Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Beach volleyball vs. volleyball

20 minutes (plus playing time)

Find Out: Collecting data

25 minutes

Take Action: What does this mean?

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

explore the similarities and differences between beach volleyball and a second style of volleyball through the collection of statistical data.

Success criteria

Students can:

transfer beach volleyball skills to another volleyball scenario
collect and analyse data to compare their personal performance across the 2 sports.

Preparation:

This is a split lesson, with the ‘Tune In’ and ‘Find Out’ phases happening first. Students start by exploring different types of volleyball and their similarities and differences. Students will play both beach volleyball and an alternate version over a period of time and track their statistics. This could be 4 weeks or a whole term, depending on what suits you! In the end, they apply their mathematical skills to measure their journey.

Tune In: Beach volleyball vs. volleyball

Step 1

Explain to students that beach volleyball is a newer sport for the Commonwealth Games, and was first introduced at the 2018 Commonwealth Games held at the Gold Coast. Share the highlights from the Canada vs. Australia final, where Christopher McHugh and Damien Schumann won the first men’s beach volleyball gold medals for Australia.

Highlights: Beach Volleyball | Australia v Canada | Gold Medal Match (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOMDousVMgU)

Step 2

Explain to students that they will be practising their beach volleyball skills over a period of time (we suggest a minimum of 4 weeks, but it could be as long as a term). While they are developing their beach volleyball skills, they are also going to track their progression.

Students will decide which statistics to track to measure their improvement. Statistics they may want to track could include:

number of digs vs sets vs spikes
number of serves returned vs not
number of blocks
lengths of rallies (number of touches)
score.

They will need to plan their investigation and decide how they will keep track of their statistics.

Step 3

Once students have planned their investigation, explain to the class that they will start by setting their benchmark statistics in beach volleyball and an alternate version. As part of their inquiry, they will aim to answer the question: Does training for beach volleyball improve our skills in another type of volleyball?

Step 4

Ask students to choose 1 of the following types of volleyball:

sitting volleyball
biribol or aquatic volleyball (requires access to a pool)
indoor volleyball
sepak takraw (played with the feet instead of the hands)
blind volleyball (where a parachute or tarp is draped across the net so the teams cannot see each other)
wallyball (requires access to a squash court or other enclosed court).

Using the Venn diagram on the Student Worksheet and online research tools, have students identify how the sports are similar and different. Students can think about:

weather
court surface
court size
ball
team size
rules
scoring
uniforms
net height
positions.

icon/ For students in your class who meet the classification system, there is also para-beach volleyball and deaf volleyball. You can explore these sports at ParaVolley – Volleyball Australia.

Find Out: Collecting data

Step 1

Students form teams and play short games (2 x 5-minute halves) of beach volleyball and then their chosen alternate volleyball, with a classmate recording data on each player's match.

If you don’t have access to a beach volleyball court, you can set up a net across a sand pit, or you can play barefoot, 2 a side on a grass pitch.

Step 2

After the matches, students compare their own data. Which sport was easier for them? Which was more difficult? Which skills were transferable across both sports?

Continue to play beach volleyball over a set period of time (we suggest a minimum of 4 weeks and up to a term) and track the same statistics throughout this time. Volleyball Australia have put together some great resources to help community players develop their volleyball skills.

Step 3

At the end of this time, play the final match of beach volleyball and record your statistics. Follow this up with your second game of your alternate style of volleyball, and record the statistics from this game as well.

Take Action: What does this mean?

Step 1

Once the students have collected all their data, they need to create data displays/visualisations appropriate to the statistics they collected. They must compare and contrast their beach volleyball statistics against their statistics from their alternative volleyball style over time and interpret the display.

We have included an assessment rubric for students to use with this task.

Reflection

Lead a class discussion, and invite students to reflect on:

Did you see equal improvement across both sports?
What difference did you see in your improvements across the sports?
What other sports could you transfer your volleyball skills to?

Serve It Up!

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

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