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

Grounded; Capoeira

The Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been studying and practicing groundwork and rolling.  Students started with log rolling (a simple lateral roll with straight legs), barrel rolling (knees tucked under chest into a little ball rolling laterally), and wheel rolling (a lateral movement from Capoeira that goes from bear crawl to crab walk to bear crawl to crab walk repetitively).  The rolls were frequently coupled with reviews of quadrupedal movement, and were later put into complex partnering rolls like surfing (one student log rolls while another student seal crawls or "surfs" across the log roller or the "wave"), monkey rolling (1 student log rolls toward another student, who monkey jumps across the log to then roll toward another student, repeating the whole process).  Many students learned somersaults and used them within some of the complex roll games above.  Just a few students were able to learn and execute wheel somersaults (with a partner, each holding the others' ankles, students somersault one at a time).  Some of these movements will be used in the upcoming performances.

The 2-4th grade students have been studying Capoeira.  Thanks to January's cultural event and Capoeira assembly, all students now have some exposure to the Brazilian blend of dance, martial art, music, and culture, but for those who might have missed it, Capoeira is the product of Afro-Brazilian slaves and their descendents.  The lineage can be traced directly to hip-hop/break dance in everything from the movement vocabulary to the playful, circular battling.  Capoeira allowed us to take all that we had learned as quadrupedal movers and all that we learned in ballet, and look at it from a different perspective.  We are also using Capoeira to strengthen skeletal muscles and cardio-aerobic systems, improve flexibility, expand range of motion, stabilize, mobilize, and balance the body, to move rhythmically, and to boost awareness of self, space, and a partner.  Capoeira, like rolling, is also what introduces us in PE to tumbling (our next lesson set after a fitness/conditioning/stretching set).

Lastly, I myself suffered a bicycle crash on my way to school recently and have a large bruise and a larger abrasion on my left hip.  I have been sharing my own healing process to teach active recovery versus passive recovery, and to teach the students that sometimes a wound or injury may limit activity, but it doesn't always have to eliminate activity.

Stay Healthy, Stay Safe,
Matthew Smith

Stability vs Mobility, and Balance to Boot.

Since the dominant exposure to ballet in the USA is a December trip to the Nutcracker, it is an excellent time of year to study "old school" (roughly 400 years old!) dance in PE.  Ballet is an excellent opportunity to think on the move and to: fine tune our bodily awareness and spatial awareness, apply rhythm to movement, study alignment, improve posture, strengthen muscles, contrast fast and slow movement, and to better understand balance, stability, and mobility.

Let's contrast stability with balance.  For our PE purposes, and contrary to popular speech,"balance" is not achieved by standing easily on one foot, unless it can be as easily done on the other foot.  "Balance" is the achievement of equilibrium on both (or more) sides.  A baseball pitcher, for instance, develops one arm to throw strikes but will very likely be unable to even throw to the catcher with the other hand.  The pitcher's development is therefore unbalanced.  It is more productive to consider the achievement of easily standing on one foot as "stabilizing on one foot".  The human body has over 700 skeletal muscles, many of which are used as (and informally called) stabilizers.  It is not really common to refer to any of the skeletal muscles as "balancers".  To strive for balance, we will consistently do all of our dancing to the left and to the right; we will rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise; we will stabilize, leap, and turn on one foot, and then the other.  Think of the balance you used in chemistry labs- balance is the achievement of equilibrium on both (or more) sides.

We speak of a sense of balance (we have many more than just 5 senses), formally called equilibrioception, a sense from our vestibular system.  But stability comes from proprioception- our sense of our bodies' relative position in space (the sense State Police test on erratic drivers)- and a strong, balanced, smart development of bones and muscles.  Stability is also the flip side and enabler of mobility.    

If the baseball pitcher does not stabilize the feet, ankle, and core, the throwing arm has no anchor, no power, and the movement will not satisfy its intention.  If the dancer does not stabilize one leg, she will collapse to the floor when she tries to lift her other leg, pirouette, leap, or even walk.  Some parts of the body are designed for mobility, some are designed for stability.  In ballet and in PE, we will try to maximize both.

Keep Moving,

Matthew Smith

Finding stride, falling, bouncing back.

In October, we concluded our study of (but not use of) quadrupedal movement.  We will continue to use these ranges of motion to unlock greater upper body and core strength, especially when we approach acrobatics and tumbling.  However, in the nearer term we will be spending more time on our Seattle Marathon training, basketball, and also falling and returning to our feet.

Classes are accumulating kilometers.  I tally the distance each student runs in PE, and chart the totals for each class (individual distances are not displayed).  At the end of November, students who are tallying "home" kilometers (soccer practices, hikes, bike rides, even swim lessons!) will add "home" kilometers and "PE" kilometers.  Students participating in the Seattle Kid's Marathon will each individually accumulate 40km (or more) before running the final 2km on Nov 26th.  We are supplementing pace running with shuttle runs, sprints that frequently stop and restart.

Shuttle runs emphasize changes of direction and shifting of weight.  This allows me to in turn emphasize weight distribution in the foot, but also allows us opportunities to experience gravity and inertia, which it turn give us opportunities to practice falling safely.  Falling is common to us all.  I remember reading somewhere that most of us fall hundreds of times simply learning to walk.  So why should falling give us hesitation, anxiety, or fear?  Somewhere in our development, we learn to associate falling with failure or mistake.  I suspect this is unproductive, unwarranted, and unsafe.  Indeed, falling itself is fun (weee!) and informative (where's is my weight, equilibrium, stability, center, etc), it is just the abrupt impact interrupting the fall that is problematic.  But if we understand our design and momentum, falling can be just another means of moving forward.  Falling will not be associated with failing, but will be a confident, comfortable, safe part of our movement vocabulary.  When we trust ourselves to fall, we can challenge ourselves to fly, or at least to bounce back and keep going. 

Students are getting a rather literal lesson in bouncing back.  This week students started learning about dribbling and controlling a basketball.  Just as running gives us an excuse to examine the foot and ankle, dribbling gives us a reason to study the hand and wrist.  K-1st students will start to examine a variety of ways to manipulate a variety of balls and 2nd-4th students are already starting to pass and will drill shooting skills next week before learning about the game itself (basketball) after the skills are introduced and drilled.  Emphasis will remain on body mechanics, coordination, and skill development; competition will be almost an afterthought.

Keep Moving, Stay Healthy,
Matthew Smith

The words we use and shoes if you choose

OWS PE is off to a great start.  The students have been enthusiastic and receptive in class, and it is a delight to see and hear so much fun and pleasure in motion.

The K-4 students have spent the first 3 weeks of PE and Movement building and embodying vocabulary.  For instance, most students initially defined walking as "slow" and running as "fast", so we tried walking quickly and running slowly.  Further exploration led us to discover that indeed the speed is not the important contrast since a fast walker could beat a slow runner to the finish.  So there must be a better way to define and differentiate the two.  We found it in the transfer of weight.  At the moment of transfer, walkers are grounded through both feet (2 feet on the ground) and runners are not grounded at all (both feet off the ground).  Games like Red Light/Green Light and Tag gave us opportunities to practice and experience.  We have similarly explored jump, hop, leap, skip, and gallop.  Students are also beginning to explore quadrupedal movement and are practicing bear crawl, crab walk, monkey jumps, froggers, and vaults, skills that have been practiced in games and on obstacle courses.

Our supplemental study has been the human foot and ankle.  We learned that there are many bones and muscles that are effectively immobilized by our fairly rigid footwear.  That immobility does not allow those bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons to develop the strength and flexibilty for which they are designed.  Furthermore, running shoes encourage students (and adults) to run with a stride too long for their legs (striking the ground at the wrong angle conducts the impact and stress unpleasantly up the bones and muscles), a habit that can eventually damage the feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, etc, and limit opportunities for and interest in an active lifestyle.  Indeed, running-related injuries have sky-rocketed since the invention of the running shoe in the 1970's.  The students have therefore been given a "shoes if you choose" option in most PE classes so far.  I will require PE shoes for most sport lessons (soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc); we will be barefoot for many movement lessons (dance, creative movement, tumbling, yoga, martial arts).

Now that we have a solid foundation and a ready vocabulary, we will learn to safely fall from and return to that foundation.  We will next study groundwork, gravity, and floor play, and supplement those lessons with studies of the human spine.

Regards,
Matthew Smith

K-4 PE at OWS with Matthew Smith

I am thrilled to be the new K-4 movement and PE teacher at Open Window School. Concurrent with my 1st year at Open Window School I am teaching my 6th year of K-8 PE at Arbor Montessori Schools on the Sammamish Plateau, where I have developed and refined my approach to physical education.  I also taught K-6 PE at Tall Cedars Academy in Duvall before they closed last year.  I am extremely excited to have the support of the OWS staff and the use of the OWS facilities and equipment for physical engagement, education, expression, and experiences with such a versatile student population.  I am optimistic, and I eagerly anticipate each of the "new" bodies coming into my classroom.


I will introduce myself more thoroughly below so that the future of this blog may focus on PE students, lessons, and activities.

I have been involved in fitness education and body training for more than 14 years.  I started in aquatics as a teenager and by the time I graduated college I had coached swim teams, taught swim lessons, water aerobics, lifeguarding, diving, and even a little water ballet to nearly 2000 students, ages spanning over 70 years between youngest and oldest.  My aquatics career paid for my dance education.

My dance career has taken me throughout the US and as far as Tokyo, Japan, but was focused primarily in NYC.  Much of that career was spent teaching, choreographing, and performing outside of NYC at universities, schools, theaters, and studios.  I retired from dance when I left NYC in 2005, but recently "came out of retirement" to perform a duet I titled TORN at On the Boards in Seattle, June 2011. 

I will frequently be bicycling 70km round trips between my home and OWS.  Cycling is my favored means of light transport since it allows me to eat everything I want.  In August 2008, I even ate ~8000 Calories daily for 20 days to pedal 5000km from Seattle to Brooklyn, NY with just one friend riding with me.  I have taught and coached cycling for 3 years.

Additionally, I enjoy time gardening, farming, eating, cooking, baking, running, climbing, jumping, falling, climbing back up, playing with my Doberman named Hades, and this summer I discovered an interest in white water kayaking.

Sincerely,

Matthew Smith