Psychology of Physical Education and Sport

Couple of Terms

• Cognition: Information processing

• Motor Control: Movement regulated by the nervous system. – very difficult during growing years (Ie.

juggling or playing with non dominant hand / foot)

• Motor Learning: Learning to perform motor skills better– difficult to distinguish from growth

• Feedback:– intrinsic: see, feel , oneself– extrinsic: external sources (ie. teacher)

• Knowledge:– of results: outcome of movement– of performance: quality of movement =

Teachers main responsibility!

• Working Memory:– Increases and becomes more efficient as children get

older.• young children need time to learn• begin with their knowledge base and then making

movements automatic

• Different Processes– Labeling: attach a name to assist memory (Ie. put

ball by ear)– Chunking: combining discreet units of information (Ie.

running and jumping)– Rehearsal: cognitive practice– Search and Retrieval: recalling past information– Decisions: making a judgement based on sensory

information and experience knowledge

Helping the Students

• Practicing variability is important especially at younger grades

• Closed skills: (ie. goal kick) Block the practice trials-- repeat the same movement

• Open skills: (ie. passing a ball)--vary the order of the movements

• Goal-set for movements• Make sure the child intends to learn the

movement

• Clear and concise verbal instructions– Do not give the children too much to think about at

once• Provide time for children to process the

instructions• Explain why as well as how of movement tasks• Use demonstrations• Help children label the important parts and key

aspects of movements• Help children with search and retrieval cues

– “...remember we did this yesterday?”

• Help children focus on important aspects of the movement environment

• Have children talk about the instructions• Important to give KP feedback

– providing info each time child attempts a task will speed up how quickly they acquire a movement, but they won’t learn the task as well.

– ideal is probably 50 % of the time (but not very realistic)

• Provide feedback in terms children can understand

Challenges and Opportunities

• Brainstorm about positive memories the encouraged you to participate in games.

• Brainstorm about negative memories that discouraged us from participating in games.

Competition

• Games have winners and losers whether they are cooperative or normally competitive games.

• The challenge is to overcome realistic obstacles before us, and to encourage all people.

• Children are better able to deal with winning and losing than some adults, and less able to deal with ethical incongruities.

• Developmental vacuum for some older people• Equality of play is based on size, not age.• The opportunities for teaching and modeling of ethical

behavior are enhanced in games because of their social character.

Reinforce Quality Movements

• Be liberal with reinforcement.

• Have realistic expectations and consistently reinforce achievement.

• Reinforce desirable behavior as soon as it occurs.

• Reinforce effort as much as results.

Reacting to errors and mistakes

• Give encouragement immediately after a mistake.

• If the player knows how to correct the mistake, encouragement alone is sufficient.

• When appropriate, give corrective instruction after a mistake, but always in an encouraging and positive way.

• Do not punish when things go wrong.• Do not give corrective instruction in a hostile or

punitive way.

Focus of Physical Education

• Increasing all children’s skill level through active cooperative and competitive activities that are a hoot :).

• Focus of intramurals is to include as many as possible.

• Athletics should not discourage anyone. Should refine those who choose to come out. May need new models.

• Select # of teams.

• Proficient play in mix-and-match team.