Making Up Games and Rules

This week we made up our own games, and our own rules for those games. We then played some of them in P.E. class. I did enjoy the experience of making up a new game, and then the whole class trying it out together. It's something I have never done before, and it was fun!
The games worked well, I thought. They were very creative and a lot of fun to do. I liked it as we listened to each other, set it up ourselves and expalined it to each other, as well as playing them together. The rules did make sense and I thought a lot of the games were great. We played the games around the basis of rounders. There was obstacle rounders using different obstacles in between bases, kick rounders kicking a football and hock ball using hockey sticks.
The game we made was rounders, but instead of hitting a ball with a bat, you throw a tennis ball as far as you can and run to the bases.
I enjoyed seeing what other people came up with, and it flowed well.
Rules are a key part to any game. It definitely allows for a fairer game, and when rules are broken, you can't get much out of it, and i see it as an unfair advantage.

That's it for this week!!

Competition

On the basis of bating about competition, I don't think there has to be a reward or prize to make it worth while. I think you can still have a good time. Competition is whenever two or more parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared, so either one or the other gets it, be it a trophy or winning. However, not all sport has to involve competition. It can be fun and light hearted without getting overly competitive and serious, although most sports do involve competition. And competition is a good thing. I do think there can be enjoyment and fun without competition, as a friendly game in sport.
At the tag rugby blitz last week, i definitely enjoyed the emphasis being placed on participation and fun rather than competition. It gave it a lighter, more fun edge, and there was no main pressure on us. It was a great day and we all took part and really enjoyed. :)

Tag Rugby Games!

Yesterday in P.E., we split up into four teams and played games against each other. Because the weather was good, we got to play outside and split the field in half so there were two games going at the same time! I really enjoyed playing full games like this! We got to work together with friends as a team and learning a lot as we go.
After yesterday, I definitely feel I understand all the rules of the game now, more so than I did when just practicing. It's great to put it in a game situation like that.
We are now going to a tag rugby blitz on the 7th of April, and I'm really looking forward to it! I think it will be a great experience and great fun!
Many do say that rugby is seen as a game mainly for males, but I disagree. I think it's a great team sport, quite competitive, a lot of fun, and I think that females can play too! :)

Tag Rugby

Over the past three weeks, we have had P.E. classes with Simon from the IRFU. This has been really good, and I think I've learned a lot about tag rugby. It's also been a lot of fun. We have done a lot of passing drills and I think i have improved my passing.
I am really enjoying the experience. I think without this experience, I would not get the chance to try tag rugby and learn so much. I think it should be interesting playing full games of tag rugby next week, but I think we will find it very good. For me, passing backwards, as it is the opposite of most sports, is the most difficult part!
I am looking forward to playing the games next week as I think it will be great to finally use and put all of our drills and training with passing etc. to work and to the test! :)

Tag Rugby

This week in P.E. we did tag rugby again. We had a class with a man from the IRFU, Simon. This was good, as he highlighted the basic and important things about rugby.
We went through the importance of core stability and the importance of dynamic stretching, doing numerous stretches and exercises. 
In the dynamic stretching, we did three main stretches: 
1. A balancing exercise called the superman
2. Lunges 
3. Squats

I personally thought this was a really good class, as we had a lot of fun, but really learned a lot and learned about the essentials of rugby. :)

New Year's Resolution!

For 2011, I’ve decided to try to pick a new year’s resolution that will be sustainable!! Because I’m on a basketball team, it is very important to keep fit, or get fit as was my goal over Christmas! I’ve started training every day, jogging, using rowing machines and cross trainers. My resolution is to stick to this and continue throughout the whole year.

Over Christmas, I started jogging about 5 kilometres a day, for about half an hour, sometimes more. My plan is to gradually increase this.

I’m going to try to focus on aerobic exercise, using the fitness machines mentioned above. I’m taking what I’ve learned in P.E. such as the muscle strength and endurance, and aerobics exercise and fitness overall. Plus, cardiovascular endurance! To apply these things outside of P.E., would be good.

Fitness is not my only aim. It will help me, but to keep sharp I need to shoot around. The basketball ring outside comes in handy! I want to improve my game, and endurance.

So, I’m going to try to do some amount of exercise every day, for roughly 30 minutes, be it a jog, or using the cross trainer, or shooting around outside. So far so good!! J

Laura

Tag Rugby

This week in P.E. we did tag rugby. In tag rugby,teams are usually made up of 7 players. For mixed games the rule is usually that each team contains 3 or 4 females. Games are made up of two halves of 7 minutes each with a break of 1 minute for half time. A try is worth one point. To score a try a player must carry the ball over the opponents' goal line and press the ball down on the ground. In tag rugby, you are only allowed to pass behind you, a forward pass is not allowed and will force a turnover, whereas the other team get possession of the ball.
Our main focus was on passing and doing drills to do with tag rugby.
It was good fun, and doing something different was enjoyable. We all enjoyed working as a team.

My Perception of PE

My Perception of P.E.

Laura Byrne

      

I think that P.E. is a lot of fun, and a good way to mix with your class and friends. I think P.E. is a great escape from the classroom and every day work. It’s a class everyone can let go in and just enjoy. I think P.E. should be on a class timetable every day. I also think that its important as so many of us can’t find the time to do regular exercise.

                                       

I love all the different themed things we do in P.E. every week. Some days its athletics, and a certain form of athletics like running, others days it could be dance, or yoga and aerobics. I love the variety of our P.E. classes, I just think the classes should be more frequent and we should have at least two P.E. classes a week, maybe more.

My Fitness Plan

My Fitness Plan!

I feel that I could improve my fitness overall. I play basketball, so it is a good motivation to get fitter as I think the sport could be more enjoyable, and in a way, I could perform better.

Monday: Day off.

Tuesday: Basketball training (in school) for approx. 40mins & PE for 1 hour.

                   20 minute walk.

Wednesday: Basketball training (outside of school) for 1 and half hours

Thursday: 30 minute walk

Friday: Basketball training (in school) for approx. 40mins

Saturday: Basketball match, approx. 1 hour, 20 minutes

                   Half an hour walk.

Sunday: 1 hour of shooting around at home

30 minutes of sit-ups

Total Time: 480 minutes/8 hours

So, currently, I do about 8 hours of exercise a week. I think I definitely have to keep it up, and maybe even extend my walks and personal training sessions. I also think it’s important to eat healthy and get a balance, to do the right amount of exercise and get the right amount of rest. J

Cardiovascular Endurance

Last week I wasn’t there for PE class, but in the previous class we did the bleep test. I scored 7.2 in the bleep test. I feel it was average enough, but I could definitely do better, and I look forward to repeating it to see if I can improve.

I have been doing a lot of basketball training, and through this I have been working on my cardiovascular endurance. We have been focusing on the pressure and work on our lungs and heart in PE.

Snow!

 There has been so much snow recently here, there hasn’t been school in about a week! So, this week I’m writing on my blog from home! The weather has hindered my fitness plan slightly, but I have still gone for a few walks, shovelled a LOT of snow (hard work!) and of course had some snowball fights!
Believe it or not, I think the snow is a great opportunity to get outside! It makes sport and running quite impossible, but you can still go for walks. It means you and your friends can have so much fun! Over the past week, I have had numerous snowball fights and gone sledding for hours (a lot of fun!!). Things are, slowly, beginning to thaw, so maybe by next week I’ll be back on track! Although it has been a great week and a half!!

Fitness Testing!!

 In PE this week, we focused on fitness. this is an important part of life, sport and PE, and can be fun, while participating in a vital activity. We started off with a fun, but very practical, warm-up, spending maybe a minute at a station and rotating clockwise. We did this in teams, using our teamwork skills and taking on board everything we did previously when focusing on teamwork. We went from cone to cone, going from jumping-jacks, to press-ups, to skipping, to lunges, to running and finally to tricep dips. we, luckily, stretched our muscles and got warmed up.
This week, we tested muscular strength, by doing bench presses, muscular endurance, by doing sit ups and press ups, and flexibility by doing the sit and reach. We did these yesterday in class and needless to say we are very sore today!! But it was also good to figure out your personal limits and abilities. This is why I think that fitness testing is a good idea. The benefits of fitness testing are that it can give you a goal, to be fitter or do better in a certain part of the fitness test. It can also in the obvious sense improve your fitness.
My results for each activity in a minute were:
Bench Press = 5
Sit Up = 48
Press Up = 31
Sit and Reach = 20
Next week, we are going to be doing Cardiovascular Endurance and doing the Bleep test. I look forward to telling you about it!! 

Teamwork

This week we are writing about team work, as we’ve been focusing on team challenges in our PE class.
I personally love this area of PE, as it is a great way of doing a PE class, exercising and having a lot of fun!! As we are a newly formed class, we don’t really know each other all that well. I found it a great way of bonding. We left the class laughing and laughed the whole class through, so we were happy and in a good mood leaving!!! Our team also came joint 1st.
We did many fun activities, using things like tyres, wooden planks, hoops, string and skateboards. A weird combination, but a lot of fun!! We had wins, losses, falls and fun. Overall, I found the area of teamwork great.

Something that inspires me!

My favourite sport is by far basketball. I’ve been involved with it all my life. My inspiration is watching other professional and experienced basketball players. To see the practice and work they put into it and how good they are, the skill and dedication, is inspiration enough for me! I enjoy watching it as a sport and learning as I do. They are some of the greatest players out there, in NBA and college basketball, and that is a huge inspiration for me. I enjoy playing it, but these are the people I look up to.  

Hello!

This is my first post on this blog!! I’ll be putting up posts about our P.E. classes, about what we’re doing at the time, such as athletics, team challenges or net games. It will be based on the fitness side of things and also the fun side of things!! It will be based on what we do and also what I think, and my personal opinion. I hope you enjoy it!!
Laura