Athletics in the school environment has its basic foundations in education for students. The sport is divided into several events:
- Short/Medium/Long Tests;
- Long Jump Events;
- High Jump Events;
- Dart Throwing;
- Discus throw.
The learning process of each modality has a certain level of specific difficulty; in this sense, the physical education professional must adapt the rules and equipment used to help their students and create a challenging environment. They are resulting in the improvement of skills and agility in the practitioner’s decision-making.
Therefore, athletics rules and modalities can be treated cognitively, resulting in an essential factor for its students’ taste. Because it has a bit high difficulty, the teaching of athletics is recommended in elementary school grades.
The teacher also needs to motivate his students, as many of them see sport as something “unfunny,” preferring team sports.
Teachers often find it difficult to introduce this sport in their classes because the discipline is only worked in two semesters of their graduation. In some cases, the professional has not been successful in athletics in his past, moving away from the modality.
In other cases, the physical education professional chooses only to show the technical movement, worrying only about teaching how to do it, without charging for “doing it well.” Taking the potential of its students, who could stand out in this area.
Other difficulties in teaching athletics in schools
There are many factors used as an argument for not teaching athletics at school, such as:
- Lack of adequate space;
- Lack of specific materials;
- For being an essentially individual sport.
In addition, as pointed out by Matthiesen (2005), the media conveys an image that harms the sport, associating the image of its practitioners with gifted people/champions, who create a pattern that is difficult to achieve.
The lack of documents and records on the subject is also an obstacle for physical education professionals, causing a lot to be lost about athletics history.
Thus, when professionals deal with athletics in the school environment, it must go beyond movement technique, trying to teach about:
- Your story;
- Peculiarities;
- Cultural Issues;
- Big names in athletics;
- About your competitions;
- Among other matters.
It is indispensable to develop a pedagogy that is not limited only to teaching gestures but showing the entire universe that encompasses athletics.