The more I travel and deliver workshops and presentations the more my confidence in the future increases. Not that I am talking about the immediate future and certainly not in my lifetime but wherever I go I meet more and more practitioners who actually ‘get it’. Although they are in the minority at the moment I get the feeling that the more they share with each other the more people will join their ranks……and at some stage their voice will be heard.

Governments, Sporting Federations, in fact any type of ‘committee’ will invariably slow progress down as they clutter the landscape with jargon, power struggles, paper-chases and any other element that makes them more important than the recipients (joe public; the athletes; schoolchildren; etc).

“A small group of people can change the world” Margaret Mead

A few days ago I felt, again, less alone when I read an article from a friend of mine, Jeremy Frisch. There he was in another country trying to help all those who long for improvement in the well-being of their children. He did a simple job of listing some of the many reasons why we simply must consider getting the younger generations more physically active. His target audience (as mine has been in recent months) was the decision-makers in Elementary / Primary Schools who still seem reluctant to ‘grasp the nettle’ where physical activity is concerned. Jeremy’s synopsis tells it all. If you are a parent surely you will ask some questions of teachers who fail to ‘get the kids moving’ regularly. If you are a teacher maybe you will be asking the curriculum designers to re-consider the amount of training you get in the area of physical activity delivery.

Here is Jeremy’s list of arguments FOR an increased committment to appropriate physical activity for children.

The importance of Movement and Play for Children in School

Some food for thought in regards to the importance of recess and other physical activities during the school day:

1. Children learn through movement and play which helps develop both gross and fine motor skills needed in the classroom.

2. Sitting still and paying attention for long periods of time requires significant static strength, balance and posture all of which are developed through movement and play.

3. Movement and play (especially outdoor play) allows the brain/body to receive more oxygenated blood improving the potential for clear thinking and concentration.

4. Children retain information better in segments rather than long drawn out class periods…when movement and recess breaks are given it allows them to process information in small pieces and thus gain a better understanding of the presented material.

5. Movement and play is the best antidote to eliminate obesity and obesity health related issues.

6. Movement and play allow children to socially interact thus strengthening peer relationships, cooperation and leadership skills.

7. Unstructured movement and play allows children to push physical boundaries and gain a better understanding of spatial surroundings.

8. Outdoor movement and play exposes children to sunlight and the production of Vitamin D which has both direct and indirect positive effects on learning.

9. Movement and outdoor play allows children to be loud, boisterous and messy which is usually not allowed indoors.

10. Movement and outdoor play allows those children with excess energy and anxiousness to blow off some steam.

11. Movement and play allows children a break from the expectations of adults have to sit, listen and learn.

12. Children who engage in movement and play activities in school are more likely to engage in those same activities at home.

13. Recent research points that children labeled as ADD/ADHD actually lack certain physical skills that can be developed and refined through movement and play activities that will carry over to classroom performance.

14. Vigorous movement and play releases a certain chemical in the body called BDNF (brain- derived neurotrophic factor) that has been termed by many scientists as “miracle grow for the brain.”

15. Movements like climbing, hanging and crawling used in P.E. involves specific use of the hands that helps develop strength needed for efficient handwriting and fine motor skill.

16. Movement and play allows children to be more creative and become better problem solvers.

17. Children exposed to movement and play at a young age will be more apt to continue to explore movement and play as well as exercise when they get older.

18. Movement and outdoor play exposes children to the environment building a stronger immune system.

19. Movement and play often involves children running, sprinting, jumping and changing direction all of which develop strength through the lower body as well as cardiovascular conditioning.

20. Children love movement and play and should be given every opportunity to do so!

“Ignite Gym | At Ignite! We Practice Enrichment through Exercise.” Ignite Gym RSS2. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

Goddard, Sally, Lawrence J. Beuret, and Peter Blythe. Attention, Balance, and Coordination: The A.B.C. of Learning Success. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.

Graham, George, Shirley Ann. Holt/Hale, and Melissa Parker. Children Moving: A Reflective Approach to Teaching Physical Education. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.

Pica, Rae. A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity, and Free Time Create a Successful Child. New York: Marlowe &, 2006. Print

My friend Dr Craig Duncan recently Twittered – ‘Sport injury is a major issue in youth sport and needs to be addressed -we need more research and then action.’

My point of view is that teachers, coaches and parents need not wait for the scientists to assemble more data for us all to deliberate over. There is enough common-sense and best-practice methodology out there as long as we are all willing to find it and use it. Injury reduction is a natural aspect of all sensible training. It is not some special prescription even though in today’s jargon-filled, sales-pitch world it is sold to us as ‘Pre-hab’ or other such foolish notions. This is especially true if the practitioner delivers an exercise prescription that is appropriate to the maturation needs of the individual athlete and balances out general and specific movement competence throughout the journey. It’s about training ‘balance’. If you do too much of one thing all the time then something will suffer. If you allow movements to be poorly executed then limitations will take hold. If you concentrate solely on sports-specific actions and postures then these limitations will turn into problems.

So why not get some ‘action’ first and then let the scientists catch up?

Under the guidance of Mark McKean we are commencing a research project at the Sunshine Coast University in Queensland. Mark and his crew intend to look closely at Physical Competence Assessment and exercise interventions with young people as part of the ‘push’ towards physical literacy.

This seems an opportune time especially when we in the UK have just been reminded by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) that PE has failed in certain respects across the nation. In recent days Ofsted have stated:

“Children are not playing competitive sport to a high level and physical education lessons in school are failing to improve fitness, a new report has claimed.

The report said warm-ups in primary schools were often too short and too easy and then followed by “long periods of inactivity” as new tasks were introduced.”

One can only pray that someone, somewhere will finally get the message that we have to put the ‘Physical’ back into PE and that this current ‘Competitive Games based Curriculum’ is simply not and will not work. It seems so short-sighted to think that the teaching of competitive games is the primary function of PE yet we still see this process central to nearly all activity in PE. I have stated previously that the legacy from London’s Olympic Games should never be seen as ‘buildings’ or increased success in the international arena yet in many reports (including this recent Ofsted report) there still appears an argument that better PE will see us produce more Olympians. The Olympics is for the talented few who have made the journey often despite the talent development programs they were involved in. Our concern must be for the other 99.99% of the national population. Get this right and the Olympics will take care of itself.

Now I love the Olympics and I am proud of the 14 Olympic finalists I have coached during my career BUT the key issue here in the 21st century is not international success in the world of sport. The health and well-being of all young people is the key issue. Don’t expect international success if the pool of talent you are looking at is getting more and more unhealthy physically and emotionally. Strengthening the ‘base of the pyramid’ from which talented athletes will grow is the answer. By raising the physical qualities of ALL young people (their basic entitlement) will see the community benefit and surely this is the main objective of any national strategy.

Back to the Sunshine Coast………… I am hoping that the research that we undertake will highlight the need for a more appropriate and robust commitment to physical activity and illustrate the need for the development of mechanical (movement) efficiency as a precursor to all that will follow. The word ‘interventions’ probably needs to be changed in this dialogue. One interpretation of the word ‘intervention’ is that it is a temporary action. What we all face in the world of childhood well-being is something that is appropriate and PERMANENT and not just another fad, spell or potion.

Greg works tirelessly on movement development with all his students and uses the classroom ‘movement breaks’ alongside the content of his PE lessons. His ‘Wall of Fame’ is a means of illustrating the improvement the students are making. One project is his ‘Upper-Body Strength’ attainment that saw the creation of some standards of movement and strength for the students. He involved the parents in all this by explaining the project and prepared the parents that some children may be bringing home movement ‘homework’ to do as they chased the challenge set to them.

He sent me an update the other day and made the following comments that illustrate that this is much more than just ‘work’ for the students.

“The cool thing about how we do this is that the last student to make it in each class is a big hero for getting his or her class to 100%. Last week, it happened right in front of the principal (who was doing an evaluation visit). You have to imagine a class of kids circled around their classmate who is the last one to make their goal. The energy is very positive and I think it just lifts the student up. We were all pretty excited. And, this student, who is not anywhere as physically able as most of her classmates, and knows it, is beaming…. Why we do this, no?”

So…while we all wait for governments and other decision-makers to get us out of this ‘lack of physical literacy’ mess why not simply put your creative hat on and have a go. Kids love to move and experiment with movement puzzles so why get stuck inside a ‘competitive games’ scenario when all this is possible.

Ross presented these thoughts at a recent International Rugby Board conference in Dublin and they deserve to be considered by all NGB’s worldwide. Rather than capitulate to ‘not having the stomach for the fight’ it is down to all of us to make a difference with the athletes in our charge. Our NGB’s may not follow immediately but it takes just a small number of committed people to make a difference. You will be surprised at the number of teachers, coaches and administrators out there who, although shackled by the ineptitudes of their NGB infrastructure, are keen to make change. For those committed people all I can suggest is that you continue to share your thoughts and practices with each other.

1. How do you identify talent without either destroying it or neglecting it? Talent is destroyed when it is chosen for the wrong reasons. If you pick players at 13 based on size, speed and strength, you pick a temporary advantage. But because it is rewarded by the competitive system, it never needs to develop other attributes. Talent is neglected because late developers often do not receive a look in, and are lost to the sport early because of the way the system has been created.

2. How do you maintain healthy competition without providing a conflicting message to coaches? You cannot create and implement LTAD which says “delay competition”, and then have annual competitions for 10 or 13 year olds, the results of which are crucial to future success as a player. That is a mixed message, and the coach will always go with performance.

3. How does a sport embracing LTAD affect that sport’s standing in society? The reality is that sport is a big deal, even from young ages. Here in South Africa, high schools look for young children with athletic potential and offer scholarships and potential career paths. At a young age, good athletes are virtually professional and society has come to accept this as “normal”. Implementing LTAD challenges that, and if the entire environment does not also do the same, then it creates a conflict between one sport and another, and even within a sport.

For example, I work with SA Sevens, and we are looking at driving the specialization of players to become Sevens players from a younger age. We are not going down to the 10-year olds, but it illustrates that because players themselves are finite, they are the subject of competition. Imagine rugby implements LTAD and football does not – a good number of young players, perhaps forced by parents, will move towards football. There is a degree of “security” in early specialization, however wrong that perception may be.

4. Who are the other stake-holders in LTAD? It’s simply not reasonable to suggest that one sport have an LTAD programme from 5 up to adulthood. As mentioned, it’s unnecessary because you don’t need 10,000 hours to begin with, and it’s also costly and potentially crippling to place the entire burden on each sport. Therefore, you recognize that other stakeholders, such as parents and government, also play a crucial role, particularly early on when you actually don’t want players to specialize, but rather engage in a number of different sports, learning a range of skills and abilities. This is perhaps the key concept for LTAD.

5. How do we change mind-sets? In all of this, it’s important to recognize that sporting systems, countries, federations, have a certain inertia. They are giant, sometimes slow-moving bodies and if you stand in the way, you get flattened. Therefore, to successfully implement LTAD, you must address the mind-sets and begin to ‘nudge’ them in a different direction. Failing this, LTAD, or any other similar plan, is nothing more than a fantasy of “best-case”, and won’t work in the real world. It will take brave leadership to change the competition structure, for example, and to adopt a no compromise attitude towards youth talent ID and selection, based on current principles. I doubt many will have the stomach for the fight, but that may be what it takes.

Back in 2007 I read a very interesting view of the then National PE Curriculum by Sellers and Palmer – a great read but a sobering one. The ‘new’ curriculum is now in the public domain for scrutiny and I spent an afternoon rambling in my mind about all that I was reading. When you daydream there are no rules and I found myself thinking of how Sellers and Palmer had finished their article –

If it seems not to be a programme of study and not to fit the profile of a scheme of work, then what is it? It may be at best a sketchy guide to one possible way of looking at the range and content of P.E. with key concepts, key processes and curriculum op¬portunities sections being not at all relevant to such a guide. Hoped for outcomes are rose-coloured at best and dream aims at worst in a physical education. If the QCA and the Government think this is a document of worth and a valuable aid to teachers then they are wrong. It is pretentious twoddle and it is not worth the paper it is written on, and that is a dogmatic claim.
Sellers, V. and Palmer, C. (2008) Aims and dreams. A sideways look at the Physical Education programme of study for Key Stage 3 and attainment target, QCA National Curriculum document (2007).Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 2, 1, 191-216.

During my internal rambling I recalled just one point in the new curriculum which sent me off into a wild ride of fantasy –

‘Key Principles of the National Curriculum
• Freedom, responsibility & fairness – to raise standards for all children’

So…..what standards? Are we to believe that there will be some progressive bio-motor standards for our children to attain as they negotiate their journey through to adulthood? Will these standards follow the principles we see in numeracy and literacy e.g. annual objective standards to be achieved along the continuum?

If this is the case then we may have a chance of reducing the crippling burden on the National Health system and create a generation of healthy children who are a little more cognisant of the need to reject a sedentary lifestyle.

‘A tsunami of obesity and muscular-skeletal / metabolic syndrome threatens to engulf the NHS.’

They may also be stimulated to greater academic achievement by being more ‘physical’ on a daily basis.

In a meta-analysis, Sibley and Etnier (2003) concluded that a significant positive relationship exists between physical activity and cognitive functioning in children.

Can this be true that someone is, at last, going to put the ‘physical’ back into Physical Education? Can we expect our children to spend an hour a day in moderately intensive physical work where they ‘puff and pant’ and actually perspire. Will we see the cobwebs finally cleared from the showers and our children exposed to the daily hygiene of personal cleanliness after exercise. Will all this be compulsory right through to the end of their schooldays?

I guess these standards will include a weekly assessment of body composition considering that obesity is clearly a critical issue nationwide. Surely this will be so considering that it is reported that by 2030 we will reach pandemic proportions of obesity.

With 1/5 of 2 to 5 year olds obese and a further 14 per cent overweight ……….should this trend continue it is forecast that 60 % of adult males, 50 % of adult females and 25 % of children will be obese by 2050 ……and around 35% of adults and 30% of children will be overweight (Department of Health, 2006).
….predict that if the current trend continues, up to 48% of men and 43% of women in the UK could be obese by 2030, adding an additional £1.9-2 billion per year in medical costs for obesity-related diseases.

With cardio-respiratory problems on the rise at earlier ages maybe we can expect that within each of the hours designated to physical activity our children will be engaged in actual work; that they will develop physiological and muscular efficiency / endurance.

What of the behavioural opportunities? Every athlete I have coached has displayed fortitude, perseverance, discipline, a strong work-ethic and an understanding of the ‘consequences’ of their actions. Perhaps these traits may also be developed generationally by the appropriate use of this new curriculum.

What about movement? With these new standards in place I would expect that each child will be on a progressive journey of Physical Competence where we measure their movement efficiency across a number of foundation movements. These movements will obviously form the pathway to the long term reduction in muscular-skeletal disorders of which a large number of adults currently suffer.

‘56% of workplace absenteeism is due to muscular-skeletal disorders.’ Absenteeism – Manual and Non-Manual work sectors (CIPD Report, 2007)

The new standards will, no doubt, be progressive and our expectations for improved posture, stability and strength in all directions and planes can be high.

What of competitive sport in this new ‘standards’ based approach? Things are certainly going to be improved in this journey as we will have a leaner, stronger and movement competent generation to encourage into competitive sport. Their skill acquisition will be bolstered by their movement efficiency, consistency and resilience gained from their 60min-a-day exposure to progressive physical work.

The development of their basic abilities in agility, balance and coordination would have been well set due to their exposure to the creation of a massive movement vocabulary during their formative school years.

Investment in a broad range of movements requires adjustments to be made in motor control and motor creativity which encourages adaptability. (Baker, 2003)

Their ability to adapt to the competitive environment of reaction and decision-making would also have been well developed through the clever teaching / coaching methodology employed by all the well trained practitioners along the continuum. They would have solved movement puzzles on a daily basis at the same time that they were exposed to just the right amount of explicit learning opportunity. They would have journeyed to sports-specific opportunity and arrived having ‘earned the physical right’ to explore competitive sport.

I guess we can thank our lucky stars that all our teaching and coaching institutions were way ahead of the game when it came to the content of their courses in relation to this new PE curriculum adventure. By them bringing the content of their courses into the 21st century, well ahead of this change to national ‘physical’ standards, helped a great deal. For the first time in many decades we had teachers and coaches just as well versed in pedagogy, learning styles, building the athlete from the ground up, as they were in force-plates, gas analysis and force/time continuums.

Then I woke up.

So…..the new National PE Curriculum Discussion Paper is out there as a consultation document and on the surface there are some decent references to fundamentals.

Pupils should develop core movement, become increasingly competent and confident and access a broad range of opportunities to extend their agility, balance and co-ordination, individually and with others. They should be able to engage in competitive (both against self and against others) and co-operative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations.

 Master basic movements such as running, jumping, throwing, catching, as well as developing balance, agility and co-ordination, and begin to apply these in a range of activities
 Participate in team games, developing simple tactics for attacking and defending
 Perform dances using simple movement patterns.

There is a concern that with the continuous reference to competitive games there is the chance that teachers who are under pressure of time, knowledge and resources will fall back to using these competitive games as the sole vehicle for movement development. There continues to be a teaching / coaching process out there that concentrates on sports-specific actions and postures as being the only journey to movement efficiency.

With so many physical competence assessments illustrating a lack of fundamental movement efficiency (the ability to Squat, Lunge, Push, Pull, Brace and Rotate) it is worthwhile explaining to those who wrote this curriculum that a distinct commitment must be considered towards the ability of every child to solve movement puzzles. By creating a journey that caters for ‘guided discovery’ the key issue will be time and patience – often something that the timetable does not allow for. If PE reports continue to state, ‘Jimmy got a ‘B’ for Hockey’ then little will be achieved in terms of physical literacy.

The question – ‘How?’ – is an immediate reaction to these curriculum aims. Are we teaching our teachers and coaches to be able to deliver the appropriate balance of implicit and explicit learning where movement is concerned? Are we in a position to track improvement in movement efficiency and do we expect teachers to report on it to parents? If the plan is to develop ‘core movement’ and drive this efficiency into such things as agility, balance and coordination then surely we should be in a position to measure the effectiveness of our teaching skills in such things – especially the building blocks known as the foundation movements.

What if a PE report showed a child’s movement efficiency score; their cardio-respiratory health and their body composition? These three seem to be the pillars of basic health and well-being as well as the precursors to ‘cooperative physical activities, in a range of increasingly challenging situations’. If you don’t get these basics right how on earth can you expect the sports-specific stuff to carry the burden?

Want to teach them to run, jump, throw and catch? What are the details of the movement vocabulary they will require to even start the journey to these actions and postures? Is enough information out there for teachers and coaches to first develop a massive movement vocabulary BEFORE (or at the same time) they commence the journey to these locomotor, non-locomotor and manipulative skills?

I hope that the detail of this curriculum leans towards getting these basics right.

www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/nationalcurriculum2014/b00220600/consultation-national-curriculum-pos.

The Adaptable Coach
Your aim (destination) may be set (Olympic final, the Play-off’s, PB, etc) but your journey must be flexible. This is the creativity of coaching. There is never one answer. The gurus and salesmen only have one answer. Collect as many tools as you can for your coaching tool-box.

“Map out your future, but write it in pencil.” Jon Bon Jovi

Things change on a day-to-day basis – be ready with the answers. Be prepared to look for changes in the athlete before acting out the session. Is what you wrote in the program yesterday still appropriate for today?

Thinking of Outcomes
Regardless of the thorough preparation required for this ‘peak’ there will be a change of climate around you. This difference comes from the fact that the atmosphere now fills with EXPECTATION and minds fill with OUTCOMES.

What will be the result of the contest?
What happens if I win?
What happens if I lose?
What will people think of me?
Will the result change my life?
Will I be better off?
Will I be worse off?

Herein lays the trap for the unsuspecting participant. Dealing with outcomes is a futile exercise when the result of the contest is yet to be decided. All attention, all focus and all concentration must be targeted towards doing those things that are in the present. If you have been planning for success you will have a simple set of routines to repeat for the contest. If you have been planning for failure you will be overcome by outcomes and expectation. No successful campaigner introduces emergency measures at such a late date. New ideas and practices are not for this time.

“The secret of success is hard work. Maybe that’s why it remains a secret to so many”

The Knowledge Tree – for all the ‘Gurus’ out there

A stranger was seated next to a little girl on the airplane when the stranger turned to her and said, ‘Let’s talk. I’ve heard that flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.’

The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and said to the stranger, ‘What would you like to talk about?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said the stranger. ‘How about nuclear power?’ and he smiles.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass – yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?’

The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, ‘Hmmm, I have no idea.’ To which the little girl replies, ‘Do you really feel qualified to discuss nuclear power when you don’t know shit?

Defiance
For those of you who expect life to be rosy and uncomplicated; where you can listen to that voice of complacency; where you seek out the easiest pathway; where you expect everyone to do things for you – well you are wasting your own time because the rest of us are defiant.

“You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy’s ranks.” Napoleon Bonaparte

The Secrets
I remember commenting (very politically incorrect, I know!) that the world of Coaching, Sports Medicine and Strength & Conditioning appears, in some cases, to be fraught with secrecy. There are practitioners who believe that they have the answer through some special program or ‘spell, potion or gadget’. What we need is an interaction between practitioners where ‘sharing’ is the prime strategy and egos are left behind. Remember – there are no magic programs or systems; no-one ‘owns’ an exercise or has singular access to ‘best practice’. We are all in this together on behalf of the athlete.

“Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce haemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.” Colin Powell