The purpose of this article is to explain the purpose and opportunities that local, regional, state and national parks offer and perhaps more importantly how physical educators can encourage use of parks to meet state and national standards of physical activity.

Many classroom teachers in our schools do not know what physical educators truly do. There is a need for additional strategies for physical education (PE) teachers to be viewed as contributors to not only students' development as skillful movers, but also to the goals of the entire school. By implementing new cross-curricular best practices, the…

Every student is unique and possesses different needs and abilities, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Alternative instruction that accommodates their distinctive needs could increase their probability of success in physical education lessons. The integration of technology in physical education classes would be a valuable…

The purpose of this article is to review the four sources of self-efficacy and provide practical examples of how physical educators and youth sport coaches can implement them into their current practice to improve motor performance.

When teaching volleyball to neophytes and relative beginners, it is crucial to make modifications to ensure success, to maximize touches, to lengthen rallies and to foster structured play. Two such modifications described in this article, Instant Volleyball and Flips, help the instructor meet all four of these goals. Eliminating the serve from…

Traditionally in education, particularly in elementary education, curriculum areas such as PE, Art, and Music have been labeled with the commonly known term "specials." In many cases, this term has simply meant that these classes include "extra" content that enhances the school's overall academics when time is allowed. This…

Table tennis, recognized for enhancing personal development and fostering an inclusive learning environment, remains underutilized in educational curricula due to resource constraints and practical challenges in teaching. This article explores the educational value and implementation challenges of table tennis in physical education and proposes…

Tossing is one of the easier manipulative skills to develop and is a fun skill to teach. All students can feel successful and there are so many different activities to do when teaching tossing. This article presents some basic cues and 10 tossing stations to make teaching and learning this skill extra fun.

Highly successful athletes must learn how to optimize factors that facilitate flow and effectively manage factors that inhibit flow. This article explains what coaches can do to push the flow button and motivate athletes to have peak experiences and improved performance.

This article serves as a starting point for teachers to understand the core values of martial arts that can be incorporated into physical education to promote social-emotional learning and how to integrate martial arts in physical education.

Sensory obstacle courses provide lesson ideas for teachers targeting objectives in both cognitive and psychomotor domains. Specific cognitive learning includes the movement concepts needed to navigate obstacles set up in the gymnasium aimed at developing athletic motor skills competences needed for sports. Sensory courses include using stations…

This article is adapted from a research study that interviewed physical educators in an urban city located in the Northeast of the United States. This article focuses on the teachers' perspective around the topic of differentiated instruction in elementary physical education. The key concepts are: understanding the student, assessing on the fly,…

Although most teachers would acknowledge the impact relationships with their students have on the environmental climate in their gymnasium, this topic has been scarcely discussed. To date, there are few papers focusing on tangible strategies for developing, building, and enhancing the relationship between physical educators and their students.…

This article speculates that the benefits of competition may derive from the enjoyment and absorption of intrinsic competition, while the many negative effects of excessive competition, especially as seen in children and youth, may be due to extrinsic competition, the pursuit of wins for their own sake. Twelve practical suggestions are offered for…

The SHAPE America National Physical Education Standards have long been the foundation for best practices in quality physical education. Following the 10-year cycle for revising the standards, a task force with diverse professional backgrounds convened to update the National Standards with special consideration for stakeholders who will be impacted…