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Replacing Compulsion with Culture in School Games

Posted Monday, 9 January 2017

There has been much recent consternation about the future of potentially dangerous sports in schools, largely fuelled by Professor Pollock’s widely articulated assessment of the dangers of physical contact. Her campaign appears confined to an attack on Rugby Football, in defiance of the science that shows that, before the age...

The Fundamental Appeal of Team Games

Posted Friday, 9 December 2016

The feeling of belonging matters to humans. At a cellular level. The release of oxytocin, the hormone which evokes feelings of contentment and security, makes people feel happy to be part of a group. It helps explain why identification with a family, town, school or team is such a fundamental...

Can you have Performance and Participation?

Posted Wednesday, 23 November 2016

The tension between the pursuit of high performance and the goal of wide sports participation has complicated the landscape of school sport for about twenty years. Prior to that, the sector was comfortable that the legitimate purpose of school sport was to seek success in competition with a small number...

Can you Teach Determination?

Posted Friday, 11 November 2016

Does sport appeal to people who already have determination, or can people develop this quality through the experience of physical activity? No one would dispute that persistence is a positive personal quality, so if it can be improved, that would be a considerable justification for those experiences which could enhance...

The Impact of Physical Literacy: how PE is proven to improve performance on and off the pitch

Posted Friday, 11 November 2016

Far extending the need to tackle the childhood obesity epidemic, the holistic development of pupils has no better place to thrive than in PE lessons where teamwork, leadership, negotiation, strategy, success and overcoming failure a.k.a. life’s toolkit, can be tried and tested without limit. Why it has taken until 2016...

Why Winning Matters (More than it Should)

Posted Friday, 14 October 2016

“The most important thing … is not winning, but taking part” Baron de Coubertin For more than 100 years, Pierre’s observation has confused the landscape of sport, and inspired strong and conflicting opinions. This is less the case in North America, which is more comfortable with the summary dismissal of...