On the Defense for Relays!

Ahh the good old fashioned relay race, an event that was placed into the Hall of Shame for Physical Educators. From a future educator's perspective, one can see why it was selected into that catergory. The relay race, although does raise the individuals heart rate and teach a sense of teamwork, also possesses the opportunity to single out and embarrass the less skilled students of the group. So, after some thinking, I have re-vamped the traditional relay race to something that is more stimulating to the students. Instead of just running down a set track with no variation to it, students would have to perform different movements, encountering various obstacles along the way. After completing a lap, the teacher would give the student a "special word" or "special phrase" that he or she would have to whisper to the student in the back of the line. The phrase would have to be "telephoned" up to the front of the line, and upon recieving the word or phrase the student in the front of the line would go down the course to repeat the process.


This variation would allow students to utilize different skills they have learned and testing them on different environments and obstacles. It also adds another component of listening and communication to the relay race as well as a more teamwork than a regular relay.

Another variation to this would be to set up two identical tracks with different stations around the gymnasium. Each station has a task card and a number attatched to it. Place a student at each station. For an example of two teams: each team has a starter who has a task of their own (ex. crab walking to the next station). When the starter reaches the next station, he or she performs the task with the student occupying the station, the starter cannot advance until both complete the task. Once the starter has returned to the start, it is known as a full cycle, and then repeats, only this time the students hustle to the station that was one number higher than the last one they were at, with the last station becomming the starter. ( station 1 goes to 2, 2 goes to 3, etc.) The objective is to see either how many cycles a group can achieve in X amount of time or to make it a contest to see which group can complete it with everyone being a starter first.

By using this variation students are much more involved with the relay race doing many different activities throughout the course. Also a stronger sense of teamwork is present because students have more to complete as well as they need to finish tasks together.