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Go on Diego, run up and smash it! [voice off camera]
The activity we were working on this week was volleyball and there's a game that
we learned at a conference a few years ago that takes volleyball, a very difficult sport
makes it something a lot more fun for kids.
It's a game called Smash Ball. Um it-it basically is backwards mapping for volleyball
and it teaches all those difficult skills last.
...with your striking hand behind you, like you're going to hit it towards that fence
there. So turn your body sideways with your dominate hand behind you.
The ball should be at about your waist height
and you should take your hand, put the thumb off on the side, and put it right
up against the bottom of the ball....
Layering instruction is giving kids the single basic thing to get them moving
right away and as they handle that single basic part, adding a part.
And then as they get that, adding a part.
And continuing through that process until they've achieved either the full spectrum
of the game or activity you want to teach them, or stopping and focusing on the parts
that maybe they don't understand.
So in volleyball, nets are generally at 8 feet high. You have to serve from 30 feet back.
Smash Ball, your serving from 10 feet away.
The net is only as high as the shortest person in your class with their arm extended
so that everyone can be successful doing what none of them can do at this age.
All of them want to spike, none of them can do it until you bring the nets down.
So layer one of Smash Ball focuses on serving.
They serve the ball from the 10 foot line. It's the closest line to the net.
From there, whoever handles the serve can let it bounce. They can catch it, then they
get to run to the net and smash it by themselves.
The ball gets to bounce, they catch, they run, they smash it by themselves.
So layer 2 of Smash Ball now introduces the next position which is the setter.
So now, once we served from the 10 foot line again, the person receiving it can still
catch it off the bounce, but now they don't get to run up and smash it on their own.
They have to toss it and use a teammate who gets to catch it like a setter and then set
the ball for the smash which is very in line with what volleyball looks like.
They get to smash a ball that's moving. The setter gets to control the ball in a very
controlled environment. I can catch it. Even if I catch it below my waist, I get to
bring it above my head and set it the proper way.
The setter now... when that ball goes up has to do what we we call a live set.
That means they're going to catch the ball high, like this, and in one motion as the
ball is coming into their hands they're going to receive it, bring it up to their
forehead and go up all in one motion.
So if Ramon was going to toss me the ball it would like this: Go up and I would go in
and up. And I wouldn't get to catch it and hold it.
Now they have to receive it, bring it down, set it up all in one fluid motion like you
really would in the game of volleyball.
Much more difficult so it's bringing volleyball closer to what it really looks like
and the game starts to speed up.
So very similar to level 2. We even try to teach it in the same week...
but now it's a live-it's a live set.
One more time. Arms down.
Behind the ball.
Lift.
So now layer 4 is where things get really...really difficult.
This is where you introduce the standards based forearm pass.
Now off the serve, instead of being able to let it bounce and catch I want the students
to be able to learn what it means to play volleyball at that proper pace.
We introduce passing and we do some skill development first and then when we bring
them out to the game, the layer is only on the serve, try to pass it.
After that, let it bounce, go back to catching. The setter even gets to catch the ball
because they don't know - that passing is very difficult to control.
So if I pass the ball, the setter gets to run, catch it wherever it is, and then reset
themselves just like layer 2.
So layer 5 of Smash Ball takes...regular volleyball...
and on the serve...takes a forearm pass. Setter doing a clean...without stopping set
and then a smash. Very difficult.
Once it's been smashed or once it's been passed over the net if there was a mistake
then it kind of takes a backwards step and we can have a stoppage again to let play
continue, but at least on the serve they get feel what real volleyball looks like.
As I was watching you guys on the court, we had very little success...
forward passing the ball-forearm passing the ball.
And it's okay.
Once I brought you back down to being able to stop and catch the ball again, at least
we could go back to doing a nice set up smash. And we could practice that, and
that's alright. Okay.
The next time we work on it, we will be working on forearm passing some more.
So when the students are out playing a layer and I can just see
they're having a really hard time returning that serve with their forearms,
we can stop, we can go back to a layer that they are comfortable with and then we can
next week go back and do some more skill development.
The layering format for PE can really be done with any activity.
Tagging games are really great-our introductory tagging games are really
great for this. When we stop and add a layer, typically it only takes 1 to 2 minutes
if that. Then they're moving again...and then we stop and then we add another movement.
And generally these can be done...generally they can be done without bringing everybody
back together. Sometimes we have to bring them all together just because of
what I want to show them. But usually the layers can take between 1 to 2 minutes
to get the next bit of information out and get them moving again.
The goal is when-when I've got a 50 minute lesson, I want to pack as much moving time
as I can. Our goal is moderate to vigorous physical activity
in as much time as I can get them in the littlest time I've got with them.
So if this-if this layering process is a way to do that, then I've been all in since
I've started using it. And I think it's really effective. And I think-I think people
can use it for things very complicated whether it be for teaching a sport like
volleyball or teaching a skill like throwing and catching.
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