HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The history of physical education reflects people's attitudes about physical activity. From
prehistoric times, because survival was related to physical stamina and to people's ability
to find food, no separate physical fitness programs were needed. Gradually, ancient
societies in China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome adopted physical education as part of
military training. As the more developed societies came to value the scholarly life,
physical education lost favor. Many developed countries have had to strike a balance
between physical and intellectual interests. The history of physical education frequently
shows a pattern of military, social, and political influence.

In one high point of ancient history, Athenian Greeks came to the forefront in the era 700
to 600 B.C. with their quest for physical and intellectual perfection. In numerous
festivals, Athenians celebrated the beauty of the human form in dance, art, religious rites,
and athletics. Athenians honored the gods of Olympus, especially Zeus, with the first
Olympic Games. The Olympic Games offered a civilizing influence, with social class
disregarded and all citizens judged on athletic competition. If a war was being fought,it
was halted during the Olympic Games. Many historians regard Athenian culture as the
height of early physical education, but like their Chinese predecessors, the Athenians felt
the competing influence of intellectualism.

The Middle Ages saw the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity, and the
Christian influence brought about a denial of physical activity for anything other than
manual labor. Christians saw sports and physical play as immoral, and in 394 they halted
the Olympic Games. This trend was not reversed until the medieval societies grew and
sought power through military expansion.

During the Renaissance, the pendulum swung once again as artists showed the human
body as an object of admiration. The humanist faction, centered in Italy, valued education
in sports such as fencing, archery, swimming, running, and ball games. The moralist
faction, influenced by the Protestant Reformation, saw physical activity only as a way for
carrying out work. During this period, much of Europe was still Catholic, and Catholics
favored recreational physical activity with the view that care should be taken of the body
as the vessel that held the soul. The other major Renaissance faction was realism, which
favored physical education as part of a sound mind in a sound body.

In 19th-century Europe, Sweden and Germany developed systems of gymnastics that

were adopted internationally with Germany building the first indoor gymnasium. In
Finland, which also built a gymnasium, exercise was for the first time seen as a way to
achieve physical rehabilitation. Scholars began to study anatomy and physiology in
relation to exercise. Denmark was among the first countries to require physical education
in schools.

Physical education fulfilled a political role in early-20th-century Russia after the rise of
communism. Physical fitness helped insure military strength, productivity, and
nationalism. Sports were viewed as a way of achieving international fame. The United
States followed other countries in its approach to physical education. During the Colonial
period, the sheer physical demands of survival made physical education unnecessary.
War required physical training as a part of military preparation. Between the Revolution
War and the Civil War, Americans followed some recreational activities such as riding,
hunting, dancing, swimming, and early forms of golf and tennis. By the 1820s, some
American schools offered gymnasia and physical education. Instruction included the
development and care of the body, and training in hygiene. Students learned calisthenics’
exercises, gymnastics, and the performance and management of athletic games. Women's
colleges offered exercise and dance classes. The Young Men's Christian Association
(YMCA) opened its first American chapter in 1851. Many sports gained in popularity
around this time, including baseball.

After the American Civil War, large school systems began to adopt physical education
programs and many states passed laws requiring that physical education programs be
taught. For the first time, specialized training was offered for physical education
instructors. In another first, colleges offered intercollegiate sports such as rowing,
football, and track and field. In keeping with this wave of interest in physical education,
the Olympic Games were restore din 1896, after a 1,400-year interlude.

Surprisingly, many Americans were not physically fit for military service during World
War I, and there were many postwar efforts to add physical education at all levels of
schooling. During World War II, physical fitness was again required of soldiers--but it
was also required of many others, particularly women, since the war effort required
manual labor. Soldiers once again came up short in physical fitness requirements, so after
the war, schools instituted more rigorous physical education requirements, and there was
greater interest in the teaching of physical education.

By 1950, there were over 400 United States colleges and universities offering majors in
physical education and there was increasing recognition of the scientific foundation of
physical education. The fitness of the military in the Korean War again fell short of
expectations, and the federal government set up the President's Council on Physical
Fitness, which helped to raise fitness standards in schools across the country. A series of
1970s and 1980s recessions brought about cutbacks in many school programs, including
physical education. By the 1970s, interest in the President's Council had waned and
physical education courses began to emphasize lifetime sports such as golf, badminton,
tennis, and bowling. In another swing of the pendulum, the American public
spontaneously developed an intense interest in fitness in the late 1970s.

One of the most significant shifts of the 1970s was the Title IX amendment to the Federal
Education Act, which stipulated that no federally funded education programs could
discriminate on the basis of gender. Enforcement of Title IX opened up many new
opportunities for women in competitive athletics, both at the high school and collegiate
levels. In a continuation of 1980s trends, during the 1990s many school districts have
limited the amount of time students spend in physical education or have even dropped the
program in response to economic problems or concerns about poor curriculum. Some
reformers in the field are turning to sports education as away of reengaging the students.

The ancient Greek emphasis on anatomy, physical achievement and abilities was for the
first time in the ancient world blended with a humanistic and scientific approach to
balancing one's life. The first known literary reference to an athletic competition is
preserved in the ancient Greek text, the Iliad, by Homer, and the ancient Greek tradition
of the Olympic Games, which originated in the early eighth century B.C.E. The Japanese
tradition of physical exercise integrated into daily life derived from Bushido ("the way of
the warrior").
The father of modern physical education as we know it today was Friedrich Ludwig Jahn.
During the nineteenth century, Jahn established the first gymnastic school for children in
Germany. A fervent German nationalist, Jahn believed that the best kind of society was
one that had established standards of physical strength and abilities.[2] The first Turnplatz,
or open-air gymnasium, was opened by Jahn in Berlin in 1811, and
the Turnverein (gymnastics association) movement spread rapidly.

Around the same time, but independent of Jahn's developments, the Swedish teacher Pehr
Henrik Ling started to see the benefits of gymnastics. In 1813 he was successful in
developing the Royal Gymnastic Central Institute with the cooperation of the Swedish
government, which went far to advance physical conditioning. Soon, many European
nations followed suit, first with private schools mostly for gymnastics. In the early
twentieth century, with the advent of organized sports, public schools around the world
started to develop physical education curricula.

Before physical education became popular in school systems, private gyms started to
crop up in Europe and America. The first indoor gymnasium in Germany was probably
the one built in Hesse in 1852 by Adolph Spiess, an enthusiast for boys' and girls'
gymnastics in the schools. In the United States, the Turner movement thrived in the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first Turners group was formed in
Cincinnati in 1848. The Turners built gymnasia in several cities, including Cincinnati and
St. Louis which had large German American populations. Adults and youth utilized these
gyms.

In the Meiji period (late nineteenth century), Japan imported many foreign sports.
Nationwide sports competitions were instituted, particularly in the middle school level,
which continue in the form of national school tournaments. However, an absolutist
ideology of winning became established, particularly among middle school students who
were being prepared for military service, boosting nationalistic ideas and supporting the
development of military power. During the last decades of the nineteenth century and
early twentieth century, John Dewey and his colleagues promoted progressive
education ideas, challenging traditional education and leading to reforms that included
the introduction of physical education. Educational psychologists, including Stanley G.
Hall and Edward Thorndike supported Dewey's focus on activity in learning, suggesting
that children's play be recognized as an important aspect of their development.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first to seriously consider a nationwide physical
fitness program in the U.S. However, his well-intended President's Council on Youth
Fitness never fully materialized, and it was left up to the succeeding President John F.
Kennedy to introduce and encourage public school systems to adopt physical fitness
programs in their curricula.

Phases of Physical Education

Phase 1 - General development of strength, mobility, endurance and basic technique
Phase 2 - Development of specific fitness and advanced technical skills
Phase 3 - Competition experience - achievement of qualification times for main
competition
Phase 4 - Adjustment of technical model, preparation for the main competition
Phase 5 - Competition experience and achievement of outdoor objectives
Phase 6 - Active recovery - planning preparation for next season

OBJECTIVES OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

1. To instill in the students the values and skills of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Daily
physical activity promotes an awareness of health and well being among students. It
boosts them to engage in physical activities on a daily basis. It promotes them to lead a
healthy life in adulthood.
->Physical education classes constitute programs to promote physical fitness in students,
train them in sports, help them understand rules and strategies in playing and teach them
to work as a team. A very vital factor in physical education is to develop interpersonal
skills in children. Sports aim at making them team players, developing a sportsman spirit
in them and enhancing their competitive spirit. Sports that form a part of physical
education classes help the students invest time in fruitful and competitive activities.

2. To inculcate in the minds of the students, the importance of personal hygiene and
cleanliness. Physical education classes aim at teaching the students, the habits of personal
cleanliness and the importance of the maintenance of personal hygiene in life. Physical
education classes also impart sex-education to the students, help them clarify their doubts
and find answers to all the questions that occur to their minds.
->The sports, which are a part of the physical education class, help in developing motor
skills in children. The ability to hold a racket or a bat, the ability to catch a ball and the
ability to swing a bat are some examples of the motor abilities that can develop with the
help of sports. The physical activity that is involved in physical education helps the
students in bringing discipline to body posture and body movements. Hitting a ball with a
bat or a shuttle with a racket as also aiming a ball for a goal or catching it to get the
opponent team out, are some of the commonly observed actions in sports and are
extremely beneficial in improving hand-eye coordination.

3. To encourage the upcoming sportsmen and women of the crowd. Physical education
gives the budding sports people a platform to exhibit their talents. Those with a flair for
sports get an opportunity to display their talent. Their small step on the school
playground can eventually turn into a huge leap in the field of sports.

1. Movement Education
 1. Body/Space Awareness
2. Basic Movement
3. Rhythmic Movement
2. Manipulative Skills Development
A. Manipulative Skills
B. Sending Skills
C. Receiving Skills
3. Fitness
D. Health Related Fitness
E. Sports Related Fitness
4. Games and Sports
A. Attitudes
B. Knowledge
C. Skill