When I present at conferences, one of the most common questions I get is, “How can I teach sportsmanship to my students?” This question is usually followed up by a short anecdote about their student’s arguing, accusations of cheating, and unfair play. This question pops up on Facebook groups all the time. In the Montessori setting, the question of sportsmanship could be restated as, “How do I teach Grace and Courtesy in PE?” This begs the question, why is it so difficult to teach sportsmanship?
As quickly as you can, come up with a definition for sportsmanship right now. If you are having trouble creating a nice, succinct definition, imagine how much harder it is for the students to do it. Don’t feel bad though, because the concept is hard to understand. We (teachers and students) do a much better job of describing how to show good sportsmanship, or describe what poor sportsmanship looks like. Articulating sportsmanship as a set of beliefs, and not a list of behaviors, is what we are after.
For our younger aged students, we define sportsmanship as, “be fun to play with, be fun to play against.” If they can follow this simple statement, they will exhibit 99% of the behaviors that we hope to see out of someone who we would consider “a good sport.” Reasons why we want to be fun to play with include:
· Players who are fun to play with make their teammates feel good. Whether that is incorporating them more in the overall gameplay, complimenting them on a job well done, offering encouragement during mistakes, all these actions make teammates feel good. There is a famous quote that students don’t remember what teachers taught them, they remember how a teacher made them feel, and that’s the same goes for teammates.
· Being fun to play with gives that person more opportunities to play. If people enjoy playing with a certain person, they will more likely extend an invitation to play with them more often.
· Coaches like players who are fun to play with because they enhance team unity. If the coach likes you, you have a better chance of making the team, as well as getting more playing time.
Reasons why we “want to be fun to play against” include:
· Doing your best. Someone who works hard and tries their best encourages higher-level competition, with whomever they are playing. When the level of competition is close, games are more fun. Playing against an opponent of similar skill level encourages growth, which over the long term makes one a better player.
· Players who are fun to play against are respectful before, during, and after the game to their opponents, coaches, and refs.
· Players who are fun to play against do not cheat. They play by the rules and are fair.
· Players who are fun to play against do not brag when they win, and do not complain when they lose.
The mantra, “be fun to play with, be fun to play against,” works very well with the younger aged children. However, I go into more detail with the older students. They still should know the old mantra, but we are going to expound on this idea by adding the concept of time. For our older students, especially middle school, sportsmanship is, “valuing the long term over the short term.” We start with examples within sport as to why it is a good idea to value the long term over the short term. If there is adequate time for discussion, we can see how this mantra can be applied to other areas of life (relationships, money, business, etc.).
For examples in sport, I use these reasons why we should value the long term over the short term:
· The long-term goal of a sport is a championship; the short-term goal is a game. The championship is much more important than any individual game. We don’t want to do anything to win a game that might jeopardize winning the championship.
· The maintenance of relationships with our teammates becomes very important. We are looking for ways to get the most out of ourselves and our teammates, and positive interactions support good results. Friction between players always infects the whole team dynamic, reducing the chance of overall success. Berating a teammate who did not do well in one game will carryover into other games. We know that a poor performing player feels bad about how they did, but those bad feelings should be temporary as they work hard to improve. When external negative feelings are added on by teammates who are being overly critical, an association between those bad feelings and the teammates is created, and that will not be temporary. Propping up players who are hard on themselves reassures them that the team has their back after a poor performance. This will enhance team unity, improving the chances of team cohesion and success.
· An opponent today may be an ally tomorrow. Someone that we play against in grade school may be our teammate in high school. They may even become our best friend. We don’t want to make a decision that would tarnish our reputation so much (just for one game) that could prevent our ability to collaborate with someone in the future.
· Winning a game by cheating or dirty play has two severe negative ramifications that make it much harder to win in the long term. A team that cheats will create a reputation that they are cheaters with other teams and referees. This is especially true if a team is caught cheating because their reputation is truly tarnished for a long time. The second reason cheating prevents long-term success is the victory garnered through cheating will not improve the team over the long run. Cheaters eventually get caught, and once they are, the chance of victory in the future is bleak.
· We must accept when we are defeated, take responsibility, and not blame others (refs, coaches, cheating, etc.) When we lose, that is an opportunity to learn from our mistakes. When we learn from our mistakes, we can improve. The loss they suffered today can be a catalyst for the improvement they make in the future, which could be the difference in winning a championship. Losing is an important part of the learning process. We have to learn new things to improve, and that usually comes from overcoming adversity.
For my middle school students, and I wanted to update my sportsmanship game to make it more difficult physically and appropriate to their level of athletic ability. By making a few adjustments, they had a lot of fun because the difficulty was right where it needed to be to keep them engaged. Another feature of the game is strategy development. This game has an element of risk vs. reward, and can be played in many different ways. Without further ado, here is the middle school version of Sportsmanship and Losing with Grace.
Materials:
· A large open space (such as a gym or field)
· Several basketball hoops
· Large yoga balls
· Lots of hula hoops
· Volleyballs
Prior Knowledge: None. This lesson is the very first lesson that you do with your students to reintroduce the concept of “sportsmanship.”
Presentation
· Since this is the first PE lesson of the year, I don’t have a big introduction to this lesson. I welcome them back for another year of PE, and say that today we are just going to play a simple game to shake the cobwebs off. This was especially true during the 2021-2022 school year, because those 8th graders have not had in-person PE for the past year and a half!
· Break up the class into teams based on how many baskets you have at your disposal.
· Tell the students that they are going to be playing a regular season, playoffs, and a championship. Each game is only three minutes long, and we will be playing a lot of games today. Each game has the same rules, so they should try different tactics and strategies.
· The rules of the game are fairly simple:
o The students are working together as a team to score as many points as possible.
o There are two main roles that a student has on the team: a shooter and a yoga ball player.
§ The role of the shooter is to score points. The shooters score points by shooting the volleyball into the basket. However, that basket can be worth different amounts depending on the passing they have done with the yoga ball player. The shooter must start inside of their hula-hoop when they are trying to catch a pass, and they shoot from within their hula-hoop. The shooter is allowed to leave their hoop to make a catch, but must always start inside of it each turn.
§ The role of the yoga player is two fold: they enable passes by bouncing the volleyball off their yoga ball back to the shooter, and rebound missed shots back to the shooters by using the yoga ball. Both roles are incredibly important because it magnifies the amount of points of the shooter.
o The scoring system goes as follows:
§ If shooter A shoots a basket, that is worth one point. If Shooter A passes to the yoga ball student, and the yoga ball student deflects the ball to shooter B, and shooter B shoots and scores, that is worth two points. If Shooter A passes to the yoga ball student, and the yoga ball student deflects the ball to shooter B, and shooter B passes to the yoga ball student, and they deflect it to shooter C and they shoot and score, that is worth three points. This process can be continued indefinitely by the team to accumulate a massive potential score. However, to continue to accumulate the potential points, the ball must be passed to all team members of the team; it cannot go back and forth between a few players. When there is a successful score, those points are “deposited” and are safe, and the students start the process over again. If the ball is dropped during the passing, or a shot is unsuccessful and hits the ground, any of the potential points that were accumulated are lost (but deposited points are fine). If a shooter misses, then the yoga ball player should try to use the yoga ball to deflect it before it hits the ground back to one of the shooters. Doing so counts as a pass, and they have saved the potential points from being lost. This can be explained to the students as “risk versus reward.” More passes equals more potential points, but also more potential times the ball might be dropped.
· Play enough regular season games to allow everyone to get a chance to be the yoga ball player. During the game, keep time and announce the minute and last ten seconds of the game. Once the game is done, ask the teams their final score and mark the winner.
· After everyone has had a chance to be the yoga ball player, look at the results to determine the next course of action.
o If a quick bracket with #1 vs. #4 and #2 vs. #3 can be made, then it is the beginning of playoffs. These teams are now competing against one team to see who moves on to the championship.
o If there is one team that has way more wins than the others, give them a bye into the championship. They can sit out or practice while they wait. The other three teams should have a sudden death playoff, or the first team to get two wins (depending on how much time you have left). Once there is a winner out of the remaining teams, they should play in the championship.
· Once the game is over, gather the students for the debriefing. Before talking about the meaning of sportsmanship, recall some of the dynamics of the game. Explain that the game is made to reward good teamwork, but theoretically one player could win a game by himself or herself. However, that would alienate the rest of the team, and would be virtually impossible to sustain all the way to a championship. From a strategy standpoint, while it is a bigger risk, using lots of passes to make big scoring potentials is one of the best strategies.
Aims:
Direct: For the students to learn about sportsmanship
Indirect: Listening to directions
Teamwork and team building
Communication
Long term planning
Calculated risk taking
Physical skills practiced:
· Using a yoga ball to ricochet a volleyball (similar to a bump pass in volleyball)
· Catching a ball
· Either shooting a basketball
Control Of Error:
The control of error is whether the ball touches the ground, which wipes away the potential points. For the older students, I use the honor system and the teams keep score for themselves.
Points of Interest: The students will often work very hard to give good passes with the yoga ball because it is uniquely difficult, but easy to master after some practice. This game has a risk-taking element, which will present a dilemma for the students. How far are they willing to go passing the ball and accumulating points before they decide to shoot?
Age: Middle school and high school
If you are interested in the sportsmanship lesson plans for elementary students, here is a link to the free download.
Sportsmanship and Losing with Grace