WHY THE ‘GAME SENSE

APPROACH’ IS ESSENTIAL

The Games Sense Approach categorizes team

games into four areas. invasion, target, court &

net, and striking & fielding games.

With these four areas, the purpose of the games sense approach

is to challenge and help students focus on various techniques,

tactics and strategic thinking involved in the games to improve

students understanding and qualitative learning experience,

enjoyment and participation. (Light, 2012)

WHERE DID IT ORIGINATE?

Game sense has originated and been used in Australian Schools since the mid 1990s. It was developed to assist game and sport specific skills with the use of strategic thinking and tactical based skills to purpose the students who may not fit into the typical criteria of that particular sport, based on physicality and scoring which may undermine the students development and technique (Pill, 2012).

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

Its main purpose is to involve each student in the game to ensure that their

participation and involvement comes first and foremost as opposed to the use

of direct strategies that students will ultimately gain from improvement and

participation. (Pill, 2012)

WHAT ARE THE STRENGHTS OF THE GSA?There are three main areas that work together to form the Game Sense Approach and its strengths as a teaching approach. These include: game form, tactical awareness and skill execution.

Game Form: Beginning with a game or game form, teachers may modify and present teachers with various tactical problems. The rules can be changed and exaggerated to increase or decrease difficulty.

Tactical Awareness: Secondly is tactic and awareness. The strength and reasoning for this approach helps the student question

their tactics to succeed in the given circumstance. This helps students to confront problems that they may be

unexpectedly faced with.

Skill Execution: Thirdly, once students have identified ‘what to do’? The teacher then steps in for the third step to assist the success of this skill execution or the student may also learn through active game play by trial and error.

REFRENCES

Light, R. (2013). Game sense (1st ed.). Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Pill, S. (2014). Teaching game sense in Soccer, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 83:3, 42-52, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.2012.10598746. Retrieved 3 October 2014, from http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/07303084.2012.10598746