Formative Assessment in Sports

Formative assessments are check points during the learning process. Unlike summative assessments, that check for understanding at the end of learn, formative assessments come in during learning. and “Formative assessments support learning during the learning process. They serve as practice for students, just like a meaningful homework assignment. They check for understanding along the way and guide teacher decision making about future instruction.” Formative assessments give teachers a chance to break down complex ideas into smaller understandable pieces. This allows teachers to correct “mistakes” and fine tune skills before summative assessments.
While formative assessment is mostly talked about in the classroom it can also be used in athletics. Think about the process in learning a new sport. We take the whole sport and break it down into simple steps. Along the way we have coaches giving us specific feed back. We don’t teach a new sport to kids by having them go out and play in a game right away. If we did, our feedback after our summative assessment (their game) would likely be negative. Instead along the way we break sports up into drills and game like situations. This allows coaches to give athletes feedback and make corrections before the game. The process of breaking “chunking” a sport can be broken down into three parts: drill, situations, and competitions. Each one of these is a stepping stone to the next. Even during competitions adjustments and learning can occur.
Drill
We take a sport and break it down to simple moves. Like dribbling a basketball or shooting a single leg takedown. While we are working on simple moves, coaches are looking for specific things. Where are the athlete’s eyes? Are their feet moving in the right direction? These things are considered our success criteria for each drill. Coaches use these to give athletes’ feedback in order for them to successfully complete the drill. By providing good feedback like, “keep your eyes up when dribbling,” or, “your left foot is sliding to the right,” coaches are giving pointers to the learner that they can immediately work on correcting. "The principle of specificity in training states that the body will adapt to the specific imposed stimulus. Therefore, if an athlete desires to improve in a specific skill, movement, or exercise, he or she must perform that exercise in training with multiple variations, or tweaks, to that drill. Because of the complexity of the human structure and human movement, specificity is paramount in training to reach the desired outcome. Another layer to this philosophy is that if the test is the exercise, then if the exercise is properly tweaked (complex variations), it will provide the best opportunity for an improved outcome ." The only way to achieve the desired outcome is to drill and tweak until we get to the desired outcome.
Takedown Drill - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfu1ikO__-s
Situations
Coaches put athletes in live situations all the time. Full-court presses, fumbles on the football field, bunting with man on bases are just a few examples. These situations are assessing a team's response to the situation. The coach can tell if the team has specifics areas they need to work on. Maybe the pitcher needs to cover first base, but was unaware of that until the situation. By chunking up a game into situations coaches are able to simulate games while keeping the ability to give instruction and instant feedback. "Simulation training enables athletes to develop and master the skills they will need to maintain optimal focus and perform their best in competition. In simulated competitions, athletes become aware of what they will confront in actual competition."
Baseball practice- Bunt offense and bunt defense- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvXT6kq4lR4
Competitions
The last way coaches can use formative assessment is during a competition. While some may see this as the summative assessment, I believe that happens as a team looks back on the season as a whole. During competitions coaches might praise specific things and athlete is doing, “good coverage on the receiver, turn your hips with him right away.” Coaches can also give feedback during halftime or the end of a quarter. “We are giving the quarterback open passing lanes in the middle. Our middle linebacker should line up five yards off the ball instead of three.” These are formative assessments made during the progression of competitions.
Greg Popovich- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8it7TADz6Xg

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