Tail Tag, Fox Tail, and Wrestling

Students in Kindergarten are beginning 3 weeks of rehearsals for their Cultural Parade, but the 1st-4th grade students have all learned Tail Tag.  In Tail Tag, students wear a belt into which they tuck a flag.  That flag is the tail.  There are a variety of versions, but all versions require that one or more students try to take the tail of other students.  It is a tag game without actual tagging.  This no-contact game may seem a counter-intuitive introduction to the very full-contact activity that is wrestling, but it requires the students to start thinking about protecting the space behind them; protecting their backs.  It is also a litmus test to be sure that students carefully listen to and follow instructions.  When students demonstrate safety and responsibility in the task, then they advance to Fox Tail.  To date, about half the classes have made such progress.  Fox Tail wears the same belts and keeps the same flag as a tail behind a student, but instead of students having run of the gym, they are confined to a single small mat.  Retreat is no longer an option and there is nowhere to hide.  One student faces-off against another student, and while remaining on their feet, and without grabbing the other body, the students attempt to reach around the opponent and pull the tail from the belt.  Although there is no grabbing (no closed hands), arms and hands push and manipulate each other trying to solve the puzzle that is trying to solve them in return.  A student who captures the tail returns it, the tail is tucked again into the belt, and a high-5 or hand shake resumes the game until time expires.  Later versions of the game will allow a student to lie face down with the flag beneath the belly.  The partner/opponent then must try to roll that student onto her/his back to get or at least expose the tail- an amazing way to explore and exercise core muscles.  Yet another version does away with the tail altogether and the student lying tries to stand-up while the other student tries to roll her onto her back.  Some of the classes that can successfully and safely accomplish all the above will then move onto wrestling.

Wrestling is an almost universal developmental experience among young primates and indeed among many other young mammals (puppies, cubs, kittens, and ferrets all wrestle).  Wrestling and running are probably the first two activities that humans ever organized into sport.  Running, wrestling, swimming, and climbing are activities that allow and encourage natural functions of the human form, and that is why I am excited to offer an introduction to wrestling this year in PE.

For safety, we will not go so far as executing take-downs or tackles (although some students may earn the chance to learn and slow-motion practice) and there is a zero-tolerance policy toward horse-play and inattention.  Because of such high expectations and such low tolerance, this is generally a very safe unit of study.  In years past, I have always had more bumps, bruises, or injuries during Tag Games than during Wrestling.  But also because of the expectations and tolerances, and also because of the many uncertainties about the activity itself, I tend to contact more parents during wrestling than during any other activity.  I am also at your disposal for any and all questions and concerns that you may have, so please do not hesitate to email me or schedule a conference.

Enjoy the Warming Weather,
Matthew Smith

Hockey; Recognizing a Winner

Open Window Students in K-4 have been practicing floor hockey.  There are a variety of skills to coordinate in hockey.  The youngest students and those newest to the sport had their hands full (literally) handling and controlling the hockey stick, and manipulating the stick to maneuver a puck.  Students learned that a hockey stick is not at all dangerous when left to it's own devices, but that a careless student with a hockey stick can be very dangerous indeed! On the other hand, a student who carefully handles the stick and controls it as an extension of self will have the most mastery of the puck and the most consistency on the court.  Some players preferred to forego control and focus only on power shots, but those players generally spent more time in penalties, caused more painful accidents, scored fewer goals, passed less accurately, and developed and coordinated fewer skills.  The Kindergarten and 1st Grade classes in particular did an excellent job and proved that they could safely engage in an intense, equipment-heavy sport.  Those youngest classes have already moved-on to Tail Tag and Fox Tail and the 2nd-4th grades are finishing their tournaments today.

Most games have been "scoreless".  Many students opt to keep score, but officially the score is always 0-0 so that the focus stays on skill development rather than scoreboard argument. Students are often very concerned about who wins and who loses, so we define winners as those who learn something new, improve a skill, and/or have fun.  Students only lose is they lose sight of what matters.  If a students stays focused on the skills, the teamwork, the play, and the action, that student has a perspective appropriate for a class or lesson.  If a student loses that perspective and instead focuses on the numbers or the score, then that is the loss.  The lesson and the development are lost, so that student lost.  In class, winning is almost never about the scoreboard.

Happy Spring,
Matthew Smith

February Fitness and the Truth About Stretching

During the last 2 weeks before Mid-Winter break, students reconnected to their cardio-respiratory fitness.  The 2-4th grades learned fitness circuits; spending just 2 minutes at one station doing one exercise before quickly moving onto the 4 more stations to do 4 more exercises, yielding up to 10 minutes of non-stop exercise for the full body.  By keeping the movement going from one thing into the next, students keep their heart and respiration rates elevated.  By switching exercises every 2 minutes, no one muscle group gets over-burdened.  These dynamic efforts also encourage students to engage their personal determination and to find mental strategies for toughness and perseverance.  Many students enjoyed using medicine balls and weighted bars to increase the burden of their labors.  The 1st graders students spent this time rehearsing their Penguin Dances and all classes enjoyed at least one obstacle course.  Kindergarten enjoyed several obstacle courses and lots of matwork.

PE also introduced stretching.  Stretching is one of the most mis-understood parts of active lifestyles that it is worthy to examine it in some detail here.  Stretching is simply pulling unwanted tension from muscle fibers.  This is usually accomplished by tensing antagonistic muscle groups (to stretch the muscles on the front of my thigh, I engage the muscles on the back of my thigh), by using hands or straps to pull, or by using partners or even gravity.  So when should we give our muscles this pull, for how long, and why?

•  Before Exercise
• This is completely dependent upon what type of exercise.  It is beneficial to warm-up or loosen-up before exercise, and this should include moving through the range of motion that the exercise will demand.  For running, this would include some ankle and toe articulations, hip and knee flexion, rotation in the lower spine and pelvis, and even swinging of the arms, but actually stretching the muscles causes tiny tears in the fibers.  Those tears will impair the performance of the muscles during the run.  If, however, the exercise is ballet or gymnastics, figure skating or Tae Kwon Do, then the range of motion used is far greater and warming or loosening that range of motion may indeed require stretching those muscles.  In general, however, it is safer to think of the activity before exercise as loosening the range of motion rather than stretching.
• During Exercise
• During the course of repetitive tension and relaxation of muscles, it is possible for muscles to fail to relax.  Sometimes this tension is a shrugged shoulder or tight muscle that wastes a little energy but does little harm.  Sometimes, though, a muscle very important to the task or exercise seizes, very tense, and cramps.  Often, the antagonistic muscle groups (generally, those on the other side that execute the inverse or opposite movement) can not alone overcome the tension in the cramped muscles, and a manual pull is needed to relax the muscle fibers.
• After Exercise
• Remember those tiny tears in the muscle fibers discussed above?  Similar damage happens to our muscles during exercise.  Exercise is indeed somewhat traumatic.  It is because our bodies want to reduce the trauma that they then rebuild themselves a little bit stronger after exercise- so that future efforts will create less trauma. Since the damage is done during exercise, adding a stretch to the end of your workout does not really create any new damage, and will not impair the workout.  Indeed, the benefits of stretching after exercise seem to include
1.  improved gas transfer, moving CO2 (and toxins) out of the muscles and out of the body
2. better re-hydration
3. maintained or improved range of motion
4. release of unnecessary tension
5. decreased recovery time, and more
• There is evidence that holding a stretch for any less than 30 seconds does not give muscles sufficient time to benefit.  Stretching is also fairly ineffective if breath is held (remember, one job of stretching is to boost gas transfer and toxin removal), so we hold every stretch for at least 5 deep breaths.

Next in PE: Hockey!

Stay Healthy; Breathe Deeply,

Matthew Smith