The purpose of sport is to try to win. Right? Therefore, if you win, all criteria have been fulfilled. Right? Well, not quite. Some winning is better than others.

During the Cold War, Soviet bloc athletes won often. Unsmiling and efficient. The product of a regime that left nothing to chance. But world beating effective. Unlike Brazilian football teams, who won with a smile on their faces, playing breath-taking football incorporating dazzling skill. If the purpose is to win, then neither is better than the other. But we instinctively feel that one is superior. That some hidden...

Schools spend much time, energy, money and resources on their games programmes. Administration, facilities, equipment and kit are often first class. Thousands of coaching sessions and matches happen every week impacting on tens of thousands of children.

But coaching often lags behind. Particularly if it is provided by willing, non-specialist teachers, for whom it is not the most important thing that they do. Or by forty somethings (or fifty somethings) who are trotting out tired old sessions from twenty years ago, without any burning desire to update.

What do these sessions look like? They often...

Movement, Mastery and Magic: Discovering the Fun in Sport

Why we play sports? Why does every school in the country compel pupils to play games?

Any discussion can't get very far before concluding that it's fun. Or it can be fun. Or it should be fun. Or it must be fun. That's the purpose of sport. Without enjoyment as the outcome, what's the point of it all?

All this begs the question, what is fun? What has to happen for humans to experience enjoyment through physical activity? Lots of things...