In my experience as a Mental Performance Coach most of the questions I get regarding performance can be answered by creating a mental plan. Mental plans can be as simple or complex as needed. They can be made to address everything from general day-to-day life to sport performance, including, but not limited to pre-competition, competition, post-competition and recovery plans.
The FACE plan provides a simple, easy to use structure to build a mental plan. FACE is an acronym that stands for Focus, Attitude, Confidence, and Energy. Loosely borrowed from the military’s contingency PACE planning strategy, the FACE plan provides a complete mental plan while quickly prioritizing mental tools and skills.
I grew up a three-sport athlete, but I always had a love of outdoor recreation – especially rafting, mountain biking, and snowboarding. Unfortunately, with a limited income and the time constraints associated with being a college student, it was hard to get away for extended periods of time to do these activities.
When I first played disc golf, I was surprised to find out how inexpensive the game was. Then I was amazed at how much it was like one of my favorite games – golf. All of my favorite aspects of golf were present in disc golf, such as frustration tolerance, scoring, physical exertion, social engagement, appreciation for nature, and etiquette. As time passed, I became fully entranced by the game and decided to pursue a doctorate studying the elusive counter-culture of disc golf.
While disc golf may be a relatively unfamiliar sport to the general public, the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) estimates 500,000 people play it annually, and as many as eight to twelve million people have played disc golf at some point in their lives (PDGA, 2018). Although research on disc golf is limited, public disc golf courses are perpetually full of recreation enthusiasts, leading me to wonder, “Why didn’t I hear about this game sooner?” and “Why wasn’t this taught in physical education classes?”
There are few sports where people can remain competitive well into old age, but disc golf is a sport where players, such as the 2016 Master’s World Champion, John E. McCray (48 years old), can compete and win against younger athletes (Latitude 64, 2020). Like golf, disc golf is a sport for people of nearly all physical and cognitive abilities and is considered a low-impact lifetime leisure activity (Tuten & Conkell, 1999) that is typically free to play, since over 90% of courses exist in public parks (Oldakowski & McEwen, 2013). Disc golf can be played by a single person for independent mastery or played as a competitive multiple-participant sport where players attempt to score lower (fewer strokes) than their fellow competitors.
If you are a climbing wall instructor or physical educator with climbing as part of your program, you know firsthand that some people are natural climbers. They instinctively put their bodies in the optimal positions to get across or up the climbing wall, while others need direct instruction.
In order to help climbers progress, it’s good to know what to look for so that you can help your climbers improve over time. In the early stages, climbers should work to master the following basic climbing technique.
Adapted physical education is not intended solely for students with disabilities. Adapted physical education is physical education that has been adapted specifically for an individual. To teach adapted physical education is to differentiate your instruction. In other content area classes, teachers are expected to differentiate their teaching. All students are expected to learn the same content, but how they are expected to learn that content is up to the teacher.
When teaching a general physical education class, you will have students who excel, students who struggle, and students, often the majority, who fall somewhere in the middle. This is the same for all content areas, that is why there is a need for differentiation; differentiation helps all students learn while being challenged. You are meeting your students where they are at, rather than teaching the same information to everyone and hoping they learn.
It is the year 2022… and by now, most people know the extensive benefits of physical activity for individuals of all ages (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2021). Schools, in particular, seem to be aware that they need to take a more holistic approach to the education of children that includes physical activity opportunities before, during, and after the school day, built upon a foundation of quality physical education (CDC, 2019; Dauenhauer & Stoepker, 2022; Slade, 2020). Physical activity, after all, offers myriad health benefits for youth (Janssen & Leblanc, 2010) and can also contribute to improved academic performance (Rasberry et al., 2011), so it seems like a no-brainer for schools. Unfortunately, research suggests that schools are still overwhelming sedentary places for kids to be (Egan et al., 2019). The reality is, that we need to do a better job preparing the current and next generation of teachers to systematically integrate physical activity into the school day.
The idea of having a school Physical Activity Leader (PAL), previously referred to as a Director of Physical Activity or Champion of Physical Activity (Carson et al., 2012; Castelli & Beighle, 2007; Stoepker et al., 2021) is not new. Efforts have been made over the years to train teachers and school staff on the knowledge and skills to promote physical activity in schools with mixed results (Carson et al., 2014; Carson et al., 2020). Likewise, many teacher preparation programs around the country have been taking steps to thoughtfully integrate elements of physical activity leadership into their undergraduate and graduate teacher preparation programs (Castelli et al., 2017). It is difficult to know how much these efforts have moved the needle. We do know, however, that we are still not where we want to be in terms of youth meeting daily physical activity recommendations (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2018).
It has become wildly apparent that neglect leads to destruction. The planet, the houseless, bodies, trauma, young people. ( I could add the elderly or just ‘people’ there as well, but older people tend to have and want to keep, and don’t want upheaval to complicate things. They also typically don’t have the energy.) When I returned from my two-month leave, the storage closet and mat room were in shambles. Two of my female students told me how they organized the equipment closet for me, then found it a mess the next day. They cleaned it again and found it a mess again. As I listened to their story, I playfully asked, “And then what happened?” We just gave up. I smiled, thanked them for their efforts, and said, “Welcome to [Physical] Education.”
I get to school early, at least an hour before our directed 7:30 am start time. I need time for myself, to move and notice the left conditions of things. The starting point is never the same. Not with my body, not with the environment. There is a system of inspections that takes place. We make continuous, sincere checks on that which we care about. What is the current condition, what resources do we have to either solve or investigate the problem, and what conflicts are at play for maintaining order and ownership?
Registration for the August 2022 Conference is now open and can be accessed here.
The CGP Conference is the brainchild of several Athletic Directors from across Europe. This collective thinking has transitioned into an alliance of five schools who are committed to supporting the creation of a recurring coaches conference aimed at international school coaches. The following five schools have made a commitment to support the conference and act as hosts in a rotation schedule: