A Study on Tag Rugby in Physical Education Lessons of Primary School

A Focus on “Throw Forward Rule”

Abstract

Recently, Territorial Games attract the attention of physical educators because they are easy to score and to move with the ball, so they have been practiced in a lot of primary schools. However, there are some opinions which point out that Territorial Games can be difficult games from a few viewpoints.
The purpose of this study is to examine whether the Throw Forward Rule in Tag Rugby which is one of Territorial Games is easy or difficult. To achieve this, Tag Rugby was taught to the 3rd year pupils without previous experience of playing the game of Tag Rugby and the 5th year pupils who had previous experience of it. Both the awareness of this rule and the result of this play by these pupils were investigated. The following points became clear from the investigation.
1) The Throw Forward Rule was a little difficult for the pupils who didn't have the experience of the game at the start of the unit.
2) However, the Throw Forward Rule became easier for the pupils who gradually gained experience during the progressions of the study.
3) The Throw Forward Rule was easier for the pupils who had the experience of the game in advance even at the start of the unit.
Consequently, it became clear that the Throw Forward Rule was not as difficult for the pupils as it had been generally said. This implies the possibility that a gap was caused between the teachers' opinion about Tag Rugby and the awareness of the pupils who actually played it. It seems that the teachers will be required to have the pupils' view and to close the gap in experience in order to choose timely ball games for the pupils in the school PE curriculum.