Sport Education Resource 5

Game Modifications

OBJECTIVE:
OBJECTIVE
1. Provide examples of how parent games can be changed in term of secondary rules to
improve students’ success level.

Using modified games for formal competition is a central feature of Sport Education.
For a number of students who are used to playing the “official” game as part of their
community sport experiences this can be viewed as not real sport. Yet, it is important that
they learn to recognize that (a) they still get to play, (b) still can derive benefits from
participating and (c) not all of their peers are as experienced and yet also deserve the chance
to gain experience.

As noted in text (Chapter 5), modifying the structure of the game should be aimed
primarily at making the games appropriate to the developmental levels of the students.
Generally, there are five main strategies of modifying that can make the play experience more
successful, and, thus, more enjoyable.

The strategies include:

1. Making scoring easier (e.g., move closer to the target, increase the size of a
goal/target).
2. Slowing down the movement of balls or objects (e.g., lighter balls; raising a net in
VB).
3. Increase the opportunity to actively participate (e.g., reduce the team size).
4. Sequence games from tactically simple to more complex games (e.g., changes in
team size, court/field size).
5. Changing the scoring rules.

Sports and games can be categorized around the general tactical characteristics they
have. As noted in the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) literature (e.g., Griffin,
Mitchell, & Oslin, 1997; Mitchell, Oslin, & Griffin, 2003), games can be categorized as
Target-, Striking/Fielding-, Net/Wall-, and Invasion Games (see table 1). The games within
each group have tactical components that generally transfer within each group. For example,
the function of guarding/marking in Soccer is fundamentally the same in Basketball or Team
Handball. As children and youth become more experienced in playing games the tactical
complexity can be increased gradually. In Sport Education this is exemplified in the use of
“graded competition”, where initially the competition is structure as a set of 1 v 1 games. As
the students develop, the competition in the latter half of a season might be changed to a 2 v 2
game format.

The use of modified games (both for practice and competition contexts) is strongly
supported by Launder (2002) as well. In his text titled “Play Practice”, Launder points to the
importance of teachers “shaping play” by creating game conditions that allow for greater
success for students and enables teachers to emphasize particular tactical dimensions of the
parent game. We believe that both the TGfU and play practice have much to offer in terms of
(a) organizing and modeling more authentic practice tasks that can be used during team
practices, and (b) the structuring of the game used in formal competition.

This resource offers the various options available to teachers in structuring the game
format for the formal competition in a way that may be more appropriate for the students in
the class. The files are labeled based on the games categories listed in Table 1.

Target Games Striking/Fielding Net/Court/Wall Invasion Games

Games Games

Archery Cricket Net/Court: Soccer

Golf Softball Volleyball Team Handball
Disc Golf Baseball Badminton Basketball
Bowling Rounders Tennis (Floor) hockey
Bocce Over the line Pickleball Rugby
Jeux de Boule (Table Tennis) Ultimate Frisbee
Billiards Lacrosse
Wall: Speedball
Squash Netball
Wall ball
Handball
Racquetball

References

Griffin, L., Mitchell, S., & Oslin, J. (1997). Teaching sport concepts and skills: A tactical
games approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Launder, A.G. (2001). Play practice: The games approach to teaching and coaching sports.
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Mitchell, S., Oslin, J., & Griffin, L. (2003). Sport foundations for elementary physical
education: A tactical games approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.