Inspiring a generation/ a nation/ children have been phrases banged around for the past, oooh, 7 years mainly due to London 2012. But it begs THE most obvious question...isn't that what all P.E. teachers do on a day-to-day basis anyway? Or should be doing?
If I'm delivering a well-rounded scheme of work and have well thought out lessons that are engaging and everyone is progressing AND are enjoying it...is that enough?
I've taught for 8 years now in a range of schools (state, private, international), range of age groups (nursery-16) and I've seen the meekest of little lambs turn into confident athletes (not talented, but confident and capable) I've seen talented sports players go on to county and even England standard teams, I've seen talented players plagued with injury lose heart.
But I've only seen two pupils, TWO, with this natural drive, desire and passion to take themselves to the top. Of these 2 I would say one of them stands out even more.
As a teacher we offer ourselves beyond lesson times - extra practices/ clubs/ activities so there are plenty of opportunities to coach and nurture talent. We give advice and feedback, offer solutions to issues and support them throughout. However this one pupil would find us in her spare time and arrange extra sessions (everyone else carrying on with their breaktimes), if a session was cut short for whatever reason she would ask to carry on for 5 more minutes (everyone else sprinting out to make the most of a spare 5 minutes), if advice was given she wanted to know the full explanation and sometimes offer an alternative. There was a look in her eye when you spoke to her that made you feel you were speaking to a sponge - she was soaking up every tit-bit of detail you gave her.
As teachers I think we're very good at the bottom 2 tiers of this diagram, certainly for KS1 & KS 2. Game strategy tactics blends in quite easily with Sport Specific Technique & Skills but is possibly more used in KS3 and upwards a lot more.
But mental training? How well do we cover it? In reality I'm questioning my teaching & others I've seen teach. I think as a whole we naturally add in 'sportsmanship' 'winning & losing graciously' but REAL mental toughness....
Chris Hoy for example:
You can't force any pupil to do that - they have to want to get up and go again (I'm not for one minute suggesting that these are the levels my teaching go to but you get my drift!)
Training is always hard but the worst is the lactic acid tolerance intervals I do. On a static bike I do my full set and then literally collapse onto a crash mat and curl into a ball. It’s horrible. The sting just gets worse as the lactic levels get higher and your body tries to flush it out. The muscles are burning and you’re nauseated by the exertion. I often end up being sick. Every time you do it, it’s like it’s never been this bad. Then after 15 minutes – almost to the second – you feel fine. Then you do another set and go through it all over again! The pay-off is there to see in competition.
NATURE versus NURTURE the debate in my head continues.
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