The Game of Badminton Volleyball

This is a game I was introduced to at an Achper conference. As soon as I played it I loved it and have been incorporating it into my PE lessons ever since (when I’m teaching Badminton that is!).

One of the reasons I like it so much is it works really well if you haven’t got loads of space. In our gym we have three badminton courts marked out on the gym floor which is perfect.

I’m lucky enough to have smaller classes, but I’ve played this with 3 - 4 students on a team.

Basically the game is badminton, but with the majority of the rules being taken from volleyball.

I’ll endeavor to explain the game using the 3 vs. 3 format.

I usually divide the class up myself, having a range of development within a team.

With the 3 student format, I have 1 student in the middle of the court at the net, and the other 2 mid court, one left, one right. If you looked from above they would be stood in a triangle formation.

After rock. paper. scissors and serve is decided, the server, servers as to the rules of badminton, behind the line (because I teach primary, I usually say the serve can travel anywhere over the net, not necessarily diagonally or even over the service line).

Once the shuttlecock is in play, each side have the option to play the shuttle a maximum of 3 times before it has to travel back over the net, and a single player can’t hit the shuttle consecutively. 

Like volleyball when a team wins service back, the students rotate. This gives everyone practice on their serve and it make sure everyone gets involved, so often one piece of the court gets to see a lot of action and rotating helps everyone get more involved.

We play until 21.

The game tends to be a lot more inclusive of everyone's individual skill, the students get to team with peers, and it is a good use of limited space.

Grade 2 Net Games Unit (Tennis & Badminton)

Net Games - Learning Journey: Elements of Movement

 

Enduring Understanding: Constantly returning to the ready position in Tennis or Badminton is necessary for long term success.

An introduction to Net Games: Tennis & Badminton.

In the unit we explored the concept of the "ready position" and it's importance in letting the player move between the ground strokes in tennis or from offensive to defensive shots in badminton.

Essential Questions:

"What does being 'ready' look like?"

"Why do we want to consistently return to the 'ready position' in-between shots?"

 

Ground Tennis

A new game I did experiment with in this unit that I want to highlight is 'ground tennis'. Having already talked about the ready position the students we then get into a friendly and/or a competitive game of 'ground tennis'. Ground tennis is exactly what it says it is (obviously without a net).... you play tennis with a tennis ball along the ground. Everyone one can play, and you can tailor the games to the needs of the students. For example you could have a friendly rally, or a blistering competitive match, or you could make it more technical by having them try to keep the ball on a line or add in a ground shot. What you do need to stress is that after every shot they return to their starting ready position. 

Ground Tennis

During the unit we used tennis balls when focusing on technique, but we would always bring out the big bubble gum balls to have a fun rally.

Volleyball Badminton

One game I do enjoy is volleyball badminton. Again, it's exactly what it says it is. Volleyball rules but played with badminton equipment. I usually go 3vs.3 as that still leaves lots of space on a badminton court. At times the whole, you continue to serve until you loose a point is a bit hard to understand for the overly keen, but the students seem to love it! You can also play this game with or without net.

 

Reflections on their Adventures in Tennis & Badminton

 

Inquiry in Physical Education: G5 Volleyball - Creating a Checklist (a slide show)

I created this slide show to help share with my peers some of the things I was doing with my Grade 5's. The slide show is centered around two lessons (extracts from both lessons can be found in the movie links).

In one of the movies I do refer to the checklists as rubrics, they are not rubrics they are just a simple checklist of the skills broken down by the G5's.

G4 Peer Coaching & Peer Learning through the learning lens of Badminton

Badminton in Indonesia is a national past time. With members of the class possessing a wealth of knowledge on the skills of the game. This is another fantastic opportunity for the more advanced members of the class to coach others the basics to get the unit started. 

We will particularly be focusing on "what traits and dispositions do we need to develop to enable us to coach and learn from one another?"

Some of the skills the students will be coaching include the backhand short serve, the high serve, the underhand clear and the overhead clear.

In addition I've also been experimenting with the game Volleyball/Badminton, where you play badminton but with the rules of Volleyball. Having done Volleyball with the G3's last year, this is a great opportunity for the students to use their knowledge of another sport, whilst play a different sport.

Goal Setting

Taking the unit in a slightly different direction because of the needs of the students, I made the decision that the students need to identify a short term goal in their badminton game, e.g. movement, serve, communication etc. and start working towards achieving it. They could do this in a number of ways:

1. use an expert in the room (that could mean me, but it could also be a peer or a fiend who has already accomplished that goal).
2. now that the goal is highlighted, focus on it within the game - make it a priority.
3. take the game beyond the PE class and play it in recess or at home - really practice nailing that skill or concept.

The students get time in every class to work on their goal(s) and they are encouraged, once they have achieved one goal they can add another.

Personal Goal Setting & Reflections

G2 Net Games: Coaching & Feedback/Tennis

An Inquiry into how peer coaching and constructive, timely feedback can help a friend develop their understanding and skills in the net game, Tennis...

Hand-Eye Coordination and the introduction to 'Feeding the Ball' and the Forehand 
The unit begins with an introduction to the tennis ball, and we run through simple hand-eye coordination drills to warm ourselves up e.g. patting the ball up in the air with our hands, or playing hand tennis with a partner. After the introduction to the tennis ball we simply replace our hands with a simple bat - still focusing on our movement and hand-eye coordination.

During these first couple of lessons the importance of a well fed ball is highlighted and discussed. Without the well fed ball, learning to develop the ground strokes in tennis would be incredibly difficult to achieve.

We finish the lesson with the introduction to foot movement and the forehand using the concept of preparation in the form of drawing a giant letter C and where we need to move our bodies to make the shot easier to play (step towards/away from the ball).

Over the course of the next three lessons we moved from hand-eye coordination drills with no rackets, to adding rackets, to feeding a ball, to developing forehand and backhand strokes - see the photo pin boards below.

Photo Pin Boards from the first three lessons:

Peer Coaching & Peer Learning

As a class we have studied the ground strokes in some detail. We've looked at how they are played, when they are played and simple drills to help us improve both our forehand and backhand strokes. 

The next step is having the class rank themselves on a continuum - World Class Players all the way down to Beginners. The students are usually very good at knowing what their ability is compared to their peers. Once the students are stood on the continuum I try to pair up the more experienced with the least experienced. 

We look at what is good feedback for the coaches, and we examine how we should behave as a learner when a peer is giving us feedback. In addition we also highlight that the learning shouldn't be one way, and that the coach has lots to learn from the peer student he/she is helping.

This works really well, as it gives the peer learner lots of one-on-one time with a friend who can feed the ball accurately to them and give them little pointers that may need correcting. For the peer coaches it really forces them to break down the ground strokes, identify problems and to problem solve them in order to help their class mate improve.

Comments

G3 Peer Coaching and Feedback through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Volleyball (Newcomb Ball)

The G3 Volleyball (Newcomb Ball) Unit will have a conceptual focus of Coaching and Feedback within it.

Taken from my conceptual map for Primary Physical Education

First Things First... An Introduction to the Key Skills.

Lets start with the basics. Over the next couple of lessons the G3s will be introduced to the overhead pass and the forearm pass. It is during these lessons the students are introduced to the rules and simple scoring.

Lesson 4 & 5: Peer Coaching and Feedback

The G3s were introduced to the checklists that the G5s had created for the overhead pass and the forearm pass (The G5 Volleyball Unit). Working in 3s (assessor, feeder & the assessed) each student got feedback in the form of a brief diagnostic on each skill. Main areas for improvement/development were highlighted with the assessor and the feeder both suggesting possible ideas/solutions to help the assessed student develop and improve their skill levels.

Coaching the Overhead Pass

Coaching the Overhead Pass

Coaching the Overhead Pass

Coaching the Forearm Pass

Coaching the Forearm Pass

Coaching the Forearm Pass

Reflections on Coaching, Feedback & Volleyball

When asked to best describe what FEEDBACK meant to them the class used words like REAL, HONEST & HELPFUL.

G5 Volleyball - Coaching, Peer Formative Assessment & Feedback - Reflections

G5 Coaching, Peer Formative Assessment & Feedback
The main concepts running through this unit are... 

• introducing volleyball so that the students can inquire into and develop an understanding of the sport and play competitively with peers.
• developing the students ability to peer coach, break down skills, create and develop a checklist, model skills and present feedback.

The skills the students examine are either the overhead pass or the forearm pass. Two skills that are fundamental to volleyball. Last year I had one class work on both checklists for each of the skills. This time I have split that job, requiring Grade 5E to design and develop a checklist for the overhead pass and 5B the forearm pass.

During the lesson I have the students break down their designated skills into manageable steps.

Once they have their 5 or 6 steps in a rough order, they then have the opportunity to test the validity of their checklists.

Once the groups are satisfied with their checklists, the class reconvenes to discuss and agree upon the order and steps for the final draft.

Below are the students and class checklist for G5B and G5E.

From these collaborations I developed two checklists that both classes could work from. I included two USA Volleyball diagrams that really helped the G5s last year when working on this unit.

Over the next couple of lessons the students get the opportunity to coach, give feedback and develop a peers skill set.

It is during these lessons I introduce the video delay app on the iPad, giving the students the option of getting additional feedback on their performance. 

 

Reflections

Grade 5 Volleyball: Peer Assessment & Feedback