Physical Education in Schools

The GB facebook page posted an awesome video yesterday of LA Sierra High School's PE program endorsed by JFK in 1962.

Heres the Video if you haven't seen it:

It got me thinking. If you could design a nationwide physical education program, what would you have in it? Remember it could only be up to max an hour or so (not sure if this is separate from recess anymore). What movements would you have kids do in grade school, middle school, high school? 

I personally believe that the lack of physical activity is one of the main reasons so many kids are being labeled as ADD or ADHD. The more that PE and recess is stripped from the schools the worse it will get.

Curious to see how everyone thinks we could improve this.

At least here in Canada, physical education (or gym) has basically been reduced to playing games, 80% of which are either soccer or basketball.  Why?  Because it requires the least amount of equipment (a ball and a net, and every school has basketball nets).  It's also really easy for a lazy teacher to teach.  "Shoot hopes for ten minutes.  Now we'll play a game."  This is especially terrible because, as 90% of Canadian kids will tell you, hockey is the favourite sport, and we almost never play it.

In grade school, I recall maybe 5% of our gym time being actually learning a skill, learning proper technique.  The rest was just playing games.  In grade 4 or 5, I remember we had a gymnastics unit in gym.  "Do a cartwheel."  I don't know how.  "Well, put your hands on the floor and then just do a cartwheel."  Surprisingly, this approach didn't teach me how to cartwheel, nor did I learn to throw or jump or anything else.

High school was better because my teacher was actually qualified to teach gym.  In public school, especially small town Canada, you don't have that level of specialization.  The French teacher teaches gym.  That said, even here we had very little guidance in terms of strength or conditioning training, unless you used your lunch time to hit the weight room.  In class, it was just "Okay guys, every 6 weeks we're going to test your 12-min run and your max pushups and situps."  No real guidance.  In fact, it felt like an inconvenience, something no one wanted to do and no one wanted to teach, and it barely had any weight on the final mark.

I mention all this because, well, it's hard to do worse than what we are currently doing.  I would start by making two different classes, one for sports and one for (strengthening) technique.  Twice a week you get to play games, the soccer and the hockey and the dodgeball, just having fun.  Also preferably twice a week, you learn techniques.  This would vary depending on age group, but it could range from hand-eye coordination to proper pushups.  Learn basic conditioning.  At my dojo, we regularly use an agility ladder to practice footwork drills.  Kids love it.  They also learn really quickly, and footwork transfers to everything.  This is just one example; you could cover anything.

As a final thought, due to the amount of sitting done at school, I'd like to have a yoga or some other mobility or flexibility training introduced into schools.  I regularly work with kids from 4-14.  Just about every 4 year old can touch his head to his toes in the butterfly position, and just about no 14 year old can.  In the ages in between, you can see the knees slowly rise as you look at the older kids.  Kids shouldn't have mobility problems.  We have to fix that.

I could write a novel about this, but I'll stop now.

Just more movement. In Oz school either you're on a team or you don't do a whole lot of sport at all. I seem to remember I wasnonly particularly active on sports carnival days, and I was only ever in the participation events. No good = self selecting to things that I'm good at, encouragement to let the talented guys take it over = no impetus to develop a work ethic and believe I could improve on my own steam. That lesson is what I lacked in primary school, would teach it as early as it could be grasped if I had my way!

I did a semester long internship for PE in elementary schools in the US last year. I can tell you, there is a big change occuring at least in my state. Big focus on cardiovascular health and nutrition. Schools incorporate fundamental nutrition knowledge into games. One such example is the red light - yellow light - green light game, where the objective is to run a certain length. If the teacher calls out a "go" food, such as brocolli, kids run. If a "woah" food, such as fried chicken, kids walk. And a "no" food, such as cake, kids stop moving. The big concern is how do we make learning fun?

An average PE class in my state looks like this:
- cardio warm up (running, hopping, skipping, jumping jacks, etc).

- bit of stretching and strengthening

- skill work

- incorporate skill in a game

The skill work is almost never sport specific. The idea is to build up skills that interplay between multiple sports, of which most importantly include throwing, catching, running, jumping, lateral movement, etc you get the point. Locomotion and object manipulation are BIG concepts. But, during my time, I did not have one class that actually had kids play a game of the specific sport, i.e. you may learn how to shoot a basketball but not play a game. This actual sport work is mostly left to recess, where kids can apply the skills they learn in a more free environment. It is also due to time constraints.

To Sensei JP, the districts at the forefront of the evolution of physical education are now quite wary of training complex skills, like cartwheels. Simply, teachers are not qualified to teach specific skills like that and actually don't advocate it within PE class because a higher risk of injury is involved when their is no one knowledgeable enough to spot such skills. Again focus is very big on general skills with high carryover between different movement contexts. When PE teachers are studying for their bachelors, for example, in applied movement science, it is drilled into their head the importance of nutrition, cardiovascular training, and general skills.

At the end of the day, strengthening is not made to be a very important idea in PE because it is not the freakishly gigantic problem that the world is facing (obesity, heart disease, diabetes...). PE is very much a reactive program - it reacts to the problems that the districts think need to be adressed. This is just like medicine, it is reactive but not preventative (which is the realm of public health and health promotion).

Also, most forefront PE districts expect students to get the majority of their physical activity outside of school (not in recess, but outside of school). This is the responsibility of parents as much as it is the distrcits, to make sure that kids are out playing or enrolled in after-school sports like gymnastics. I went on a bit of a tangent but just wanted to put this information out for anyone interested.

I can answer many questions on the state of modern elementary PE if anyone wants.

Micawberian, that's a great post.  Thanks for that.

As a martial arts instructor, I work quite close with one private school and have done some volunteering at others.  I also know several teachers, some of whom I teach.  What I see and hear paints a depressing picture, at least at the elementary level.  In a nutshell, an endless string of budget cuts has reduced PE to glorified recess, with only the minimum amount of supervision required.  This is not an indictment on the teachers but the system.

I watch the video at the front and I am blown away.  There's a whole room of teenage boys doing Lalanne Pushups.  We have people on this forum complaining and struggling with regular pushups.  I imagine what could be possible and I don't know whether to weep or seethe.

You are right when you say that PE is like medicine, entirely reactive.  If we were proactive, though, then our need for medicine goes way down.  I wonder if it were possible to create a new school, similar to Montessori and others like it, but having a dedicated focus on fitness.  Kids would likely push away at first, but they'd be pretty pumped when after a year they can do more pushups than their dad, or if they learn to backflip.

I think you are touching on some very big topics, it's hard to give a comprehensive reply.

Unfortunately, physical education varies so much across country, location, local culture, city, and school. I am lucky to be in a very progressive big city committed to physical education change. No doubt as your experience suggests, there are some entire districts that put PE to shame.

The problem of physical education is multi-faceted and many factors bleed into the equation. The video is indeed very impressive, but I am not sure what circumstances surrounded the school at that time. What if we take a school in a bad part of town where its unsafe to be outside, where the city has a shoestring budget for the whole school system, gang problems, low socioeconomic status surrounding the community, untrained geography teachers who have to teach PE b/c of budget, inadequate school food...the problems pile up and to some degree many communities face such issues.

The idea of a type of montessori school dedicated to fitness is interesting, but hard to sell. My thoughts only, I feel most parents are not as interested in focusing on exercise more than say mathematics. An ever increasing amount of academic subjects are piling up onto students. a century ago it would have been unheard of for high school sophomore and juniors to be learning calculus, and nowadays we have freshman college students even learning thigns like fourier series. Just one example of the many academic subjects out there of course.

Not necessary to focus huge blocks of time to achieve those results.  An hour several days a week would be sufficient.

The issue is not one of time or equipment; it is a matter of will.  Most people today (adults as well as children) simply lack the necessary character.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

...The issue is not one of time or equipment; it is a matter of will.  Most people today (adults as well as children) simply lack the necessary character....

I think this opinion is common and is a gross simplification of the matter. Children and adults in parts of the country, like the Rio Grande Valley, South Chicago, and Brightmoor, don't just lack the character. Forget even beginning to talk about problem areas in the rest of the world. I am not saying character is not an issue, but I don't think it is ever appropriate to talk in a health context and assume an issue can be chalked up for the majority as a simple intrapersonal factor.

Again, I disagree.

To my mind the inability to take firm, decisive action and follow it up with constructive hard work is indeed indicative of a lack of character. However if you find that terminology uncomfortable, feel free to describe another way.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

To my mind the inability to take firm, decisive action and follow it up with constructive hard work is indeed indicative of a lack of character.

This could also be indicative of a simple lack of priorities. Many people these days don't even realise that that action needs to be taken.

Bipocni said:

This could also be indicative of a simple lack of priorities. Many people these days don't even realise that that action needs to be taken.

I see this as going far deeper than mere physical training.  Think of it this way, this tendency of most people to do just enough to get by is why there is always room at the top in any field of endeavor.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

It would be a matter of will/character if the students had the opportunity to express their will/character to improve physically...but they don't have that opportunity in school (with regards to PE).

Sean Hunter said:

It would be a matter of will/character if the students had the opportunity to express their will/character to improve physically...but they don't have that opportunity in school (with regards to PE).

I agree.

One needs to realize they have the opportunity to express their will and character.

A lot of people have never even considered the fact that they can excel physically, and that it is good for you.

In Denmark, some years ago it was being discussed whether or not sports should still be a part of the school system (currently, it is 2 hours a week + some "activity classes" in lower grades which do not work intentionally). Imagine that students never had been confronted with physical education. Many would live in complete oblivion to a world of physical activity if they have never been introduced to it.

You are missing the forest for the trees.

It has nothing to do with the character of the students.  Students will simply either live up to or live down to the expectations placed upon them.  The fault here is the character of the adults.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Well, if that is true we are assuming that there is a unique difference between students and adults.

I would rather distinguish between children and adults, where both can be "students". The nature of children make them geared for learning and exploring thus making them better students in general, which is also why it is primarily the fault of the adults not making their children good students. And then we have an eternal spiral.

Before you can apply the characteristics of a good student there must be a field to apply them to, and the student must be aware of the possibility of applying his will to excel. A person can be a good student in many fields but be in complete oblivion to the field of physical activity as something to be a good student in. There can be many reasons for him not being introduced to a field; parents neglecting it, society not emphasizing it etc.

Above, I am speaking hypothetically. Because almost everyone is aware of physical activities and benefits which are said to come for that. But some have just never consciously given exercising a thought. And that is my point.

One cannot be a good student if one does not know what to be good at (I try to explain everything here as well as possible in English).

Meaningless meandering, Alexander.

Most students do what is required of them.  No more, no less.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I disagree.

You are oversimplifying the concept. For some reason some people have not yet opened their eyes to the possibilities of physical education; people whose mindset would already fit perfectly into a world of hard work and dedication, and who would excel in physical activity if they were properly introduced to it.

Perhaps I present my logic badly - I would do way better in Danish - but I believe my point still stands firmly.

And you are needlessly complicating a simple situation. And we left the discussion of physical preparation quite some time ago.

However we will simply agree to disagree. I have other things to attend to.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

For anyone interested, here are the standards for the highest team level, the "navy blue" program of La Sierra high:

1. Parallel Bar Dips- 52 reps

2. Pull-ups- 34 reps

3. Handstand Push-ups 50 reps (seriously)

4. Alternating 1 arm burpees for 30 seconds- must complete 26 reps

5. 300 yard shuttle run- 47.5s

6. Rope climb- 20' hands, sitting- 2 trips

7. Agility run Ill.- 17s

8. Extension Press-up (Jack Lalanne push-up) to 8 inches off ground- 100 reps

9. Vertical Pegboard- 5 trips

10. Handstand- 45s

11. Man lift and carry- 5 miles

12. Mile run- 5:15

13. Five mile jog- finish it

14. Obstacle course- complete it

15. Swim in front prone position- 1 mile

16. Swim underwater- 50 yards

17. Swim in any combination of strokes- 2 miles

18. Execute front hanging float with arms and ankles TIED in deep water- 6 min

19. Stay afloat in deep water in vertical position (use of arms or legs permitted within 8 feet of circle)- 2 HOURS

...only two people on record have completed this.

Now that is a challenge worth working towards. After I finish foundation.  

If you guys want to see the other standards just let me know.

Thank you for the discussion anyway

ChrisUK said:

For anyone interested, here are the standards for the highest team level, the "navy blue" program of La Sierra high:

 

1. Parallel Bar Dips- 52 reps

2. Pull-ups- 34 reps

3. Handstand Push-ups 50 reps (seriously)

4. Alternating 1 arm burpees for 30 seconds- must complete 26 reps

5. 300 yard shuttle run- 47.5s

6. Rope climb- 20' hands, sitting- 2 trips

7. Agility run Ill.- 17s

8. Extension Press-up (Jack Lalanne push-up) to 8 inches off ground- 100 reps

9. Vertical Pegboard- 5 trips

10. Handstand- 45s

11. Man lift and carry- 5 miles

12. Mile run- 5:15

13. Five mile job- finish it

14. Obstacle course- complete it

15. Swim in front prone position- 1 mile

16. Swim underwater- 50 yards

17. Swim in any combination of strokes- 2 miles

18. Execute front hanging float with arms and ankles TIED in deep water- 6 min

19. Stay afloat in deep water in vertical position (use of arms or legs permitted within 8 feet of circle)- 2 HOURS

 

 

...only two people on record have completed this.

 

Now that is a challenge worth working towards. After I finish foundation.  

 

If you guys want to see the other standards just let me know.

Ouch. How does a 45s handstand compare to 50r HSPU?

Anyway, that is definitely a checklist to complete... in a few years.

http://www.theleanberets.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/MotivationFactor-LeProtti.pdf

Here is the link to the outline of the program! Wow, it would be amazing if they can implement this in high schools today. They only spent 15 min on the curriculum, but they focused on quality reps. 

"Pupils are systematically and deliberately required to "go all out" within their individual capacities in a number of physical developmental activities, thereby progressively raising endurance and pain tolerance levels."

Sounds Familiar...

ChrisUK said:

 

 

 

...only two people on record have completed this.

 

Just wanted to update this with a correction. (I thought it was worth another post, but if not I can delete this one)

I received a campaign note that says actually 19 people in the history of the program passed the test, and the two on record was only up to when he published his book. The program was still active after that. 

Where did you pull all those numbers? The pdf linked has far smaller numbers...