Introducing alternative physical education

Our trainee physical education teachers were introduced to three alternative sports as a way to engage their pupils: non-contact boxing, street surfing and Kin-Ball.

Dr Gary Stidder, PGCE and School Direct PE route leader, said: “If we want young people to be more active we have to offer them choice and voice when it comes to curriculum decisions in physical education and find out what their activity preferences are.”

Non-contact boxing

The introduction to non-contact boxing included how to implement it into the secondary school physical education curriculum. The workshop was led by former University of Brighton Sport Science graduate Adam Haniver.

Non-contact boxing is a very effective means of developing personal fitness and core skills of agility and co-ordination. Combat activities such as non-contact boxing provides individual opportunities to perform movement phases both in attack and defence such as stance, guard, footwork and maintaining balance whilst moving in all directions.

Dr Gary Stidder said: “In line with the purpose of study in the National Curriculum for PE non-contact boxing and other combat activities/martial arts provide opportunities for pupils to become physically confident in a way which supports their health and fitness. It also helps to build character and help to embed values such as fairness and respect.

“It can address the subject content in the National Curriculum by enabling pupils to develop their technique and improve their performance in other physical activities and help pupils to analyse their performances compared to previous ones and demonstrate improvement to achieve their personal best”

Street Surfing

Many young people are physically active out of school engaging in activity on wheels yet very few schools have recognised this as a means to increase pupils activity levels and tend to ignore the potential of introducing these activities into their physical education lessons.

The street surfing workshop introduced a new ‘on wheel’ activity to use alongside more traditional ones such as mountain biking, BMX biking, skateboarding, in-line skating and micro-scootering.

Dr Gary Stidder said: “Young people are participating in very different physical activities outside of school compared to the types of activities they are taught as part of the formal physical education curriculum.

“Many young people take part in physical activities on wheels in their leisure time and street surfing is just one example of how the physical education curriculum can be more appealing to a broader population of pupils in schools.

“Indeed, it is claimed that street surfing is the physical education teacher’s secret weapon.”

Kin-Ball

Kin-Ball is a team sport created in Quebec, Canada in 1986 by Mario Demers, a physical education professor. Kin-Ball is played with three teams of four.

The team in possession of the ball, shout out “Omnikin” followed by the colour of another team and hits the ball. The team whose colour was called must stop the ball from hitting the ground; if it fails to do so the other two teams get a point. If a team stops the ball from hitting the ground, it has 10 seconds to hit the ball to another team, using the same procedure.

Dr Gary Stidder said: “Not only is Kin-Ball something different it is fully inclusive for all pupils and is a great alternative to other teams traditionally taught in schools.

“Many of the group practices can promote team work, communication, problem-solving and decision-making and can be applied to the game itself.”

You can see the students in action in this short film which was created by student Vicky Jones: