Sports education is a form of physical education that emphasizes participation in sports as a way of developing skills, learning rules, practicing good sportsmanship, leading an active lifestyle, participating in a group, and learning leadership skills. Faced with cutbacks in physical education courses over the 1980s and 1990s, physical education teachers were often reduced to teaching sports skills apart from the actual game. Many teachers see sports education as a way of revitalizing physical education and making it more useful to students.

Sports education offers many features not present in standard physical education. By using seasons, teaching units that are two to three times longer than in physical education, sports education teachers have an opportunity to instruct in greater depth. Students are affiliated with a team throughout the semester, and all planning, practice, and competition is carried out in teams. Students find that sports are more...