I have heard many PE instructors ask “What can be done when the students claim the teams are unfair?” This can be an infuriating problem because it wastes so much class time when the students complain about the teams instead of just playing. Initially, we ask them to keep going and see what happens, hoping that the losing team starts to make a comeback. We hope that the students will show determination and grit in overcoming the deficit in the score. When this problem becomes chronic, it needs to be addressed differently. Here are some methods I have employed that have helped with the ever frustrating problem of “unfair teams.”

Let the students make their own teams

Let the students make their own teams teams. You must ask them to do this ahead of time, not the day of. Ask the students to make not one, but several versions of “fair teams.” The students will have to consider balancing several factors:

Athletic skill levels

Friendships

Variety of teammates

Age (if in a multi-age classroom)

Previous playing experience (especially if they are playing a specific sport in PE)

Asking the students to consider these factors and create a plan for themselves will build empathy, honesty, communication, and negotiation skills. Having more than one version creates variety and ensures some friends will get the chance to play with each other. Asking the students to make their own teams is similar to how a classroom may ask the students to create “classroom rules” or a “peace pledge,” which is a user made agreement on how the students should act in the classroom. You may already have this in place in your gym class, which is great! Asking the students to make teams can be an extension of this “peace promise.” Creating the teams will promote a playing environment that promotes the ideals of sportsmanship. If the students make their own teams, it becomes much harder for them to claim unfairness because they created them. They will be as unfair or fair as they make them. If they do insist the teams are unfair, this can be a good prompt to discuss why they are unfair, and reexamine the factors that the students need to consider when making the teams again. While this process can feel tedious, there is important social and emotional learning going on.

Make the teams yourself

The instructor always has the option of making the teams themself, and usually this is done to preserve time. As mentioned above, the instructor will have to consider many factors when making the teams. Making random teams or counting off leaves one susceptible for critique, but it can work on occasion. However, if you are reading this article, I’m guessing it hasn’t worked too well for you in the past. As the instructor, hopefully you are familiar with the students, including their athletic abilities and previous knowledge, so making up fair teams on the fly is possible. I usually pair the students up in my head based on skill and experience and put one person on one team and the other student on the other team. I am pretty sure this is what 99% of you do as experienced instructors, so rely on your observations to make the best choices possible.

Remove the competition against each other

When students are not directly competing against each other, but against a goal or objective, they tend to stop worrying about the performance of the other team and focus on their own. Many of the games I have created are designed to compete against a goal or objective, and not necessarily against each other. This helps mediate the competition because not having a direct opponent reduces the anxiety surrounding fair teams. However, there will be plenty of times that you will have to play a sport in your PE class, especially traditional or indigenous sports if you use my curriculum. Many times sport does have direct competition between teams. However, before the sport is played, the skills of the sport can be reduced down to mini-games which help the students practice the skills and still compete in a less threatening environment. I have a blogpost about the use of games that avoid direct competition here.

What are fair teams?

The easiest way to identify that the teams were fair is when the final score was close. It doesn’t mean it always has to end in a tie, which can be frustrating to the students if they identify this is happening artificially by the instructor to avoid conflict. If the score was close, that means that the competition was good, and the skill levels and abilities of the teams were evenly matched. Having two teams close in skill level always makes the most fun and exciting games for everyone. When the team’s abilities are equivalent to each other, this facilitates learning and growth, which will be much more engaging for both teams. If one team is way better than the other, neither team will have fun. The team that is overpowered may enjoy the game initially, but will either tire from the ease of the game, or hopefully not feel so good about their lopsided victory. The team that is being decimated obviously will not enjoy the game. The team that is being slaughtered will more than likely stop playing, which is the worst case scenario for both teams because the game is over and no one is playing anymore. This is the reason why fair teams are so important. They literally make or break the game, and the learning that we hope to achieve.

What happens when fair teams are still lopsided?

There will be a time when the teams are fair, but one team will completely dominate the other. Why does this happen? The two biggest reasons are:

Better teamwork

Better strategy

Both reasons will become excellent teaching tools for all the students. If the teams are fair, but one team is better utilizing the abilities of more players than the other, this should be addressed so the other team can try and emulate that great teamwork. One person cannot defeat a whole team. If there is a student who is trying to do it all by themself and are not successful, there is no better teachable moment to point out that the other team is winning because they are including more of their players. There is nothing wrong with a highly skilled student who is good at scoring, but if they can learn to develop passing and team awareness skills, this is how good becomes great.

Another way one team can be more successful is when they understand the game better and exploit a strategy that makes them more successful. When this happens, celebrate it! This is evidence that the students are using their critical thinking skills. Let the one team dominate for a while, then pause the game and explain to both teams what the more successful team is doing, why it is so effective, and see if the losing team can adapt their strategy to better defend against it. If the losing team can adapt, this is awesome! They listened to directions and adjusted their strategy. Strategies are reexamined at every timeout and half time of any game the students watch or play in. A coach has to adapt to what is happening in the game, and either stay the course or change strategy based on their observation and experience. This will also encourage the more successful team to try and find a new winning strategy (further pushing their problem solving skills).

One of my favorite sayings is, “You either win or you learn.” If the losing team can adapt, they are not losing, they are learning. A team can only lose if they refuse to change their ways regarding strategy and teamwork. This concept obviously applies to life itself. People are usually afraid of failure and embarrassment, which prevents them from accomplishing their goals and dreams. If one can change their frame of reference so that failure is actually a learning experience, eventually the individual will have no choice but to be successful because they never stopped learning!