Play Practice: Engaging and Developing Skilled Players From Beginner to Elite, Second Edition, provides an alternative to traditional sport instruction. This innovative and authentic approach to teaching sports combines contemporary theory with the experience of practical and reflective work in real sport environments.
Coauthors Alan Launder and Wendy Piltz, both with wide-ranging experience as players, teachers, and coaches, expand and update the play practice approach they presented in the first edition and show how it can be used to help improve sport skills for players of all ages and abilities. This flexible model of sport pedagogy can be applied as a whole or one element at a time. It covers a wide range of team and individual sports, including archery, table tennis, flag football, snow skiing, cricket, and track and field. Plus, you’ll find a wealth of field-tested ideas for working with diverse learners in schools and communities.
The second edition highlights the significance of key terms such as games sense, technique, resilience, and fair play. It also provides new information relating to the complexity of learning and addresses the difficulties beginners face in the learning process. The second edition of Play Practice integrates a thorough analysis of skilled performance with an understanding of the conditions under which people best learn. It also shows how the strategies of simplifying, shaping, focusing, and enhancing can help you create situations to maximize learning and positively influence the attitudes of learners.
Over 130 illustrations and photos demonstrate specific approaches, ideas that can work for multiple sports, and ways to apply the approach with beginners through elite players. Summary sections in each chapter help you quickly identify and review key topics. And two bonus chapters about the origins, evolution, and theoretical bases for Play Practice are available free for download at www.HumanKinetics.com/PlayPractice.
Play Practice is based on the idea that an individual’s commitment to achieving mastery is a powerful motivator for learning. Learn to harness these motivators and create enjoyable practice situations in which learners young and old, whether resistant beginners or highly motivated professionals, are encouraged to strive for excellence.
Part I. Fundamentals of Play Practice
Chapter 1. Approaches to Teaching and Coaching Sport
Traditional Approaches to Teaching Games and Sport
Teaching Games and Sport Effectively
Origin and Evolution of Play Practice
Precepts of Play Practice
Differences Between Play Practice and TGfU
Summary
Chapter 2. Elements of Skilled Performance
Games Sense
Playing Skillfully With and Without the Ball
Integrating Games Sense and Technical Ability
Understanding the Rules
Understanding Tactics
Understanding Strategy
Fair Play
Resilience and Mental Toughness
Agility
Endurance
Physical Courage
Communication
Summary
Chapter 3. The Process of Playing Skillfully
Differences Between Beginner and Expert Players
Complexity of the Total Skill Process
Summary
Chapter 4. Strategies for Teaching Play Practice
Simplifying Activities
Shaping Practices
Focusing Practices
Enhancing Play Experiences
Summary
Chapter 5. Teaching Specific Elements of Skilled Performance
Developing Fair Play and Resilience
Improving Technical Ability
Developing Games Sense
Reading the Play
Developing Communication
Summary
Chapter 6. The Ps of Perfect Pedagogy
Plan
Prepare the Learner
Prepare a Protected Learning Environment
Present the Task Effectively and Efficiently
Pretest
Provide Opportunities for Practice
Provide Feedback
Praise Performance
Project Poise, Patience, and Passion
Part II. Play Practice in Action
Chapter 7. Teaching Field Invasion Games
Soccer
Field Hockey
Lacrosse (Noncontact)
Australian Football
Chapter 8. Teaching Invasion Games
Touch
Rugby Sevens
American Flag Football
Chapter 9. Teaching Court Invasion Games
Basketball
Netball
Korfball
Team Handball
Futsal
Chapter 10. Teaching Court-Divided Games
Table Tennis
Badminton
Tennis
Volleyball
Chapter 11. Teaching Striking and Fielding Games
Bowling and Pitching
Cricket
Softball and Baseball
Chapter 12. Teaching Target Games
Archery
Golf
Ten Pin Bowling
Lawn Bowls
Chapter 13. Teaching Individual Sports
Cross Country Running
Track and Field Athletics
Swimming
Skiing
Chapter 14. Sport for All
Talent Versus Opportunity
Identifying Talent
Developing Elite Athletes
Summary
Alan Launder has been involved in sports for more than 50 years as a competitor, teacher, and coach. He has worked in Great Britain, the United States, and Australia.
He has taught at elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels with considerable success. His period as head of the physical education department at Dr. Challoners Grammar School in England in the 1960s was especially rewarding because in a relatively brief period the school became a sporting powerhouse.
For the last 20 years of his professional career he was a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia, where he helped to develop a four-year degree course in physical education teacher education that became a model for programs in other countries. He won the 1992 Rothmans Prize in recognition of his ability to develop and communicate innovative ideas in sport education.
Launder holds senior coaching qualifications from Great Britain and Australia in soccer, cricket, basketball, track and field, and table tennis. In 1984, he was a coach of the Australian track and field team at the Los Angeles Olympics. In 1986 and 1988 he was the head coach of the Australian team at the World Junior Championships. In 1991, 1993, and 1995, he was a coach of the track and field team at the World University Games. Most recently he has served as a consultant to the Australian Track and Field Coaches Association and to the Australian Lacrosse Association as they revised their coach education programs.
Wendy Piltz has been involved in physical education and sports for many years as a player, teacher, and coach. Her involvement in a range of sports and various outdoor pursuits is a significant aspect of her lifestyle and expertise. An accomplished athlete, Piltz has competed at the district level in basketball and netball, the state level in touch, and at the national level in women’s cricket and lacrosse.
Wendy is a committed and enthusiastic educator who has worked in elementary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. She completed her undergraduate degree in physical education from the University of South Australia (formerly ACAE) in 1978 and her master’s degree in social psychology from the University of Oregon in 1980. Wendy taught in the public secondary school system in South Australia for 10 years as a specialist health and physical education teacher and a school coach of basketball, lacrosse, cricket, volleyball, touch, athletics, and netball. In addition, she worked with elementary-aged children and served as a volunteer for 5 years as the basketball coach of children in grades 3 to 7 at her daughter’s primary school. Her coaching experience extends to a state level in women’s cricket, and she is currently coaching lacrosse at the North Adelaide club in South Australia.