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Welcome to 2025! This is the first of many announcements coming. We are excited to announce the launch of the Streaks integration. You can now earn emoji badges to signify your commitment to connect, grow, and share in the HPE community. Building a 3-Day streak will earn you a Fire Emoji. Some of you have been active today, so your streak h...
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Teaching Disc Golf in Secondary
My semester so far has been interrupted by the arctic weather moving through KY this January, but I've started digging into Target Games with my students. Based on my current equipment inventory, this unit consists of Archery and Disc Golf. I thought I'd share this because there are so many creative ways to teach our students to play disc golf before they ever step foot on a course.
Closest to the Pin (Guided Practice)
I teach this practice game to help students learn how to perform approach shots. We talk about golf being similar to archery, in that the basket is the bullseye, but hitting it is improbable. Instead, we are focused on landing the disc within 20 feet of the basket to give ourselves a chance to make a putt. Playing golf is as much strategy and decision making as it is skill, but students would never know that unless we placed value on performing these habits.
In the game closest to the pin, my students take a basket, two foam discs each, a poly spot, and one cone per player in the group. They set their poly spot (marker) somewhere away from the basket that will provide a decent amount of challenge, and take turns throwing. After all discs have been thrown, the players will mark their throw that is closest to the pin with their cone, collect their disc, and return to their poly spot to try again. They play three rounds. Each round they will try to land their discs closer to the basket than their personal best.
This game creates an environment where students have access to social interaction with partners, autonomy to decide challenge level, opportunities to develop and refine motor competence, and competition if they so choose (some groups will allocate points for the player who is closest to the pin each round even though I do not teach that rule.)
I play many other games like this that teach core principles of disc golf, provide countless minutes of practice time, and are built with intentionality around the features of Meaningful Physical Education. Golf games are hard. Chat with me in The Collective if you want to learn more!
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