Summary 1
CHANGES IN BASIC TACTICS AND MOTOR SKILLS IN AN
INVASION-TYPE GAME: After a 12 - lesson Unit of Instruction
By: Michael Nevett, Inez Rovengno, Matthew Babiarz, and
Nate McCaughtry
Summary by Marlesa Manson
Issue/Focus: This article stated that mere practice and or
game play in a youth sport environment has not shown that cognitive decision -
making will improve substantially. The study was conducted to find out what
influence instruction had on the development of certain tactics needed during
invasion games. This article tried
to answer three questions: Do children's tactical passing decisions and their
cutting actions change after a 12 - lesson unit of instruction? Do children's
ability to send a catchable pass to a teammate change after instruction? and Do
children's skill in catching passes change after instruction?
Reasoning: This study was set up with 24 fourth grade
students receiving 12 lesson units of instruction. Each student was carefully marked and graded on certain
skills which they performed before the 12 lessons and then again after the 12
lessons. The study was finished and
found that in almost all cases each student improved their skills from pre -
test to post - test games. This study also found that children's cognitive
tactical decisions during game play improved more easily over the course of the
season than their motor skill execution component of sport performance. Children
can understand what skill they need to do before they can properly execute it.
This study suggests that 4th grade students in a school setting can learn
passing and cutting tactics in a modified invasion game when simple tactics are
the focus of instruction.
Assumptions: The
article stated that practice and not game play would improve students’ proper
execution of the skills. The people who conducted this study should have used a
control group who simply played games for the 12 lessons, and then had their
skills tested the same as the other students did. They authors just assumed that
practice would produce better results, which they did, but there was nothing to
compare the results to. This article also assumed that a teacher would be able
to spend large amounts of time analyzing each student and adapting the
situations to meet their specific needs in order for them to improve.
Conclusion/Significant Information: After reading this article. It was clear that having students play small-sided games such as 3 on 3 with emphasis on certain skill execution would produce good results in a real game. Having students focus on certain aspects of the game, for example passing, cutting, and getting into good position to receive a pass helped overall game performance. This article went into good detail on how each individual student performed during the practices. It did not assume that every student learned equally as fast and each student was therefore graded on their own scale of improvement. Having these practices with small-sided games greatly helped the weaker players. When everyone went back into the game at the end of the practices the weaker players had improved the most and were equally as good as the strongest players.
Summary 2
Changes
in Basic Tactics and Motor Skills in an Invasion-Type Game After a 12-Lesson
Unit of Instruction.
By Michael Nevett, Inez Rovegno, Matthew Babiarz, and Nate McCaughtry.
Summary by Kirk
Spinks
Focus:
The focus of this
arcticle is as the title states. Through the use of research methods, a study of
how children (grade 4, boys and girls) respond to skills taught over the course
of 12 lessons.
Three basic
questions were asked;
1. "Do
childrens tactical passing decisions and their cutting actions change after a
12-lesson unit of instruction?"
2. "Do
children's ability to send a catchable pass to a teammate change after
instruction?"
3. "Do
children's skill in catching passes change after instruction?"(352)
Reasoning:
The particulars of
the research study were to involve the grade 4 students in a modified game of
3on3 basketball. Instead of basketball hoops they used hula hoops and the floor
and no dribbling occurred. With these restrictions the students were forced to
focus on the skills asked for in the 3 questions.
The researchers
created a "Coding instrument" which would allow them to quickly assess
the students in the various skills used and decisions made.(354)
The tool resembles
the "tick and tally" sheets that we in 452 are familiar with.
Students played the same game over the course of the 12 lesson unit and
the data was collected and analyzed.
Many of the
findings were consistent with what we would expect to find. Children at this
level are able to improve their decision making skills over the course of 12
lessons.
Assumptions:
The authors of the
article go on to develop their own assumptions about the research project. 1.
The need to look at interrelationships between players and the decisions made.
2. They also consider that game skills and decisions are not isolated events,
many factors could influence the success.
My own personal
assumptions/ questions lie in
the length of the lessons. I question; How many lessons do the students need in
order to show improvements? Is 12 a magic number?
Secondly, students
after playing a modified game for too long may not be interested after a certain
number of lessons.
Finally, I
personally believe that for the children to improve they need to be challenged
as the lessons progress and this may help to show more improvement.
Conclusion:
The study reveals that grade 4 boys and girls will improve their invasion game skills over the course of 12 lessons. This study is useful because it shows us that our job as physical educators is not just teaching games. It shows that we have that ability to teach decision making skills and our students are able to learn and improve. Finally, the study also holds the theme of our learning this semester of modified games help to improve tactical decisions and ultimately improve the skills needed to perform.