Lab 6:

Designing a Developmentally Appropriate Skill Practice Session

Courtney Stannard, Colleen Brewer,

Khoen McBeth, and Maddy Selby

Maria del Mar Chavarria

April 27, 2018
SES 323-105

Introduction
 The goal of this skill station is to establish a good foundation of striking a ball with a

short handed implement. With establishing the foundation of hitting a ball with a short handed

implement, it makes it easy to apply this skill to game like situations. A mature strike has the

following movements: trunk turns to side in anticipation of tossed ball, weight shifts to back

foot, hips rotate, transfer of weight is in a contralateral pattern, weight shift to forward foot

occurs while object is still moving backward, striking occurs in a long, ful arc in a horizontal

pattern, and weight shifts to forward foot at contact (Magill, 2011).

There are certain components that are used in order to complete a successful striking

motion. These components consist of a handshake grip, step with opposition, get home, bend

knees, side to target, and follow through aiming at target.

At this age (8-10) students should be able to successfully hit the ball with racket towards

a target. The students should also be able to start hitting a ball back and forth with a partner

while maintaining control of the ball.

We have put together four stations to teach striking. For this lesson we will need four

tennis racquets, four pickleball racquets, four badminton racquets, 15 tennis balls, 15 foam balls,

15 birdies, six cones, three jump ropes. Additional things needed would be a gym with walls and

at least ten students.

Station Description & Implementation

 This first station involves tennis racquets. Each students will have the option to choose

which ball they want to challenge themselves with. Once they pick a ball, they will have the

choice to use the wall or pick a partner to practice striking with. They may either hit it back and

forth to each other or just practice returning the “serve.” The balls will all be off to the side along

with the racquets at this tennis station so there is no set up. Students will then just practice

getting experience with different types of ball and tennis racquets to see what works best for

them. They can challenge themselves by using their non-dominant hand or spinning around after

they hit it. This will also be good for more experienced students who get bored with simple tasks.

The teacher will utilize augmented feedback to help students who are struggling. The students

will use a combination of that augmented feedback and vision to fine tune their striking skills.

Station #1: Tennis

TARGET area descriptions Strategies

TASK -Use a tennis racquet with the ball of your

choice to hit it as many times as you can
with a partner or against the wall, ball can
bounce once.

AUTHORITY/AUTONOMY -Players can choose their own ball

-Players may also choose whether they
want to hit to a partner or use the wall
 RECOGNITION - Teacher will go around and give
feedback to the students. Give
constructive feedback to students so they
can learn from their mistakes.
-Teacher will walk around making sure
that the students are understanding the
concept of the skill they are learning.

GROUPING -Students will work as individuals using

the wall or as partners

EVALUATION -Students will count the number of

successful consecutive hits they have

TIME -5-10 minutes

-Give a one-minute warning

The second station is very similar to the first station. This time, students will be using

pickleball paddles instead of tennis racquets. They will again have the choice of which ball to

use. Through this they will be able to challenge themselves (or not) and be able to explore what

it is like striking with a pickleball paddle using different balls. The equipment will be set out like

the last station and they will use the wall to practice striking or they can use a partner again.

They will again be counting how many times they can keep striking without messing up.

Students will hopefully experience positive transfer from the first station because they will be

using the same concept of striking each time. Using vision and augmented feedback will be

beneficial to the students using this station as well.

Station #2: Pickleball

 TARGET area descriptions Strategies

TASK -Use a pickleball racquet with the ball of

your choice to hit it as many times as you
can with a partner or against the wall, ball
can bounce once.

AUTHORITY/AUTONOMY -Players can choose their own ball

-Players may also choose whether they
want to hit to a partner or use the wall

RECOGNITION - Teacher will go around and give

feedback to the students. Give
constructive feedback to students so they
can learn from their mistakes.
-Teacher will walk around making sure
that the students are understanding the
concept of the skill they are learning.

GROUPING -Students will work as individuals using

the wall or as partners

EVALUATION -Students will count the number of

successful consecutive hits they have

TIME -5-10 minutes

-Give a one-minute warning

This third station is again similar to the first two so the students should definitely be

experiencing some positive transfer. This station will have the equipment all set out to the side.

The main striking element is a badminton racquet. Students again will be able to choose a partner

or use the wall. The student will probably find it easier to use a partner for this one because
badminton racquets will be lightweight and we think they will want to hit it high in the air

especially with the birdies. They will also be using vision to track the ball/birdie and return it to

the partner or wall.

Station #3: Badminton

TARGET area descriptions Strategies

TASK -Use a badminton racquet with the ball of

your choice to hit it as many times as you
can with a partner or against the wall, ball
can bounce once.

AUTHORITY/AUTONOMY -Players can choose their own ball

-Players may also choose whether they
want to hit to a partner or use the wall

RECOGNITION - Teacher will go around and give

feedback to the students. Give
constructive feedback to students so they
can learn from their mistakes.
-Teacher will walk around making sure
that the students are understanding the
concept of the skill they are learning.

GROUPING -Students will work as individuals using

the wall or as partners

EVALUATION -Students will count the number of

successful consecutive hits they have
 TIME -5-10 minutes
-Give a one-minute warning

For our last station, we wanted to incorporate a game-like situation for the students to

learn from. The set-up is simple. We will use two cones, connected with a jump rope. Then the

object will be for the students to keep their ball/birdie in between the cones. They can choose to

have the ball on the floor like hockey. They could also choose to play it as a volleyball net and

keep it up over the net. The students will also have challenge by choice. This time they will be

able to choose both their short-handled striking implement and their ball/birdie. This will give

the students once again another opportunity to challenge themselves by choice. They will be

playing two against two. This will allow them to learn how to work with others, use augmented

feedback effectively, and enhance their visual tracking skills.

Station #4: 2v2 Floor Ball with choice of

racket and ball

TARGET area descriptions Strategies

TASK -Students want to try and keep the ball of

their choice inside the boundary. Students
will either push or hit their choice of ball
with their choice of racket either under or
over the jump rope.

AUTHORITY/AUTONOMY -Students have the choice of what ball

they use
-Students have the choice of what type of
ball they use
-Students have the choice to either hit or
 roll the ball over or under the jump rope

RECOGNITION - Teacher will go around and give

feedback to the students. Give
constructive feedback to students so they
can learn from their mistakes.
-Teacher will walk around making sure
that the students are understanding the
concept of the skill they are learning.

GROUPING -Groups of four will be put on one court.

-The games will be played with two
people on each side of the court.
-Students will work on their teams of two
to try and get the ball passed their
opponent

EVALUATION - Students will self-evaluate their

performance based on how many goals
are scored
-Students can challenge themselves by
playing the game without letting the ball
touch the ground if they are using the one
bounce rule

TIME -5-10 minutes

-Give a one-minute warning
 Motor Learning & Development Concepts

The age range for this presentation is for 8-10 year olds. A child of this age would

typically be in the specialized movement phase. The specialized movement phase is defined as

“Fundamental skills mastered in childhood now refined and combined to be applied to specific

tasks/activities” (Winges, 2018). Children this age are in the usually not in the lifelong utilization

stage. They will typically be in the transitional/application stages. Since 8-10 is a rapid growth

period for these children, they will be experiencing changes in their bodies-including height and

weight from building muscle and bone strength (Winges, 2018).

The environment in which the child is being raised in plays a huge part in how they will

progress through the different stages (Winges, 2018). For example, if the child grew up in an

environment where their parents encouraged them to try new sports that have to do with striking,

they will obviously be more advanced than if they grew up trying sports that do not involve

striking cues and components. At 8-10 years old, the student should have down the general cues

of how to strike effectively and aim with consideration of what their target is.

We incorporated the station elements that we did because we wanted to give the students

an opportunity to gain experience striking will all kinds of different short handled implements so

that they can apply them to the actual game of “Floorball.” There are three motor learning and

development concepts used in this lesson. The first two are augmented feedback and vision. A

few labs ago, we hypothesized that augmented feedback is not as much help unless we are able

to use vision as well. Through this lesson, the students will hear feedback from the teacher, put it
into their working memory, and use vision to make sure that they use those cues on their next

attempt. The third motor learning and development concept used in this lesson is transfer of

learning between stations. Students should experience positive transfer between stations because

they are all using similar concepts. In the final station, the game application, they should be

experiencing positive transfer with that as well. Negative transfer is also a possibility (Winges,

2018). Since they are practicing hitting different ways, they may forget that they are supposed to

only strike while keeping it on the floor or by only keeping it in the air.

References

Magill, R. (2011). Motor Learning and Development (Vol. 1&2). McGraw Hill.

Winges, Sara. (2017) Motor Learning [Augmented Feedback, Vision, and Transfer of

Learning]. Retrieved from: Chapter 6, 13, 15