Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Striking sports

20 minutes

Find Out: Have a go!

25 minutes

Take Action: How did we do?

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

practise fundamental striking movements across a range of sports.

Success criteria

Students can:

apply striking skills in different scenarios
record and represent 1-to-1 data.

Preparation:

This is a split lesson, with the ‘Tune In’ and ‘Find Out’ phases happening first. Students start by exploring striking skills, and different sports that involve striking skills, before creating a plan to improve their own striking skills. Students will enact their plans over a period of time. This could be 4 weeks or a whole term, depending on what suits you! In the end, students apply their mathematical skills to measure their journey.

From the list of Commonwealth Games sports with striking skills, choose 3-5 based on your equipment availability. Then, set up rotation stations where the students can practise striking. Be mindful of the direction of the strikes.

Tune In: Striking sports

Step 1

There are many different sports at the Commonwealth Games. Use the Visual Explainer to explore the different sports. Show the students the picture and ask if they can name which sport it is.

Step 2

Once the class has explored the different sports, explain that they will focus on striking skills, where a tool is used to hit a ball. Invite students to discuss and suggest which Commonwealth Games sports they explored that use striking skills.

Suggested student responses:

cricket
hockey
badminton
table tennis
squash.

Learning support: Alternatively, you could start the presentation again and explore the sports individually to decide whether they involve striking skills.

Step 3

Watch the following videos of striking skills used in the different sports of the Commonwealth Games as a class.

Video 1: Hockey

2018 Commonwealth Games Women’s Hocket - CAN vs AUS [April 5, 2018] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA73z4-XeFI) (Watch until 1:00)

Video 2: Badminton

Badminton Men’s Singles, Kenya vs Australia Birmingham Commonwealth Games (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U3X9lUgxic) (Watch from 1:00 until 2:00)

Video 3: Table tennis

Table tennis players confident ahead of 2018 Games (https://www.news.com.au/national/table-tennis-players-confident-ahead-of-2018-games/video/095d19afb317f29755bbd0f6c02eebce)

Video 4: Squash

Squash - #B2022 Sport Explainer Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdIMFmBqQmE&list=PLDpIhT88Z_ThDe0FV5_Axeo35DBFKpAO1&index=35)

(Watch until 1:00)

Video 5: Cricket

Women's T20 Cricket | Australia vs India | Commonwealth Games 2022 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1xulSHWmz0) (Watch until 1:30)

After viewing, ask students:

Which way does the athelete’s body face when they go to strike?
Where are their hands when they go to strike?
What are their feet doing when they go to strike?

Step 4

Invite students to reflect on what they discovered about how athletes strike the ball by turning and talking to the person next to them. Ask students to share their responses with the class afterwards.

Suggested student responses:

2 hands for big hits, hands close together
stand side-on to hit
feet spread shoulder-width apart
take a step towards the ball to hit.

Find Out: Have a go!

Learning differentiation: You may like to start in the classroom with these prompts for how to strike a ball in each sport.

Hockey - How To Strike A Hockey Ball
Badminton - How To Strike A Badminton Smash
Table Tennis - Table Tennis: How to Hit a Ping Pong Ball
Squash - Squash tips: Hitting the inside of the ball
Cricket - Batting Fundamentals

Step 1

Take your students to the rotation stations and do light warm-ups, including arm and chest stretches using the Warm-up Cards.

Move around the rotation stations as a class and explain each to your students. At each station, demonstrate the skill and explain the station set-up. See the Striking Skills Stations cards for station set-up. Each student will have 10 attempts to strike the ball at each station. They can colour each successful strike in 1 Borobi on their worksheet.

Learning support: You could start with a stationary ball for students who need support. A squash ball or badminton shuttlecock can be balanced on a tee ball tee to practise striking at a shoulder-level, and a table tennis ball on a cone or marker can be used for cricket- and hockey-style striking. You could also use a balloon before trying a moving ball.

Learning extension: For students who need an extension, start with a moving ball and provide a target. If they contact the moving ball, they can colour the star blue. If they hit the ball strongly, they can colour it yellow; if they hit the target, they can colour it red.

Remind students to stand side-on, keep their eye on the ball, use 2 hands, and step into their hit.

Step 2

In groups, direct students to rotate around the stations, attempt the skill and record their efforts. Remind students that this is their first attempt at trying these sports, and no one is an expert on their first go!

Step 3

Initiate a class discussion with your students using the following prompts:

Which sport did you like the best?
Which sport was the trickiest for you?
Did you remember to keep your eye on the ball?
Did you remember to stand sideways?
Did you remember to use 2 hands for big hits?
Did you remember to step into your hit?

Step 4

Set up these stations once a week for students over the next few weeks. This will allow them to practise the skill and record their efforts. Keep the weekly record sheets, as we will use this data in the next section!

Take Action: How did we go?

Step 1

Ask your students:

Did you get better at these sports the more you practised?
Which sport do you think you are the best at?
Which sport did you find the trickiest?

Step 2

Have students pick 1 of the sports they practised. Using the Pictograph Worksheet, ask students to record their successful hits across the weeks.

If your students participated in the learning extension, have them record their hits on target or combine their successful hits with their hits on target.

Learning extension: Students can complete the graph for more than 1 sport and compare the difference in their improvement between the 2 graphs.

Reflection

Invite your students to reflect by asking them the following questions:

Why do we practise sports?
Would practising 1 sport help you be better at another sport? (For example, if you practised hockey, would you be better at cricket? If you practised table tennis, could that help you with tennis?)
Do you think trying lots of different sports is a good idea?
Why do we collect data on sports? What did this data tell us?

Strike for Success

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