From Sport to Sport Education
Schools have become really good at coaching sport. Particularly to the most able athletes. There are more specialist coaches, individual programmes, out-of-this-world conditioning facilities, analysis and other support mechanisms than ever before in history. The population of plastic cones has expanded exponentially, and been joined – in an ever growing store cupboard – by all sorts of other machines and technologies alleged to improve performance. Professional sport has produced a generation of full time players, for whom a career in school coaching is an attractive answer to the previously ignored question of post-performance employment.
This is reflected in improved performances. The best athletes and teams produce a level of school sport that would have been unimaginable in the Corinthian era of only 30 or so years ago. Then, generalist PE teachers and their amateur enthusiast classroom teacher/games coach colleagues delivered a range of activities with an enthusiasm which often outstripped their technical knowledge. Specialisation changed all that, and gave birth first to the arms race of facility development, and then a sharp growth in headcount in school sport. Schools have, on average, five times the number of sports staff than they had only 20 years ago.
Sport in education has made giant leaps forward. Sport as a vehicle for performance in schools is unrecognisable. However, as a mechanism of personal development, education through sport has not always kept pace.
Sport is not just a set of performance skills: it is also, at its best, a collection of attitudes and values. Respect, empathy, gratitude, commitment, self-discipline and appreciation may been unfashionable qualities for many teenagers, and this is precisely the reason why sport has such an important place in education. It is, however, only a potential advantage. The assumption that participation develops these qualities is fatally flawed: it is only participation within a culture which promotes and values these behaviours that derives the full benefit that justifies the time, energy and resources that modern programmes demand.
Too much school sport is played in a sour atmosphere, especially at the highest levels of performance. Players, coaches and spectators feel at liberty to comment, publicly and adversely, about officiating. Errors are unforgiven. Comments between teams, and spectators, are sullen, aggressive and disrespectful; pre and post-game socialising often minimal and perfunctory. Parents are quick to criticise selections and tactics, and slow to show appreciation. Opportunities to play are demanded, but commitment to being involved when it’s not convenient is less robust. A climate of self-centredness can lose sight of the collaborations necessary to make sport work. The role of the opposition, the referee and the support staff are too often unappreciated and unacknowledged. A cursory handshake, without eye contact, replaces a heartfelt, “Thanks for the game.”
A sense of entitlement can come to replace gratitude. Genuine appreciation of the efforts of grounds staff, bus drivers and caterers is in short supply, despite the fact that the standards of these services are higher than at any time in history. Looking after the kit and equipment, leaving the facilities and transport clean, thanking people without being told – and meaning it: these are the behaviours that indicate a strong culture of personal development. Alongside this is respect for the efforts of the opposition, and the officials. This is sport at its best - every bit as much as breathtaking skill levels. These qualities can fuel an inter-generational cycle. Where teachers and coaches demand and demonstrate high standards, older pupils become role models to the younger ones. Taking pride in doing things well is not age or ability dependent, but neither is it inevitable. Behaviours that are tolerated become the new norm. Standards that slide are lost forever.
As school sport gradually restores itself after a year of pandemic-enforced absence, there is an opportunity to re-boot. There is a chance to clarify its purpose, and capacity to contribute to wider outcomes. Performance is a narrow definition of success: that is the business of sports academies. It is only one dimension of sports education.