If you’re having fun, you’re winning - Ed Leigh (2022)

What we can learn from the 2022 Olympic Half Pipe.

I got up early this morning, because I was excited. I was excited about watching 12 of the worlds best actions sports performers throw themselves four or five times, five or six meters into the air off a 22ft slope, performing Triple corks, switch backside double cork 1260s, Double cork 1440s, 1260 McTwists, Chicken Salads, Cripplers and much more. The language might as well be from an alien planet and the physicality, artistry, bravery and the confidence these guys showed was beyond anything I could ever imagine myself even contemplating.

The 2022 Beijing Olympic Men's Half pipe final was, I am told by my 17 year old son, the greatest half pipe final ever seen. It saw a genuine global sporting icon, In Shaun White, bow out of Olympic competition and the simply breathtaking Ayumu Hirano winning Gold for the first time at just 23 years of age.?

I thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle of the whole thing and was totally engrossed in the tension and excitement as the runs got bigger, the tricks got harder and the thrills and spills just kept coming, but as an international educator, a PE teacher, leader and learner, I also saw something much more fundamental, that to me, teaches us a very important lessons about the world in which we deliver our subject these days.

The world we work in has changed and the relevance of “change” has emerged as an important topic within sport and Physical Education during the past twenty (Kikulis, Slack, & Hinings, 1992; Slack & Hinings, 1992; Kikulis, 2000; Amis, Slack, & Hinings, 2004; O'Brien & Slack, 2004). We might not realise it but it really has. My 17 year old son got up to watch this event at 5am, when I don’t think any football match, rugby or cricket fixture would make him get out of bed in the same way. My 14 year old daughter, who would far rather read a book than watch sport, sat glued to the snowboarding next to him. They were engaged, excited and motivated by it. To them this is sport and it appealed to them. If you are a similar age to me you will have grown up in a world where skateboarders, snowboarders, climbers and surfers were “out there” on the edges, doing things that we saw as alternative but not really sport. Now these lifestyle sports (steen-johnsen, 2008) are often perceived as the flagship, blue ribbon cash cows of major sporting events like the Olympics, with huge audiences, massive prize money, marketing, publicity and sponsorship supporting their rapid growth and, behind the superstars are whole generations of young people modeling their sporting endeavors and aspirations on the likes of Hirano or White. Global communities of interconnected, social-media savvy snowboarders have grown in recent times, (Heino, 2000), In the 60 years of skateboarding history it has developed a cultural narrative through art, visual media, music, fashion and film (Corwin, Williams, Maruco and Romero-Morales, 2020) and on the gold-coast in Queensland, Surfing has been used to characterize an entire region, defined by a particular ‘lifestyle’, and in turn has delineate the cultural identity of the city as a ‘surfing place’ (Nardini, 2019)

Within the world of Physical Education many still hold true to a belief that sport, physical activity and life-long participation revolves around a set of activities viewed through the lens of tradition and then wonder why engagement levels in those activity levels are generally in decline. When your pupils, or students are identifying with the likes of Nyjah Huston or Momiji Nishiya in skateboarding and we’ve never even heard of them, isn’t it any wonder that many pupils in our schools have developed a disconnect between what we offer them and what they perceive as relevant??

I found out a really interesting fact from some of my Year 7 pupils recently. I’ve supported Southampton FC my entire life and despite players coming and going I’ve always stuck with them regardless. My year 7’s found this very strange. They don’t support a team, they support a player. This seems completely alien to me and yet actually it makes complete sense when you really think about it. They identify with individual players, be it for performance, skill, attitudinal or commercial reasons and when that player moves on, so does their allegiance.?

What is it that is making our pupils and our children view sport in such a different way to the way that it was seen when today’s adults were growing up and how can we embrace this when planning and implementing meaningful strategies to drive participation, engagement and enthusiasm up within our schools?

Firstly, I believe that what we define as sport has become detached to what our pupils believe. We know this is the case, because we can see the shift in activities that our pupils ask for, participate in outside of school and engage with within our curriculums. In a recent student voice activity we did here, regarding additional activities we could offer, amongst the expected responses from the footballers and the basketball players, were things such as climbing, sailing, skateboarding and e-sports. These weren’t just the odd one or two answers either, these numbers were on par with the more traditional sports. These are the things that our pupils want to do, both within their physical education and outside of the school grounds. Obviously pupils don’t think about things like logistics, health and safety or resources when they are providing answers like this, but regardless, their voice is loud and clear, they want alternative provision that appeals and has meaning to them.?

Secondly the way in which our pupils identify themselves is changing. Again, we know this is the case. There is increasing diversity, tolerance and acceptance of everyone from today's youth. The world has shrunk, access to information has exploded. Our pupils live in a world where a world champion surfer from Hawaii is as accessible and relevant as the footballer from the local club, in fact probably more so. Social media has given a platform for every possible alternative activity to showcase itself and, as a result, the diversity of character within those sports has also become more visible. It's not really surprising that children today identify with performers in sports that look, sound, act and participate in ways that are similar to their interests, characteristics, backgrounds, cultures and attitudes. Of course there are still pupils for whom role models come in the form of footballers or rugby players but there are so many other pupils who identify with more alternative communities who see much more of themselves in the skateboarding or snowboarding celebrities.?

Thirdly, and possibly most vitally, our pupils' perceptions of what is important is changing. Or at least they are now beginning to tell us that what is important to them is not necessarily what we as PE teachers think is important. In a society where, we still place more emphasis on material success, such as winning trophies, getting selected, scoring goals or being player of the match, for every pupil who seeks such extrinsic rewards there are many others for whom this is never really an option or never a consideration. They perceive success in a different way. Think of the pupils at your school who go to the local skate park in the evenings. They aren’t there to win a trophy or get selected for a squad. They are there to perfect a movement, learn a new skill, socialise, collaborate, share and celebrate each other's successes. For a massive percentage of our pupils today, reward comes in the form of personal satisfaction or an internal sense of achievement. When they watch Shaun White or Eileen Gu, they are seeing someone who aspires to growth in a similar way to them. It's no real wonder then, that these are their idols and role models.

So what can we do to embrace this change in attitude, culture and interest? Do we have an obligation to adapt to the needs and wants of those pupils for whom we work? As Capel and Blair (2007) point out, despite the weight of developments and initiatives within physical education over recent years, there has been little change in the teaching of the subject, resulting in large volumes of pupils remaining alienated from physical education and therefore physical activity.?

Now in many contexts it is not possible to shift to alternative provision as facilities, resources, environments and budgets will always provide barriers to such change, however we can identify the changing attitudes towards more intrinsic focus and individual success rather than extrinsic motivators. When our pupils identify success through improvement in performance rather than outcome, the opportunity to become far more individualised in our approach becomes obvious. Could it be argued that our Physical Education could be more centered around the joy of effective movement rather than result driven skill focus. Could we encourage a more collaborative approach to aesthetic appreciation rather than outcome driven attainment? Is the process more important than the result? This doesn’t need to be limited to alternative activities either. Think of the joy our pupils get from performing skills and tricks with a football or the huge popularity of tik-tok or fortnite style dance. When we lessen the “sporting” focus and look instead at the individual aesthetic beauty of movement, can we start to see a different way?

Skill is a vital and fundamental component of what we provide as Physical Educators, but this means skill in all its forms. The development of movement accuracy, physical literacy and a desire to improve performance will always drive the heart of our subject, but I would challenge you to ask the question of yourself and your colleagues, as to why this needs to continue to be done through a limited, often historically bound range of activities that, whilst fit for purpose in a previous world, don’t really cut it in today's globalised, culturally diverse and accessible societies. Your pupils are telling you this, if you listen to them.

The Skateboarders, the Triathletes, the Snowboarders, Climbers, Divers, Trail-runners, Cross fitters, Mountain bikers, BMXers, Dancers, Paintballers, Go-Karters and E-Sporters are coming, whether we like it or not. If we want to stay relevant, present and meaningful, we’d best get on (the) board…