Using Ty Cobb as an example, I introduced the concept of batting average to my students. I did this for the main purpose of letting them know that perfection is not the key to success. Over the years that I have taught PE, striking and fielding type units can be challenging in the sense that kids can often get down or frustrated if they miss the ball when attempting to hit it. How many of us, as PE teachers, have seen this? We can encourage them and cheer them on, but they have no relative means of putting things in perspective. When I posed the question to them about how many times, out of ten, the best professional baseball player of all time hit the ball, many of them said eight or nine out of ten. When I told them that the very best of the best hit only 3 or 4 times out of 10 they were shocked. They equated professional with perfection.
In the simplest of formats, I had the students have a go at attempting to hit 10 balls, pitched underhand (sometimes with a bounce!) by their partner. They had to keep track of how many they made contact with(out of ten) and record the data on a sheet. Seeing as they were doing decimal points and fractions back in their class in math, it was a great integration. I passed on the data to the classroom teacher who structured an entire lesson around the results and had the kids work the numbers to interpret on a deeper level. It went very well. I didn’t only have them strike the ball and record, but also had them kick the ball (kickball concept) and record. Please see the video. It is a bit slow at times, but the main idea of the lesson comes through in the video. Enjoy!
