Lifetime participation in physical activity is a major goal of physical education. For this reason, teachers should focus on instructional units that provide students with knowledge and skills in content areas that can be used throughout their adult lives. Examples of lifetime activities include outdoor recreational activities, cycling, water…

This column describes the game of Royal Pickles -- a "King of the Court'' variation of pickleball that removes the bored spectator element from the class and creates a solution for the challenge of having too many students and not enough court space.

Sports are a central part of Grades 3-12 curricular content in school physical education. Guided by the theory of situated learning, a new curricular model called Situated Game Teaching through Set Plays (SGTSP) has been proposed to systematically teach sports to 3rd-12th graders and college students using situated set plays from a situational and…

This article offers a blueprint for how middle-school geometry and physical education units naturally intersect for authentic integration of both subjects. This disciplinary intersection is called the "Geometry Racket" and illustrates how mathematics knowledge provides and almost unfair advantage (i.e. racketeering) in net/wall games.

Pickleball is being played and taught all over the world. Requiring a combination of touch and power shots, pickleball is a game of both patience and opportunistic play. Despite its popularity, limited teaching resources currently exist for physical educators on how to teach critical pickleball skills in their classroom. "You Dinked My…

The purpose of this article is to enhance the existing literature about effective teaching practices for the sport of badminton, specifically introducing an adaptation for an "assessment for learning" rubric. Using a standards-based model, the "play practice" conceptual framework of assessment can be implemented for the sport…

In this series of two articles, we connect complexity theoretical frameworks of ecological dynamics and enactivism to initiatives for learning to play tennis advocated by USTA and Tennis Canada. These initiatives were inspired by the International Tennis Federation commitment to reduce the complexity of learning tennis by rescaling the game for…

The second article (Part 2) builds on the theoretical and contextual foundation developed in paper one by exploring in more depth how to teach tennis based on the use of USTA modified equipment and Tennis Canada's play-practice-play program. Drawing on the enactivist cognitive approach to teaching tennis, this paper shows how tennis players,…

This article introduces a sequence of movement tasks to teach one-handed sidearm striking with a short implement to preK- to second-grade children. Although one-handed sidearm striking is a complex skill, learning this skill during early childhood would expand future opportunities for children to engage in various lifetime physical activities.

This article describes a progressive methodology for teaching the tennis serve to large groups with a focus on optimizing practice opportunities and providing individual feedback to players. Specifically, it delineates teaching the serve to 24 players on two courts. The methodology can be adapted for more players and/or more courts as appropriate,…

Developing the ability to shoot a basketball takes more than just chunking up a few shots in the gym each day. What many people do not realize is the number of hours of practice involved in becoming proficient. Go to any local gymnasium and you will find young players thrusting the ball toward the rim from behind the 3-point line with little or no…

This article demonstrates the game sense approach for teaching tennis to novice players. In a game sense approach, learning is positioned within modified games to emphasize the way rules shape game behavior, tactical awareness, decision-making and the development of contextualized stroke mechanics.

This article presents an action and superhero theme to engage pre-K to second-grade students in fun and engaging tennis-related activities and drills.

Promoting student engagement for all students in physical education, and specifically in game play, is a challenge faced by many middle and high school physical education teachers. Often, the games we play in physical education are not "good games" because, as early as middle school, some students are already resistant to playing…

Tennis is a sport that promotes physical activity for a lifetime. Individuals of practically all ages can benefit from recreational and/or competitive play. Although playing tennis provides many wellness opportunities, learning to play the game and playing consistently can be a challenge, regardless of one's age (for the purpose of this…