Research Paper

Walls 1

Jarett Walls
Mrs. Love
CHAD 169
12/10/16
Research paper
Long ago back in the cave man days the only motivation to work out
and be healthy was to get you next meal, now in the modern time we
have lost that motivation, there is no life or death level of motivation to
be in a sport or work out. We focus on the mind over the body. It is the
goal of PE teachers to find what motivates children to be active and give
them the motivation to continue to be active in their lives. At the YMCA
Aquatics swim program it is our goal to teach children how to swim and to
gain excitement for their classes. Our goal teaching swimming is not just
that the child has learned the technique but to make them want to learn
more about swimming whether it is for competition or for the joy of
swimming. The first thing that will be discussed in this paper is the way
the Swim program of the YMCA is taught at the Silicon Valley northwest
branch. The second thing that will be discussed is the motivational
theories and ways to teach children sports. I will end with how all this
information ties into the swim program of the YMCA Silicon Valley.

Research Paper

Walls 2

At the YMCA of Silicon Valley, northwest branch we run a Swim

program designed to teach swimming to children ages 3 to adults. The
programs are divided into eight levels. Pike for the children under 5 who
are just starting, Eel for the children who are used to the water and are
now ready to start learning to swim, and Ray for the children under 5
years of age who are ready to learn more advanced techniques, like side
breathing and breaststroke. If a child is older than 6 but not able to swim
across the water by themselves or this is their first time in the water then
they are put into the Polliwog level. After Polliwog there is the Guppy level
were the children learn how to swim and breath while swimming by
themselves, it is in this level that they learn side breathing for the
freestyle and breaststroke. Once the child graduates from Guppy they
move on to Minnow. In minnow they move from the family side of the pool
to the lap lanes. In this class they learn how to swim long distances and
learn to develop stamina. After Minnow the child moves to fish, in Fish
they learn the more advanced swimming techniques like wall flips, and
open turns and begin to learn Butterfly. The last class the child will move
into is Flying Fish. In Flying fish they learn to refine their stroke and
remove any bad habits that they have developed, and they begin to swim
for speed and competition. We in addition to these levels we have several
other levels. We also offer a swim team for those children who have
passed Flying fish. Our swim team is a non- competitive swim team

Research Paper

Walls 3

meaning that though we compete against other YMCAs we do not have a

ranking system or give out trophies. We also offer an adult class for adults
to learn how to swim. For the adult class there is a level 1 for beginners
and a level 2 for adults who know how to swim but wish to refine their
stokes. Another program we offer is private lessons which are a one on
one teaching session with a teacher and student. The private sessions can
be of any age for the student and teach to the level of the student. The
last program we offer is a Parent Child Program for parents with children
under 2 years of age who wish to get a head start in swimming. In this
class the parents and the child is brought into the water and the teacher
acts as more of a guide on helping the parent teach their child to kick and
love the water.
The North West Aquatics Program uses several techniques to teach
the children. The first and most important aspect that we teach our
teachers is that you must know your class. A 3 year old who is afraid of
the water is much more different than an adult who is afraid of the water,
and a child who is taught every day swimming will be very different from
a child who initially doesnt like swimming. Even in the classes
themselves the students can vary in their drives and personalities. For
example I have had a child who followed everything I said but I later
learned she didnt speak English and was just mimicking me. In the same
class I had a child who would attempt to breathe under water like a fish

Research Paper

Walls 4

no matter how many time I told them that you cant grow gills like a fish,
you are just drowning yourself. The second thing that we teach our
teachers is consistency. It is important to have a slight order of the tasks
to fall back on so the children know what is coming next. At the same
time it is important to come up with a list of rules and be consistent with
enforcing them and following them. My rules are 1) stay within hands
reach of the wall if I am swimming with someone else, 2) no splashing till
game time, 3) keep your head above the water when I am talking, and 4)
the most important rule; always listen to the teacher. The third thing we
teach our teachers is to teach through constructive criticism and positive
reinforcement (90% of the time it is high fives)
To summarize; at the YMCA Northwest we have an age range of 3 to
adult though the average is about 6-7. The ethnicity of the YMCA is
mostly Asian, Indian, and White. We teach our staff three important things
to keep in mind; 1) must know your class, 2) stay consistent in both class
and rules, 3) teach through constructive criticism and positive
reinforcement.
To ensure that the techniques that we use at the YMCA are in line
with the motivational theories that I learned in this class I looked up
several research papers on Motivation and its role in sports and learning.

Research Paper

Walls 5

Though most of the research is for PE at a school I believe that it still

correlates to the Swim Program at the YMCA.
To compare and contrast the teaching techniques that we use at the
YMCA to other techniques I looked at an article formed by Dr. Gloria on
how to teach swimming. The article was published in the Journal of
Physical Education, and went over all of the stokes that are taught in
swimming (freestyle, back stroke, breast stroke, butterfly, and side
stroke). I used these techniques and compared them to the why we teach
strokes at the YMCA and it seems that the strokes are taught pretty
universally.
The techniques that we use at the YMCA have been developed over
the course of the time I have been there. One thing I notice is that
creating consistency allows the children that we teach to begin to learn by
themselves. Many times I have seen if the children could run their own
classes. I asked the children what we should do and most of the time they
performed the same tasks that we were going to perform any way. This
fact was further backed up by the research done by Dr. Layne and
associates. In Dr. Laynes study they conducted research on fourth
graders to see if they were able to work independently of their coach. The
results of this study showed that if the children were trained in such a way
that they knew what to do next they could very easily operate without the

Research Paper

Walls 6

coach. (Layne, T., & Hastie, P. 2015) This independence is very important
as it allows the coach to focus on those that need help without sacrificing
the development of the children who do not need help.
Though sports education and academic teaching are similar there are
major differences between them. Though one is taught through kinetic
learning mainly and the other is taught through verbal or visual learning;
the motivational concepts are very similar. The main similarity is that
most academic teaching and sports education are both Ego motivated, so
says a study done by Dr. Parker. In Dr. Parkers study they look into the
differences and similarities of Multi activity education (MA) and Sports
education (SE). The results of the study showed that though the SE and
MA were both Ego driven, (the motivation of the students came from
doing well to impress others and themselves) though in SE it was shown
that the students enjoyment increased when they were involved in a
task-involving climate. In addition to this change children in a SE climate
showed higher levels of perceived competence. Further research shows
that it was possible to have a MA climate that was not Ego involved but
next to impossible to do the same for a SE climate. Though in a SE
climate the children showed more enthusiasm and effort in their tasks. Dr.
Parker and colleagues believe that successful SE has more to do with its
authenticity, excitement, and curricular scaffolding than its climate.
(Parker, M. B., & Curtner-Smith, M. D. 2014) This data shows that though

Research Paper

Walls 7

Sports Education and Academic education are similar in many ways there
are some core differences to keep in mind. It is for this reason that one
must be careful when using ideas from Academics to Sports Education.
The effects of motivation on being able to act independently and at the
same time enjoy the activity is a core concept of Sports education. It
seems that this is true across all sports and PE, as Dr. Baena-Extremera
and colleagues show in their study. Dr. Baena-Extremeras study uses high
schoolers ages 13-18 and asked them questions based on their own selfdetermination and satisfaction in relation to their PE classes. The results
of this study show that most students are intrinsically motivated towards
learning physical activates and have a high level in satisfaction in doing
so. Baena-Extremera, A., Gmez-Lpez, M., & Mar Ortiz-Camacho, M. d.
(2015).This is something that is see often in my classes at the YMCA, I
have rarely seen a child that has not enjoyed swimming in the water and I
like to think that is because Im such a good teacher but it is most likely
due to the fact that learning physical activities are apparently very fun.
Lastly a look past the children into the parents that sign them up for
the sports is also required for this task. The childs external motivation
does not end with the teacher it continues at home with the parent. In a
study performed by Dr. Naisseh and colleagues, they looked into the
motivation that the parent gives the child. They first of all broke down the

Research Paper

Walls 8

parents into 4 categories; highly self-determined, moderately selfdetermined, Non-self-determined, and Externally motivated profiles. The
parents in each category effected the motivation of the student in
different ways. The Highly self-determined, who made up most of the
study (30%) were shown to place a much higher importance on how
important a sport was for their child than the Moderately self-determined,
and Externally motivated profiles. The Non-self-determined meanwhile
showed the highest support for their child in a sport and the highest
importance that their child was in a sport. (Naisseh, m., martinent, g.,
ferrand, c., & hautier, c. 2015). This study shows that even at home the
parents still motivate the child to do well in a sport, providing an external
motivation to the sports natural internal mediation to do well.
There are many benefits to sports education in addition to the love
children have for it. A study done by Dr. Ken shows looked into the classic
poor sportsman ship that is associated with sports. His study found that
there seemed to be next to no Anti-social behavior in most sports. In fact
the opposite was true in most places general pro-social activates were the
norm. Dr. Ken believes that this mostly stems from the coach and the
team work on sports teams. (Ken, H., & Gucciardi, D. F. 2015). If we
combine this statement with the way that if trained right a team will act
on its own without the coach we can see how this feeling of pro-social
attitudes is the norm. It all falls down to what the coach has trained the

Research Paper

Walls 9

team to act. This has created a great emphasis on the coach as not just a
teacher but a role model for the students lives.
Sports education can even go past the gym (courtyard, swim pool,
etc.) and make students motivated from nothing. In a study performed by
Dr. Perlman, they found that the several levels of motivation that the
children could be at Intrinsically, Extrinsically, and Amotivated were all
affected by sports education to some level even if they werent motivated
by the classroom. This data shows just how powerful sports education is.
Something about the motivation of a physical activity and seeing the task
accomplished really motivates a person to new heights.
Now the big question in this article isnt whether sports are effective
motivators or even if they work. Pervious articles have all pointed to yes
they do in fact work and work well. The real question is how do we get
them to work and work effectively? Dr. Gunnell and Dr. Gaudreau asked
this same question in their study. They analyzed students in a Physical
Activity class for four weeks and then analyzed their goal progress. The
results of this study were that for the students general motivation was the
only predictor. However, when they looked deeper into the data they
found that the amount of general motivation also increased the quality of
the motivation at the same time. So what does this mean for how to incite
motivation in Physical sports? This means that at some point in the

Research Paper

Walls 10

sport/activity they must develop some sort of motivation. Though this

seems contradictory when the data from the other articles were used we
can begin to see that it seems that the coach is the motivator in a large
number of cases.
The next article by Dr. Almolda-Tomas looked into how students
develop situational motivation from Physical Education. In this study
they used an intervention program called TARGET on a group of 113
students. Only half received the intervention, the other half was used
as a control group. The results of the intervention were that this
intervention was a success and the group who received it had
improved aspects in motivational climate, as well as in autonomy,
perceived competence, identified regulation and satisfactionenjoyment. (Almolda-Tomas, F. J., Sevil-Serrano, J., Julian-Clemente, J.
A., Abarca-Sos, A., Aibar-Solana, A., & Garcia-Gonzalez, L. 2014) The
intervention program used several aspects of motivation that could be
the source of Sport educations ability to motivate. The most
interesting of which is the emphasis on the coach. Supporting the
current hypothesis that the coach is important to sports motivation.
With all this information focusing on the coach it seems likely that it
is a mixture of the coach and unique way sports/physical activities are
taught that makes them very motivating. This is even further

Research Paper

Walls 11

supported by Dr. Weidongs research the posits that a coach is a main

source of motivation. More importantly Dr. Weidong points to how a
coach can be effective in his/her teaching. The findings show that the
best ways to teach are the following; they must make instructional task
adaptations; they must build an interpersonal rapport; and finally they
must create a positive, motivational learning climate. It is these three
factors that make a great coach. There are also several suggestions in
the paper on how to do these tasks but the strongest of the ways are
by modifying the complexity of a task for the students, greeting and
talking to the students and finally to be an enjoyable and approachable
person for the students.
In conclusion I have found that sports education has a very high
level of both intrinsic and external motivation for the students. It is
interesting the way that most of this motivation stems from the coach.
Though we focused a lot on the coach as the central source of
motivation I believe that it is the coach and the unique way most
physical education is taught that applies this high level of motivation.
The teaching style of physical education is almost always kinesthetic
while the teaching style of Academic teaching is normally verbal or
visual. I would like to do a follow up paper on this project at some point
in time focusing on kinesthetic teaching practices and their
effectiveness in both motivation and actual learning capacity. Using the

Research Paper

Walls 12

information collected here I also will be using this to improve the

program at the northwest YMCA. The YMCA swim programs provide
great motivation and in that facet I believe that they are doing
fantastic but I find them lacking in the speed of teaching to the
students. Over all this was a great project allowing me to look at my
own work and the importance of myself as a coach to the children at
the YMCA.

Bibliography
Layne, T., & Hastie, P. (2015). A task analysis of a sport education physical
education season for fourth grade students. Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy,
20(3), 314-328. doi:10.1080/17408989.2013.837437
Weidong, L. (2015). Strategies for Creating a Caring Learning Climate in
Physical Education. JOPERD: The Journal Of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance,
86(4), 34-41. doi:10.1080/07303084.2015.1009204
Baena-Extremera, A., Gmez-Lpez, M., & Mar Ortiz-Camacho, M. d. (2015).
Predicting Satisfaction in Physical Education From Motivational Climate and Selfdetermined Motivation. Journal Of Teaching In Physical Education, 34(2), 210-224.
doi:10.1123/jtpe.2013-0165
Teacher Guide - Gloria's Swimming Tips. (2011). Physical Educator - Journal of
Physical Education New Zealand, 44(1), 32-33.
Almolda-Tomas, F. J., Sevil-Serrano, J., Julian-Clemente, J. A., Abarca-Sos, A.,
Aibar-Solana, A., & Garcia-Gonzalez, L. (2014). Application of Teaching Strategies for
Improving Students' Situational Motivation in Physical Education. Electronic Journal
Of Research In Educational Psychology, 12(2), 391-417.

Research Paper

Walls 13

Perlman, D. (2014). Motivating the Student: Sport Education Can Be a

Framework for Success. Journal Of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 85(6),
12-16.
Parker, M. B., & Curtner-Smith, M. D. (2014). Comparison of the Motivational
Climates Created during Multi-Activity Instruction and Sport Education. Physical
Educator, 71(3),
Gunnell, K. E., & Gaudreau, P. (2015). Testing a bi-factor model to disentangle
general and specific factors of motivation in self-determination theory. Personality &
Individual Differences, 8135-40. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.059
Ken, H., & Gucciardi, D. F. (2015). Antisocial and Prosocial Behavior in Sport:
The Role of Motivational Climate, Basic Psychological Needs, and Moral
Disengagement. Journal Of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 37(3), 257-273.
doi:10.1123/jsep.2014-0225
Naisseh, m., martinent, g., ferrand, c., & hautier, c. (2015). Relationship
between parents' motivation for physical activity and their beliefs, and support of
their children's physical activity: a cluster analysis. Psychological reports, 117(1),
230-243. Doi:10.2466/06.21.pr0.117c17z