THE APPLICATION OF TEACHING THE FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENTÂ SKILLS INVOLVED IN SURFING
The students come first.
STUDENT'S PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUTÂ SURFING
Before teaching surfing, we must acknowledge that learners will have a wide range of experiences with the fundamental motor skills of balance and twisting involved in it. Some learners will have little to no experience with surfing, whereas, some learners may have surfed since they were very young. The aim is for students to improve their their balance and twisting and so it is vital to be able to identify what a skilled surfer looks like.
Someone who is becoming skilled in surfing would hold some of the following characteristics:
Consistency - In almost all sports, you can see experts producing a very similar movement pattern everytime they play, such as a golf swing. But with surfing, consistency looks different to most sports. Consistency in surfing can be seen as knowing each wave as it comes and being proactive in knowing what sort of movement is required to catch each individual wave.
Stability - Although there may be different levels of wind, different sizes of waves etc., a skilled surfer will be able to manipulate the way they move and react so that they are still able to get up and ride the waves.
Persistence - If a skilled surfer were to learn this skill then take an extended break from surfing, they would be able to come back to it at any point and be able to catch a wave and stand up in a consistent way after a short time.
Adaptability - A skilled surfer is focused on external stimuli such as the wave type and direction instead of focusing internally on the execution of the skill itself as a beginner would be doing.
UNDERSTANDING SURFING
Before we are able to teach surfing effectively to our students, we need to know how surfing as an activity can vary and differentiate. Watch the two videos below and see how surfing can vary depending on factors such as waves, boards and ability.
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Video 1: Sea Plane, 10 Foot Long board (SurfboardWarehouse, 2017a)
This first video shows that a long board can catch waves early and can stay on them for a long period of time. This next video will show you a board that is close to half the long board's size. Watch out for how quick this short board is and how sharp it can turn.
Video 2: 5 Foot, Flying Fish Fun Board (SurfboardWarehouse, 2017b)
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Understanding that surfing can be done in a range of ways can help us as teachers to manipulate certain aspects of the activity in order to cater for students differing abilities and needs. Characteristics such as board length, board volume and wave type can help make surfing a school friendly activity which as both videos show, can be fulfilling, meditating and rewarding for all participants.
STUDENTS' ABILITIES, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES
No matter what we teach students in a classroom, there will always be a significant differentiation in the ability level from our weakest student to our strongest. Being able to comprohend the difference between skill and ability is a crucial skill to have when effectively teaching any subject.
Concepts of ability are often confused with the concept of skill. Spittle (2013) defines abilities as stable, abiding traits that underpin the performing of motor skills. Through this understanding, skills are actually dependent on different abilities to practice, learn and modify motor skills. The idea of abilities as variables of motor skills means that they are difficult to change (Spittle, 2013). Examples of abilities that may be present in surfing are reaction time, coordination and flexibility. Surfing is a task in a real-world setting that requires the individual to make fast reactions to the environmental stimuli and respond effectively to them (Shea, et al., 2001). Individuals have to react when deciding when to catch a wave and also when to stand up on the board once riding the wave. Coordination is another ability required in surfing. Shea, et al. (2001), describes surfing as an activity that requires the coordination of the entire body.
STUDENTS' LEARNING PROGRESSION
The skill of surfing may seem quite simple for some people. You just stand up on a surfboard and ride a wave right? However, surfing is made up of many complex movements that need to be executed simultaneously for the skill to occur. Learning these movements takes time and this time varies according to the learners abilities, already learnt skills and motivation to learn (Council, 2003). Whenever teaching any group of students, they are all going to have different levels of ability, skill, previous experience and talent (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2016). It is important to cater for different learners and levels of learning when implementing the learning of movement skills.
Nonlinear dynamics are a part of the dynamic systems theory of understanding motor control (Spittle, 2013) and when teaching students surfing, we must acknowledge that not all learning occurs at the same rate and it is not a direct linear dynamic for all students. Nonlinear dynamics have been described by Shumway-Cook and Woollacott (2007), as behavior that can transform into a new configuration as parameters of that behavior are altered. This means essentially, human motor control does not follow linear progressions and this is vital to comprehend before teaching and assessing the fundamental movement skills involved in surfing.
Applying this knowledge to surfing, when teaching a class of students how to surf, we must teach on a continuum that encourages those who are already talented and skilled in the area to stretch their knowledge and capabilities. However we must also help those who have never participated in surfing before. Some students will have grown up with surfing and so will be able to do the fundamental movement skills such as balance and twisting with ease however some students may have never touched a surfboard before. To ensure all students have the opportunity at improvement, it is important to ensure that a range of boards are available for use, as the bigger, wider and thicker a surfboard is, the easier it is to ride. It is important to have a variety of boards including long boards and short board so that students can all have an equal opportunity at enjoying surfing and learning.
To answer the question of what learning will look like, it will fluctuate and differentiate between each individual student. Learning in surfing should be assessed on an improvement basis and not so much a performance basis. This is why it is important to do either an informative or formative pre and post assessment which will be discussed further later on (Spittle, 2013).
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What will learning look like?
The stages of learning fundamental movement skills have been understood and interpreted differently over the years however most identify specific stages of the learning process. Fitts and Posner suggest that there are three stages to the learning process. The cognitive stage, the associative stage and the autonomous stage (Fitts & Posner, 1967).
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Applying Fitts & Posner’s three stage model of learning to surfing, in the cognition stage, a learner will go through a range of experiences whilst trying to understand and develop the fundamental movement patterns of surfing. The learner will be engaged in a lot of concentrating and mental effort and will experience many mistakes and inconsistencies in the skill themselves. Trial and error learning is the predominant form of cognition in this stage and large performance gains will be experienced by the learner (Fitts & Posner, 1967). We took members of our group for a surf to trial this stage of learning and it was fascinating to observe how the characteristic of inconsistency was relevant and obvious. Within his first 3 attempts one of our members stood up on the surf board showing that he was a quick learner however he then could not sustain this over and over indicating that he was still in fact in the cognitive stage of learning.
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The second stage of learning, the associative stage (or sometimes referred to as the practice stage) involves the learner narrowing down the motor skills in order to create a more consistent, successful outcome. More specifically in surfing, this stage is about practicing the skill of getting up and balancing to the point where it takes less mental effort than the cognition stage of learning so that external stimuli such as the wave type and direction can be focused on. The learner will predominantly shift their attention internally to externally and will begin to understand the environment and what adjustments they will need to make in order to still successfully meet the skill’s objective (Fitts & Posner, 1967). Many people, especially in surfing will never progress past this stage, so it is vital to continue setting goals to ensure improvement is occurring (Locke, Shaw, Saari, & Latham, 1981).
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The last stage of learning according to Fitts and Posner is the Autonomous stage. The skill is almost automatic and there is little mental effort focused on the performance of the skill. Mistakes are rare and improvement will be slow as performance is already at a high level (Fitts & Posner, 1967). Therefore in surfing, someone in this stage of learning would be focusing on the environment (Wave type and direction) from the initiation of the skill sequence. They are able to make adjustments and the skill itself looks smooth and easy for the participant. The participant will be confident, quick in getting up on the surfboard and will ultimately produce turns and tricks while on the wave as they have almost mastered the skill itself. Many never get to this stage however with hard work and practice becoming a skilled surfer is a reachable and realistic goal for all of our students (Spittle, 2013).
SETTING GOALS ANDÂ SUSTAINING IMPROVEMENT
It is important for students to set realistic and achievable goals in order to ensure that improvement is continued and sustained.
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Goals should involve things such as:
Improvement
Consistency
Stability
Persistence
Adaptability
Setting realistic and sustainable goals can help highlight what learners can do to have more success with the fundamental movement skill involved in surfing, including if relevant, modifying steps to help them reach success. This can ultimately serve to reduce the cognitive load and allow a specific focus on the process. learners can practice the movement relating to the goal until their desired point of success. This goal could be riding a wave whilst lying down, whilst on your knees or even standing up. The aim is to get students riding a wave and successfully being able to balance and twist while doing so, how they do this, is up to them (Within reason).
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HOW WILL WE KNOW WHEN STUDENTS HAVE ACHIEVED UTILISING THE FUNDAMENTAL MOVEMENT SKILLS INVOLVED IN SURFING ?
Success for a learner whilst learning the fundamental skills in surfing can be different for every individual. Gentile’s (1972, 2000) model explains that there are two stages of learning; the initial stage (getting the idea of the movement) and the later stage (fixation and diversification). Someone learning to surf who is in the initial stage of learning may be looking to succeed in acquiring a basic movement pattern (Gentile, 1972, 2000). This movement pattern could be a student learning how to stand up on a board, they could set a goal to stand up on the board whilst riding a wave, no matter how they get up, they can take their time as long as they get up to ride a wave (could be how they are taught, getting onto their knees first and then standing up). That was one example as to what success might look like for someone that is in the initial stage of learning to surf. As for people who are in the later stage of learning, their idea of success may change. In this stage, learners may practice surfing until they get to their desired point of success, for example, someone could set a goal to stand straight up on a board, rather than getting on their knees first, or even just to ride a wave whilst only on their knees or lying down. It can be more of an experimental or diversification stage to see what can be done and that point of success can then change depending on what their goal is (Gentile, 1972, 2000).
A learner may know when they are starting to succeed when their goal is being met over and over with gradually less errors. Bernstein’s (1967) dynamic systems theory explains that skill learning is seen as a progression in solving the degrees of freedom problem. Degrees of freedom are the number of independent variables that are to be controlled in a movement situation (Bernstein, 1967). Someone who is learning to surf and is making gradually less errors will know that they are succeeding because they are completing the skill with more degrees of freedom. They are becoming more comfortable in what they are attempting to do and therefore creating gradually less errors.
HELPING STUDENTS LEARN AT THEIR OWN RATE
There are a couple of different ways people can learn how to have success within surfing. Some people have success by getting out in the water and giving it a go whereas some people like to be scaffolded to success. Vygotsky’s (1987) theory of scaffolding comes from the zone of proximal development, which is "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p86). Therefore, using Vygotsky’s (1978) theory learners in surfing can be scaffolded to success. An example of using scaffolding to teach surfing would be to learn to stand up on a surfboard on the beach/sand instead of going straight into the deep end of the water. Using the sand or any land as a way to learn how to stand up on a surfboard is an effective way to scaffold learning because it is a lot easier to balance on land than it is on the water, therefore, it more so focuses on getting the technique correct before focusing on success in standing up whilst on the water.
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There can be ways to scaffold surfing to reduce cognitive load and also allow a focus on process. As I covered, there are a couple of ways people can to learn to reach success in surfing, for example, some people would rather skip the cognitive side of learning surfing (understanding how surfing works) and just jump straight into the water and try to surf. To scaffold these learners while also focusing on process, the learners can use an easier board to start learning to surf. This way, the learner is reducing cognitive load yet still learning by trial and error. Using a bigger sized board could scaffold learners balance in standing up as there is more area to balance on, and also using a boogie board for example could be easier to catch a wave because it is more manipulatable and only supposed to be kneeled upon. The boogie board is a good example for beginners who want to jump straight in because once they can succeed in catching waves whilst on their knees, the next step would be to then try to stand up (this would be on a different scaffolded board, a larger surfboard to easily balance when standing up).