What's
Missing from the High School Physical
Education Curriculum? A Unit to Improve
Speed and Acceleration
Written by: Darren
Dale
For the longest time,
physical education has focused on developing
aerobic fitness, flexibility, and motor
skills. Missing from this list is an
attribute of great importance to students
who play sports: acceleration. The ability
to accelerate quickly is critical in
team sports like soccer, field hockey,
baseball, softball, and lacrosse. For
players of equivalent skill, the better
athlete is the faster athlete.
Students who play team sports want
to improve acceleration. Coaches want
their athletes faster. Parents want
their children faster. Sprinting is
an exciting, challenging, and rewarding
physical skill. Spectators appreciate
the beauty, power, and grace of the
fastest people on earth. It is the track
sprints that showcase the Olympic Games;
the sprints are the events that exemplify
the pinnacle of physical excellence.
Why then, do physical educators pay
little attention to educating students
on how individuals are able to sprint
so fast?
It may be that the ability to accelerate
rapidly is perceived by teachers as
a skill that does not need coaching.
In comparison to driving a soccer ball
into the goal, throwing a runner out
at first, or sinking a 3-point shot,
sprinting might seem relatively simple.
This is not the case, especially with
respect to improving sprint
speed over 20-30 yards.
Improving an individual’s ability
to accelerate is a complex endeavor—it
requires knowledge of biomechanics,
energy system physiology, and neuromuscular
contributions to performance. Perhaps
this is one reason why physical educators
have been reluctant to include it in
their programs—their own education
on how to coach sprinting was inadequate.
Another reason may be that teachers
feel the skill of accelerating is too
closely connected to sport: they believe
it is the role of the sport coach—not
the teacher—to improve sprinting
ability. Of course, using this justification,
many sports skills currently taught
in physical education classes could
be handed over to the coaches.
A third reason might be that the ability
to sprint fast is not linked closely
enough with “health-fitness.”
Physical education has increasingly
adopted the goal of health promotion,
and this has come at the expense of
physically educating to improve performance.
A physically educated student should
understand how exercise impacts both
health and performance.
A decision to include acceleration
and sprinting in the high school
curriculum would provide exciting educational
opportunities. A unit devoted to this
topic could include information on building
strength (i.e., weights room exercises),
improving power (plyometric training,
assisted and resisted running), and
improving neuromuscular fitness (discrete
components of the sprinting action performed
at speed).
Acceleration cannot be taught properly
without helping students understand
anatomical principles underscoring running
mechanics (e.g., muscles responsible
for flexion and extension during the
drive and recovery phases of sprinting),
the physiology involved in powerful
muscle contractions (muscle fibre types,
anaerobic ATP energy production), and
principles of training programs designed
to improve acceleration (sets, reps,
volume, type of exercise). Additionally,
high school students would learn exercises
to strengthen core muscles (rectus abdominus,
external obliques, quadratus lumborum)
and improve flexibility of muscle groups
involved in sprinting (quadriceps and
hamstrings, hip flexors, calf-muscles,
shoulder girdle muscles).
Some teachers might resist adding a
curriculum unit on acceleration and
sprinting because not all students are
involved in sports. It is true that
not all students taking physical education
will be athletes. It is also true that
not all students taking math will become
mathematicians. The notion of acceleration
has as much merit in high school physical
education as learning to hit a volleyball,
serve a tennis ball, or catch a softball;
in fact, a case could be made that acceleration
is more important than these discrete
motor skills, as acceleration is common
across many team sports.
Some teachers might resist teaching
sprinting because it is anaerobic in
nature. Aerobic activities seem to have
a higher priority in the curriculum.
The testing of the one-mile run (required
by State Departments of Education) is
evidence of this. In comparison to the
one-mile run test, a test of speed has
more merit in a physical education curriculum:
validity and reliability are much easier
to establish; more students will rely
on acceleration when playing sports
than they will on aerobic fitness; acceleration
addresses attributes of strength, speed,
skill, and reaction time; pace-judgment
is not an issue; and motivation is probably
less of a concern. Unfortunately, both
the mile run and a test of 30-yard sprint
speed are tests of running ability.
Therefore, overweight children are disadvantaged
in both. For this reason (and this is
a topic for another day) compulsory
fitness testing is something physical
educators should reflect long and hard
about: what purpose is it serving?
For high school teachers interested
in learning about ways to improve sprinting
speed, the following websites may be
of interest. Many of the websites offer
products and equipment designed to improve
acceleration, sprinting, power, strength,
and flexibility. It is beyond the scope
of this article to evaluate the merits
of different products on the websites.
The intention is to make teachers aware
of what types of information, equipment
and support is available on the Internet,
to help with educating students how
to improve acceleration and sprinting
speed.
Websites providing articles,
video, and products designed to improve
speed, power, and strength, and flexibility
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