Beyond technical procedures: track and field in the Physical Education classes

Abstract

Teaching sports in the Physical Education classes is quite frequent and as a consequence, for many teachers the main goal is to teach the movement techniques, worrying only with the action of performing the movement and with the ‘know how to do it’, neglecting other ways of developing this topic. Based on a historical and bibliographic approach, this study tried to reconstruct the history of the shot put, tracing its roots back to its beggining up to when it became an Olympic sport, in order to promote the work of the Physical Education teacher in the school. Based on this (re) construction we also hope to contribute to contextualize the shot put in the area of Track and Field, encouraging and instigating students to reflect the importance of this event in the actual sports scene.