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Physical education classes empower students far beyond their ability to climb a rope or make a goal; they can also help students gain a greater sense of personal and social responsibility. This month, Human Kinetics Library offers free-to-read selections from experts examining how physical education and fitness classes can integrate Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) to help students strengthen skills that will stay with them throughout school and into adulthood.
Physical education classes are an ideal environment for shaping and developing a child’s character. In the updated third edition of his formative book Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, education professor Don Hellison gives teachers and coaches strategies for using physical activities in classes, alternative schools, and afterschool programs.
In this section, Hellison presents his TPSR framework, ideal for educators who wish to deepen the significance of physical education for students.
A successful character-building program requires a positive learning environment where students feel safe and supported while facing challenges. In this chapter from their book Using Physical Activity and Sport to Teach Personal and Social Responsibility, authors Doris L. Watson and Brian D. Clocksin offer pedagogical and practical guidelines for creating a positive learning environment where all students can flourish, even in the most competitive of sports.
Gameplay can be an effective way to help students of all ages understand the importance of fair and equal treatment. In her book Playing Fair, expert Joy I. Butler offers teachers new strategies embracing the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) approach to help students learn fundamental concepts of social justice.
Read this provided chapter in which Butler demonstrates how educators can use subtle guidance to help students create rules for their own games while learning about fairness, responsibility, and cooperation.
A valuable fitness education course helps students strengthen both physical and emotional health. Physical education experts Jayne D. Greenberg, Nichole D. Calkins, and Lisa S. Spinosa present readers with a fully-loaded toolkit to help teach fitness for the whole student in their book Designing and Teaching Fitness Education Courses: Innovative Ideas and Practical Solutions for Secondary Schools.
In this chapter, the authors illustrate how teachers can incorporate social and emotional learning (SEL) into their fitness education programs, helping students discover the psychological benefits of a physically active lifestyle.
Teaching personal and social responsibility is one matter; assessing and evaluating it is another. The final chapter in Don Hellison’s book Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity offers creative and effective ways not only to establish TPSR assessment criteria at the end of a course, but help students take an active role in the process itself, including self-evaluation that helps builds awareness and strengthen character.
While martial arts and combats sports are not necessarily the same, both involve mental discipline and focus. From judo and taekwondo to kickboxing and wrestling, hand-to-hand competition can strength the mind, body, and spirit when approached correctly.
Explore these selections from Human Kinetics Library and take a tour through sports that require much more than the ability to kick or punch.
Many hand-to-hand competitions involve high-intensity interval training (HIIT)—emphasis on intense. In their book Science and Application of High-Intensity Interval Training, editors Paul Laursen and Martin Buchheit bring together experts who apply HIIT to a range of athletic activities including combat sports.
This sample chapter by sports performance expert Duncan French offers training advice focusing on the role of speed and explosive strength in a range of combat sports including wrestling, boxing, and taekwondo.
Whether you’re engaging in taekwondo, karate, judo, kung fu, muay thai, or other martial arts, the path to success begins with understanding the necessary physical and mental standards. Expert and veteran coach Loren Landow’s Ultimate Conditioning for Martial Arts begins with this sample chapter mapping out the physical requirements of martial arts, considering key factors like speed, agility, flexibility, and power, as well as how these elements work together to help learners master their craft.
After learning about the fundamental requirements for success in the martial arts, continue exploring Landow’s ultimate guide with this chapter providing an overview of base conditioning. Here, the author provides training guides that address three energy systems—anaerobic alactic, anaerobic lactic, and aerobic—to help competitors maximize fuel to produce short explosive bursts of power and still sustain energy in longer durations.
Attempting to learn a new sport can feel intimidating, especially within the martial arts. For beginners, the best way to gain confidence is to learn and practice as part of a group. In their book Methods of Group Exercise Instruction, experts Mary M. Yoke and Carol K. Armbruster present guidelines that can help instructors provide participants with the best possible learning experience.
Read this chapter in which Yoke and Armbruster offer advice for instructors teaching kickboxing, whether their learners want to compete, increase fitness, or have fun.
Long considered one of the world’s most popular martial arts, judo is also one of the most physically demanding. Among its many key elements, judo requires a high level of endurance to help competitors push through physical and mental exhaustion. In his book Training and Conditioning for Judo, sport science expert Aurélien Broussal-Derval presents this chapter with advice to help participants increase endurance that in turn improves strength, balance, and control.
