Games Sense Teaching Games for Understanding

1. What is a Games approach to
teaching Physical Education?
And why we love using it in 6S.
Figure 1. Girl passing football

2. In Games Sense we begin
with simple games that
presume very little in terms
of the student’s experience
or proficiency.
Fun  and participation are
key.
Skills are still taught but only
as they are needed to
progress the game. This way
the technical work has
meaning for the players and
they appreciate its relevance
to the game (Mandigo,
Butler, & Hopper, 2007).
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2CGDpZ2y8qhty1JrF3uNx4zVM1t2pDW-KbAaEd-AInfEfEsLAHg
Figure 2. Boy kicking ball

3. Four categories of game are considered
Striking /
Fielding
Games
Net/Wall
Games
Target
Games
(Mandigo, Butler, & Hopper, 2007):
Invasion
Games
Throughout all game types, questions like “Why
are we doing this?” and “How can we do this
better?” guide exploration (Pill, nd).

4. End ball is
the first
“Invasion
Game” I
introduce.
This simple game helps students develop
strategies that will work in a host of other games.
By passing the ball to each other, players aim to get into
position to pass the ball to their end player and score.
The attack and defence strategies, the awareness of space
and the tactics learnt, also apply to rugby, netball, soccer,
basketball and other games as well.

5. How students benefit.
(Light , 2006; Mandigo et al 2007; Townsend, 2007; How to change it: A guide to help coaches and teachers improve sport-related games, 2007)
By beginning with a
simple game,
they begin to
appreciate
how the
rules, skills
and
strategies
influence
each other,
and what
tactics give
them an
advantage
over their
opponents,
and make decisions about when to apply those tactics.
So this is
where I can
introduce
rules etc to
make the
game more
demanding.
Now
developing a
good passing
technique is
worthwhile
as it will help
them use the
tactics
they’ve been
developing
Figure 3. TGfU model

6. Why I think Games Sense
works so well…
The students and I love this approach because:
• I find very few students get intimidated. This is
often a big problem for old-school
approaches.
• It keeps everyone involved and improving.
• Everyone gets more contact time. Even games
like cricket can be modified so that everyone is
active the majority of the time.
Figure 4. Shuttlecock

7. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2CGDpZ2y8qhty1JrF3uNx4zVM1t2pDW-KbAaEd-AInfEfEsLAHg
Figure 2. Boy kicking ball
And when everyone is
active, we don’t have
students hanging around
waiting to practice drills,
getting restless and
starting to muck up.
Like this…

8. References
Figure 1. Girl passing football. Retrieved Oct 11, 2014 from
http://www.coachingtoolbox.co.nz/table/game-sense/
Figure 2. Boy kicking ball. Retrieved Oct 11, 2014 from http://nickhillcoaching.com/?p=826
Figure 3. TGfU diagram adapted from image retrieved Oct 11, 2014 from
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/345792077609738231/
Figure 4. Shuttlecock. Retrieved Oct 11, 2014 from
http://web.uvic.ca/~thopper/iweb09/LauraConnor/Site/Rationale_files/droppedImage.jpg
Light, R. (2006). Games Sense: Innovation or just good coaching? Journal of Physical Education
New Zealand, 39(1).
Mandigo, J., Butler, J., & Hopper, T. (2007). What is Teaching Games for Understanding? A
Canadian perspective. Physical & Health Education Journal, 73(2), 14-20.
Pill, S. (nd). Teaching games for understanding. Physical Education and Recreation, 29(2).
TGfU...Simply good pedagogy: Understanding a complex challenge. (2009). (T. Hopper, J. Butler &
B. Storey Eds.). Vancouver: PHE Canada, .
Townsend, G. (2007). Game sense: Rugby Football Union.