Why PE classes need comprehensive self-defense
- Dr. Shane Staats
- Jun 16, 2017
- 3 min read
It's the last quarter, and this high school basketball player just received one last penalty throw that could win the game. Your student-turned-athlete toes the line and runs through the cues you taught them back in 6th grade. They steady their elbow, mentally practice the angle they need, and on the follow-through knows that shot just won the game. Heading passed the cheering fans into the locker room, exhausted from the game, they are the last of their team ready to leave. Suddenly, your student discovers that they aren't alone in the room. A few athletes from the losing team have snuck in and trapped them in. The player who had made the game-losing foul says "That elbow may not have hurt, but this will." Did your basketball unit in 6th grade prepare your student for this?
As physical educators, our current goal is to guide students toward becoming physically literate, enabling them to have the "ability, confidence, and desire to be physically active for life." Despite our constant work within the classroom, we still find our youth preferring to engage in sedentary activities outside of school. One reason for this, I am convinced, is that we have developed a culture that is downright afraid of going outside. How many times did your parents tell you not to talk to strangers, not to go near this area or that area, or not to go outside by yourself? How many times have you told this to your children? These precautions come from a good and sincere place: we want to protect our children from harm. But what happens as a consequence of these ideas constantly being reinforced?
Talk to people you don't know? No.
Willing to explore a new place? No.
Able to do things by yourself? No.
While we have set protective boundaries on what our children shouldn't do, we have neglected to teach them what they should do. Talking to a stranger is necessary to make new friends and function in the workplace. If you ever move to a new city and want to find fun things to do, you have to explore unfamiliar territory. And how is your child ever going to have self-esteem in physical activity if they feel they cannot be self-sufficient in it? We have created a wall of fear of these things because of the potential danger posed by the risk of going outside.
What do I do if someone attacks me?
How can I judge an environment to be safe or not?
When do I know to run, when to fight, when to call for help?
Most of us don't take the time to ask ourselves these questions, much less find thorough and practical answers to them. It is much easier to avoid the possibility of conflict entirely by staying home and being sedentary, or at least that is how it feels in the short term. However, we know and advocate the benefits of physical activity, and many of the engaging activities we teach our youth require, at minimum, a willingness to go outside. Breaking down the wall of fear that is built between the front door and the field would make that process much easier. That is where self-defense curriculum comes in with physical education classes.
Self-defense is not just physical martial arts techniques that block kicks and punches. Self-defense involves an awareness of your environment, the assessment of potential threats, and both the physical and mental preparation to handle those threats as best you can. In that way, teaching self-defense is much like teaching a sport. Players must be constantly aware of their team's territory, assess positioning of players, and practice mental and physical techniques to be successful in the game. Because of this similarity, a self-defense unit can be planned and implemented with the same pedagogical skills you use with any other content area. If you have never had self-defense training yourself, there are many resources you can turn to in order to develop a self-defense unit. Just search "self-defense techniques" on sites such as YouTube and Amazon, and use your professional judgement to find resources appropriate for your students, much as you have probably done for other units you had to teach but had no experience in (I remember having to teach a unit on canoeing when I had never set foot in one before). That initial work will allow you to empower your students to have ability, confidence, and desire not just in a sports context, but in every day life. They will be able to leave your class with a feeling of self-created security that will help them break down that wall of fear and engage in long-life life-long physical activity.
So what should your trapped basketball student do? If you can't answer that, how can your student?