than 16 we encourage a multi-skills approach where they learn and compete in many different events. This develops a range of fundamental movement skills and good all round conditioning. For those athletes that experience success beyond this we use a 5 rings model which helps young athletes view the total picture of what is required: It includes knowledge about the technical and tactical approaches to competing; strength and conditioning; good fundamental movements skills; their mental approach to the sport; and their overall life style. However, joining a local athletics club is always a positive step, which will allow them to take part in local competitions.
A13 What the advice you would give to sports coaches who come into deliver Out of School Hours clubs?
Our advice would be to take a broad, balanced, fun and varied approach to training – focusing on good fundamental movements and skill acquisition. Pressures on curriculum delivery mean that schools do not always have the time to develop fitness adequately, so time should be spent enjoyable activities that develop physical conditioning. It is very easy to focus purely on the event itself. However, with a little thought and preparation, sessions can be planned which are engaging and enjoyable, involving pupils in activities that support the development of event skills without the tedium of waiting in long queues.
A14 How can we deliver athletics when our budget does not provide funding to pay for specific equipment?
Money does not have to be an issue. Many of the activities contained in Elevating Athletics can be delivered with the minimum use of equipment, or utilises what schools usually have: cones, quoits, chalk for instance. However, having access to low level hurdles, agility ladders, turbo javelins etc. gives teachers much more scope for multi-activity lessons. The current obesity issue is making money available for Health Related projects. In addition, equipment can be obtained through work associated with school club links. School staff should work with regional staff and national development officers to form partnerships (particularly with clubs) and submit grant applications, which focus on meeting local needs.
A15 I come from a small school site and we do not have room for athletics?
Within our grass roots development packages, there are events and activities that every school can offer. There is always room for running, jumping and throwing activities: they are the basis of so many other sports!
A16 How can we deliver athletics when events have been banned due to Health and Safety restrictions?
There are two main aspects to this issue, practice and facilities. Traditionally pupils were probably exposed to athletic events before they were really ready for them. The Elevating Athletics resource takes pupils progressively through a range of activities that help them learn and acquire the necessary underpinning fundamental movement skills required for a competent performance. Above all it helps create a sense of achievement and confidence to move on to the next stage. For instance, running fast over low obstacles that, over a period of time increase in height, provides a good foundation to run over hurdles 68.5cm high.
Throwing an improvised javelin (which could be a size 4 ball) 15m twenty times in a lesson using a sound pull throw technique is a better outcome than throwing a 400g full size javelin 4m twice. There is little point in young athletes jumping over a solid bar 1.2m high onto a high jump bed if they have no fundamental understanding of how to run up and take off effectively. These skills can be acquired during enjoyable lessons jumping over low obstacles that maximise participation levels and help pupils learn skills that are can be transferred to many other sports.
So changing the delivery practice to one with an emphasis on learning fundamentals may negate some of the issues associated with Health and Safety. It also has an impact on the facilities required for teaching younger athletes. However, for those staff working with more accomplished students or those studying GCSE or A level, Health and Safety restrictions present a challenge. These are best addressed by presenting a viable risk assessment that demonstrates how the lesson activity will be delivered in way that ensures all needs are met.
Above all teachers must ask themselves whether or not they feel confident in using full weight shots, javelins or proper high jump facilities. Bespoke courses are now available from National Associations, which can be event specific, and will allow teachers to gain the precise knowledge they require to deliver the technical modules.
A17 We are a school with very experienced and qualified staff and have a long tradition of winning schools athletics competitions, why should we change our approach?
The Elevating Athletics approach recognises that there is and always will be a spectrum of delivery across schools. However, one of its fundamental aims is to ensure levels of participation beyond schools competitions, and we are aware that the most successful schools help pupils become part of a local club where they can continue to develop their performances to the next level.
A18 How can I ensure that my delivery is more inclusive?
Inclusion is a significant aspect of Elevating Athletics and there are specific resources available on the web that will be updated on a regular basis. See www.ukathletics.net
Each of the athletics activity cards offer ideas on variations and differentiation, which highlight how activities can be adapted to meet a wide range of needs. In addition the Youth Sport Trust have developed resources that demonstrate best practice in the delivery of all sports.
A19 I agree with the ideas behind Elevating Athletics but know that other staff want to deliver in a traditional way, how do I overcome this challenges?
Very often traditional delivery is driven by the desire to select a few key individuals to perform in school competitions. Elevating Athletics recognises the value of competition and the pressures that teachers, parents and the athletes bring to performing and winning.
However, setting up uninspiring lessons based on constant measurement is not the best solution to identifying talent. Any good teacher will be able to use the activities in the resource to help develop the skills of a whole class and identify very competent levels of performance at the same time. Time and distance trials can then take place between the 3-5 most likely and willing students. Ask any pupil in a playground who is the best runner, jumper or thrower in their year group and they will tell you!
A20 We already deliver our athletics in this way, but I want to know how to help them improve their technique, how can I do this?
All the activities in Elevating Athletics include key learning points that underpin aspects of running, jumping or throwing technique. In addition the resource includes a set of “how to” cards that highlight essential aspects of technique that pupils should try to develop. It takes a considerable amount of time master some of the technical events and time spent practising will be time well spent, particularly if the pupils have developed the skills of peer review and can coach each other.
The accompanying DVD contains footage of all the events (with the exception of the hammer that requires specialist facilities), where competent young athletes are demonstrating drills and activities that can be used during training sessions. These activities are suitable for athletes who have acquired a certain level of ability, and the level of fitness required to perform the exercises. However, they do provide teachers and coaches with an insight into the more technical aspects of the various events.
A21 The pupils that I work with are simply not fit enough to do athletics. What would you advise?
It is common knowledge that modern lifestyles and leisure activities are having an effect on young people’s health. Successful athletics are not only technical competent, but they possess the fitness required for their specific event. It takes time to acquire a high level of fitness, which is why conditioning for athletics should start in September, not April and must be part of an annual fitness development programme. This would not only lead to better performances in Hockey, Rugby, Football etc, it would help reduce the considerable number of injuries that occur after the long summer break.
There is a specific section on the DVD that highlights modern approaches to warm ups and sets out a fitness conditioning circuit that is adaptable with very accessible exercises.
A22 I work as an SSCo within a School Sport Partnership and pupils from some Primary schools start their secondary schools with a high level of skill, but others come with virtually no knowledge of athletics at all.
There is never going to be 100% coverage across all types of provision. The facilities at Primary sites vary enormously and external pressure such as the perceived need to achieve in League tables will inevitably distort delivery of a proper balanced curriculum. However the resource is making a difference. Feedback data has already identified that the Primary teachers recognise the value of Elevating Athletics and can see it is making an impact. This will only improve as time goes on with an increasing number of pupils entering secondary schools with high expectations of athletics lessons that are enjoyable, inclusive and focus on maximum participation.
