Reasoning The authors of this article wanted to teach the badminton lessons with the emphasis on understanding instead of the traditional ‘technique’ based lessons. The authors planned to teach the class by having them play 1-on-1 with the goal being to hit the shuttle over the net and hit the court on the other persons side of the net. The goal was to get the students to appreciate the space on the court and let them get a feel for the game without direct skill instruction right away.

Assumptions Some of the assumptions made by the authors were that the students would have a general understanding of a net/racquet game without necessarily having any previous formal instruction; that the students would be able to learn by trial and error; that there would be a greater positive response by the students if they were allowed to play more game like settings rather than practicing the skill drills; that they as teachers would be able to move around the class and get to all the students in order to make suggestions and/or corrections about their techniques and that students would improve their play by using a variety of shots in a game situation versus drills that emphasize repetitions of skills. Another assumption is that there would be enough transfer of skills from past experiences the students have had to help them with the basic skills of the game.

Conclusion From reading this article I found that students learned quickly using the TGFU approach and also that it kept more people involved in class (no one was sitting out), and also that using questions and making the students think on their own worked really well. By allowing students to work their way through a game by trial and error with a few coaching tips here and there and some basic instructions, the students had a more enjoyable experience and were more active than having a teacher talk and demonstrate skill to be done in sets of repetitions. The TGFU approach applied in this article allowed students to find out and develop skills that they may not have realized were formal skills such as the ‘over-head clear or smash.’ By gathering the students once in a while to ask questions about why things are done a certain way and to explain some general rules/strategy and to make brief corrections it keeps the lessons semi formal and maintains some structure while still allowing for maximal playing time.

Significant Information Something that might be an idea for teachers trying a TGFU approach might be to have the students fill out a brief experience questionnaire such as the one included in this article. It seemed to provide good feedback to the teachers as to how their teacher was seen from a student’s point of view. Also, use a question based learning approach where the teacher asks the students for the answers to how something might be done, because it causes the students to think instead of just taking in everything that is said to them.

Personal Comments I thought the article was useful in that it gave me an outline for a feedback questionnaire and that it also gave me some ideas as to how to approach teaching a net/racquet sport using a TGFU stand point.