Impact of a Sport Education Season on Cardiovascular Fitness

Sport Education is a popular curriculum model designed to address cognitive, motor, and affective domains. Beaudet, Acquiviva, and Grube (2004) suggested that to make it more effective teachers should add fitness concepts and make conditioning an integral part of any season. Recent research has indicated that using a Sport Education improved fitness in 5th grade students during a 15-lesson season of “Obstacle Course Fitness” (Hastie, Sluder, & Buchanan, 2007).

Purpose

The purpose of this was to study was twofold: One, to further examine using a Sport Education model to improve both cardiovascular fitness and motor skill development and two, to determine if a typical Sport Education season would improve fitness without additional conditioning.

Methods

Male (n=20) and female (n=6) university students enrolled in a physical education course completed an 18-lesson season of “Ultimate-Lacrosse.” A combination of ultimate and lacrosse, the sport was designed by the instructor as a game to play indoors, where space is at a premium. Participants performed two pre- and post-season tests to assess cardiovascular fitness and basic throwing skills. To assess fitness, the PACER test of aerobic fitness was used. To assess throwing accuracy, participants performed a skill test used by Landin, Hebert, Menickelli, and Grisham (2003) to assess the same throwing skills. Mean radial error was used to assess accuracy of throws at a target.

Analysis/Results

The results of paired sample t-tests indicated that scores on the PACER test improved significantly (.000) from the pre test (m = 41.76, sd = 8.89) to the post test (m = 55.15, sd = 3.06); forehand throwing accuracy improved significantly (.000) from the pre test (m = 6.74, sd = 1.25) to the post test (m = 4.60, sd = 1.78); and backhand throwing accuracy improved significantly (.004) from the pre test (m = 5.12, sd = 1.44) to the post test (m = 3.97, sd = 1.63). There were no significant gender differences.

Conclusions

The results of this study provide evidence that a Sport Education curriculum model can improve both cardiovascular fitness and motor skill development without additional conditioning.