Team Sports
RECOMMENDED
Effective delivery of netball lessons for a non-specialist PE teacher
Reading time: 3 minutes
Netball – typically, you either love to deliver it, or you loathe teaching it. But as the popularity of the sport rises – a whopping 151,000 people regularly take part in netball in England (Statista, 2022), particularly in the mixed and men’s format – it has become more important that PE teachers have the ability to deliver effective netball lessons to their pupils.
Traditionally, many have found the rules of netball ‘fiddly’ or ‘niggly’. In this article, we discuss some strategies that a non-specialist could use to support their delivery and ensure that the game of netball is delivered to the highest of standards.
Read More
Q&A with Keith Hackett and former Premier League referees
Reading time: 2 minutes
PEOffice is teaming up with KeysToReferee to bring you an exclusive Q&A with elite former Premier League referees at 3pm today.
Former head of the PGMOL (refereeing body) Keith Hackett, who also refereed the 1981 FA Cup Final, will be fronting the session.
This week he will be joined by special guests, Roger Dilkes and Mark Halsey. Click here to sign up.
Read More
5 Fun drills for hockey penalty corners
Reading time: 2 minutes
Penalty corners are frequently given in hockey matches when a defender fouls an attacking player within the 25-yard area, so it is an area that many coaches focus on in training to help the team prepare for this set play.
Read More
Coaching 3-point shooting in basketball
Reading time: 2 minutes
3-point shooting is one of the most difficult skills to teach in basketball.
Players in the NBA make scoring 3-point shots look relatively simple. However, a lot of coaching and experience has gone into their ability to make these shots.
Read More
Coaching the lone striker role in football
Reading time: 3 minutes
When you are experimenting with team formations, playing with a lone striker is an option that can be used in various situations – often as a tactic for increased defensive stability or maybe because a striker gets injured and there are limited substitute options.
Read More
Effective skills coaching for both forms of rugby
Reading time: 2 minutes
Rugby League or Union: do you have a preference? These two types of rugby have as many differences as similarities, making each sport entirely different to watch or play.
However, there are some fundamental factors which are common to both, with certain skills benefiting players of either sport. Here’s a closer look at providing effective skills coaching which would be useful for both forms of rugby.
Read More
Using technology to help coach your football team
Reading time: 2 minutes
Technology has had such a positive impact on so many parts of our lives, so why shouldn’t we make use of it to enhance our sports teaching experience?
Coaching can be a rewarding but often stressful experience, and if technology can help make your job a little easier then why not go for it?
Read More
Teaching young athletes how to pass the relay baton
Reading time: 3 minutes
Teaching a group how to pass the relay baton can prove to be an exercise in slowing down as much as it is speeding up the changeover. To properly develop technique, young athletes need to be walked through the process.
Read More
Coaching to improve shooting skills in netball
Reading time: 2 minutes
When your team is on the court, how many times is the ball landing in the centre of the ring? If you’re not taking every opportunity to score goals, it’s going to be much more difficult to win matches, particularly against a challenging opponent.
Read More
5 fun drills…to encourage quick passing in rugby
Reading time: 3 minutes
Trying to work out more interesting ways to help your rugby players with their passing skills? This blog gives you plenty of ideas.
Read More
Improving Fitness for Rugby League
Reading time: 3 minutes
Rugby League is perhaps one of the toughest sports around, with participants covering an estimated 9km during an 80-minute match. Being in the best possible shape for this physically enduring sport is imperative if you want to play well.
Read More
British American Football Association wins ‘School Games NGB of the Year’ 2017
Reading time: 3 minutes
British American Football Association (BAFA) is the ‘School Games NGB of the Year’ 2017.
Why? Well, there’s been significant growth in participation in the first year (end of first term in the Games = 1,987 children, end of first year = over 4,000 children. An increase of 107%!), extensive efforts to engage with major stake-holders, and the unique and inclusive competition formats developed with the help of the NFL.
Read More
5 fun drills…for tennis doubles
Reading time: 3 minutes
Quick, rapid reactions are key to performing well when playing tennis doubles, and whilst reactions must be fast, accuracy and strength must also play key roles.
If tennis singles is demanding, then doubles is doubly so as a pair of players must understand one another and work together in unison. You need a diverse collection of drills to hone a wide range of skills if your students are to improve their doubles performance.
Read More
Using rounders as an entry-level sport to encourage participation
Reading time: 2 minutes
Sport in schools is often divided between those who love it and those who actively try to avoid it but for the latter group, it’s often a lack of confidence or ability which is the root cause.
Some sports can be more difficult to participate in if you’re not naturally athletic but that’s not the case with rounders.
Read More
Matball: the key to increasing participation in Key Stage 4 PE?
Reading time: 5 minutes
Want to offer something different in PE at KS4? Want to improve your attendance numbers at extra-curricular clubs, particularly in KS4? Keen to offer a positive experience to contribute to improved health and wellbeing of your students?
If you answered ‘yes’ to all three of these questions then you should look no further than introducing the game of Matball to your students.
Read More
How to introduce maths into your rugby lessons
Reading time: 2 minutes
Integrating maths with PE is yet another way schools and academies can seek to develop interdisciplinary lessons for children, and it doesn’t have to be as difficult as it first sounds.
With a few simple tips you can have a rugby lesson that is not only teaching them about the game itself, but also gets them to participate in maths lessons without them even realising it.
Read More
Sarah Hunter – an interview with the England Women’s Rugby team captain
Reading time: 3 minutes
Girls need positive role models if they’re to be inspired to take up sport; here we interview Sarah Hunter, captain of the successful England Women’s Rugby team.
Read More
Is elite sport accessible to students at state schools?
Reading time: 2 minutes
State school students are still finding it more difficult to gain entry to the top ‘elite’ sports of rugby union, tennis, cricket and athletics.
But why is there such a clear divide between those in private education and the rest who are in mainstream schooling?
Read More
5 Fun drills for rugby league
Reading time: 5 minutes
Rugby league focuses on the key skills of handling, passing, running and tackling. Players are expected to have quick hands, good sprint speed with bursts of pace to try to break tackles, and the strength to tackle and halt their opponents’ runs.
Here are 5 drills that we hope you will find useful to help your rugby league players enhance these key skills.
Read More
Football – Teaching Tactics
Reading time: 2 minutes
Football is the biggest sport in England, with over 2 million people over the age of 16 playing once a week, and millions of children playing regularly.
This being the case, understanding tactics is an important part of the sport. But how young should coaches start to teach tactics to children? And how important are tactics to children’s development at grassroots level?
Read More
Increase cricket participation in your school
Reading time: 2 minutes
So, you have the interest of your pupils to learn and play cricket.
But how can your harness that interest further?
Here are a number of ideas and suggestions that have worked….
Read More
Basketball in Schools
Reading time: 2 minutes
Basketball in Britain is governed by British Basketball with the British basketball league (BBL) being the highest league in Britain, consisting of 13 teams, 12 of those are from England the other team are Glasgow Rocks. However, it is the NBA (National Basketball Association) which is the biggest league in the world, boasting some of the biggest names in the sport, such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
Read More
Rugby Skills
Reading time: 2 minutes
England is set to host the Rugby union World Cup in 2015, two years after the rugby league world cup was joint hosted by England, France, Ireland and Wales. For our country to have hosted both world cups in the different formats shows how important rugby is to our nation. Without doubt English rugby union’s greatest moment came in 2003, when England won the world cup thanks to a drop goal from Johnny Wilkinson beat Australia 20-17.
Read More
Getting Girls Involved in Football
Reading time: 2 minutes
With over 1.4 million women and girls currently playing football in Britain, it is the country’s most popular female team sport for participation. Since 2013 when a strategy launched by the football league trust, the FA and the Premier League the number of females between 14-25 years old regularly taking part in football has risen by over 20,000.
Read More
Participation in Rugby Union
Reading time: 2 minutes
With Round 1 of the Six Nations kicking off with Wales V England on 6th February, now is the perfect time to look at rugby union in schools. As of 2010, 66% of primary and secondary schools were providing rugby union sports provision.
Besides enjoyment and fitness, rugby union can develop a wide range of skills and values such as working in a team, determination, respect and sportsmanship.
Read More
Teaching cricket in schools
Reading time: 3 minutes
As with any lesson in the classroom, PE Teachers and coaches are the ones that can inspire and drive the interest in any subject they teach, including PE.
Whilst there is a common train of thought to make everything we do inclusive for all children regardless of their ability and experience, the best advice for delivering sport is “make it fun”.
Read More
Encouraging participation in cricket clubs
Reading time: 3 minutes
Teaching and coaching cricket in school is one thing, but as with any sport it should not stop there.
Many children may already be playing for cricket clubs and teams outside of school, but what can teachers do and what is out there to encourage participation in cricket outside of school for those children that currently don’t play?
Read More
Working in a Team and Building Trust
Reading time: 2 minutes
A very large percentage of sports are team activities, therefore it is essential that your students can work effectively within a team and build trust with their teammates, and you as their leader.
To work effectively in a team, your students need to be able to confident in their own abilities so they can contribute effectively, not only physically, but mentally as well. They need to be able to tell their defence to ‘get up’ or they might need to motivate their teammates if they are not performing well.
Read More
Reducing youth crime with sport
Reading time: < 1 minute
The BBC reported on research today carried out by think tank and charity New Philanthropy Capital which suggested that ‘playing cricket can deter your people from joining gangs and committing crime’.
Read More
Innovative practices for teaching rounders
Reading time: 4 minutes
Teaching and learning in rounders should be exciting for everyone involved, with rapid progress through innovative practices.
I’m lucky as I work with EYFS right through to top level performers representing their country, both in schools and satellite centres. This has really helped me developing a long-term plan for teaching rounders, which aims to support all pupils to be ‘the best they can be’ by challenging them through inclusive and innovative lessons.
Read More
American Football For Schools
Reading time: 3 minutes
American football delivered in a UK school will have little in common with the NFL (which tends to be the most common source of understanding and knowledge about American football in the UK).
The first barrier to successfully introducing it into either a primary or secondary school is to correct the many erroneous assumptions and beliefs about the sport that will be held by school management, parents and indeed the students.
Read More