Week 1

Athletics - Sprint run

Home > Early Stage 1 > Sprint run

Session equipment:

30 markers
relay baton per pair
20 hoops
chalk
Variety of targets — such as 2 litre (or larger) plastic bottles with a little sand in the bottom, cricket wickets or buckets.
Objects to throw — soft small balls, bean bags, tennis balls, sponge balls — 2 per player
Obstacles that are easy to jump over (15-30cm hurdles are ideal)

Download the Week 1 Athletics - Sprint run activity cards to support teaching before and during the sport session.

FMS focus: Sprint run

Learning intention

Students are developing proficiency in the sprint run.

Success criteria

Student:

lifts knee high (thigh almost parallel to the ground).
keeps head and trunk stable, eyes focused forward.
drives arms forward and back in opposition to the legs.

When proficient in the above, student:

Lands on ball of the foot.
Has non-support knee bent at least 90 degrees during the recovery phase.
Elbows are bent at 90 degrees.

Explicit teaching of the sprint run

Model the skill:

Model the sprint run to students while explaining the movements needed to effectively sprint.

Say to the students:

- Lift your knees high.
- Bring your heel close to your bottom.
- Look ahead.
- Make your feet follow an imaginary line.
- Don’t let your heels touch the ground.
- Land on the balls of your feet.
- Bend your elbows and swing your arms.
- Run tall.
- Bring your heels up to your bottom.

Guided practice with immediate teacher feedback:

Students use a hoop or skipping rope to create a personal space.

They run on the spot in this space.

They practise swinging bent arms, lifting legs up high and pretending to run up a hill.

Play “Simon says.” Ask students to run while focusing on specific body parts or movements. For example, ask students to run: taking small steps (a low knee lift); taking normal steps (a high knee lift), with and without an arm swing; with head moving from side to side; and with head held still and eyes focused ahead.

Skill development games

Choosing teams

In a sport education approach, affiliation is promoted by students being a member of the same team over a period of time. It is intended that students remain in these teams for the duration of each sport program for the skill development and the modified small-sided games, so that they can develop and learn together.

Place students in equal teams, 4 teams is optimal, at the beginning of the skill development session. Strategies for forming groups can be found in the Game-based learning in sport and physical activity e-learning course.
To further promote affiliation students can decide on a team name.

FMS focus activity - Ladder relay

FMS focus: Sprint run

Equipment: Ladder or marker cones, relay baton or similar

How to play: Players race each other in a relay, by placing one foot in each section, to introduce running with various stride lengths.

In teams, players divide and stand opposite one another.
Players race to the other side, placing one foot in each section.
Continue until all members have completed the relay.

Long jump - Frogs and lily pads

Skill focus: Standing double foot jumps

Equipment: 10m x 10m square marked out by 4 cones (the pond); hoops

How to play: Players continuously jump from lily pad to lily pad using a two-foot forward jump. (Play in groups of 4 – 8)

Randomly distribute the hoops (lily pads) inside the pond, making sure they are not too far away from each other (i.e. jumping distance).
Players jump from lily pad to lily pad and see how many they can land on in a given amount of time, e.g. 60 seconds.
If there is more than one frog on the lily pad, it will sink. If a player jumps onto a lily pad with another player already on it, the original player must immediately find another lily pad to jump onto.
Players may jump into the pond as well as onto the lily pads.

CHANGE IT!!

Increase or decrease the distance between the lily pads to vary the jumps, e.g. jump for height and jump for distance.
Introduce a tagger. Players must jump around the pond and avoid the tagger. Players are safe if they are standing on a lily pad, but as soon as another player jumps on that lily pad the original player must find a new one. If a player is tagged, they become the new tagger.

Modified relay games

It's game time!

Teams play each other in the relay outlined below.

Relay game one - Racing relay

Skill focus: Speed, acceleration, running, jumping, agility and coordination, start position

Equipment: Marker cones, obstacles that are easy to jump over (mini hurdles are ideal)

How to play: Players race each other in a relay, jumping over obstacles along the way.

In teams, players start with one leg, and their opposite arm, forward.
Players sprint to the other side, jumping over their obstacle as they go.
Race three times: first have obstacles at 5m, then 6m, then 7m from the start line.
Continue until all members have completed the relay.

CHANGE IT