Key Stage 4 PE · Other competitive sports and activities

KS4 PE: athletics and gymnastics technique, a guide for parents

In Years 10 and 11, PE asks pupils to develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports, with athletics and gymnastics given as examples, and to tackle complex and demanding physical activities. By this age the basic movements are familiar, so the work is about precision: breaking a skill into parts, spotting what is going wrong and making small, deliberate changes that lead to better results.

Athletics and gymnastics technique, explained

It helps to separate technique from performance. Technique is how a movement is done: the posture in a sprint start, the arm action in a throw, the shape of a body in a jump. Performance is the outcome: a time, a distance, a height or a score for how well a routine was carried out. Better technique usually leads to better performance, but only if the body is strong, fast and flexible enough to use it, so the two are developed together.

In athletics the events are grouped into running, jumping and throwing. Sprinters work on a low, powerful start, a drive phase where the body rises gradually, and relaxed, upright running. Jumpers break their event into a run-up, take-off, flight and landing, and throwers learn a sequence in which the legs, hips, trunk and arm work one after another. Schools choose which events to teach and how much, depending on their facilities. Throwing equipment is used only under close supervision, and some schools concentrate on running, jumping and relays.

Gymnastics at this stage is about control, fluency and quality as much as difficulty. Pupils develop shapes such as tuck, pike and straddle, balances, rolls, jumps and rotations, and link them into floor sequences or, where facilities allow, vault routines. Judges and teachers look for body tension, extension of the legs and arms, clean landings and smooth links between moves. Not every school offers a full gymnastics programme at Key Stage 4, so what your child does depends on the school.

The phrase “complex and demanding” shows up in how pupils improve. They are encouraged to analyse their own movement, often with the help of video, compare it with a model and make a plan for one thing at a time. They practise under pressure, repeating a skill when tired or in front of others, because holding technique in a competition is harder than in practice. Fitness components such as power, speed, strength and flexibility are developed alongside, always with a good warm-up and cool-down.

Progress is rarely smooth. Growth spurts in the teenage years can temporarily affect coordination and balance, and changing a technique often makes results worse for a short time before they get better. Teachers encourage pupils to measure themselves against their own earlier results rather than against classmates, which keeps motivation going and keeps attention on technique.

Words your child will hear

Technique: The way a movement is carried out, such as body position, timing and sequence.
Phase: One part of a skill, for example the run-up, take-off, flight and landing of a long jump.
Drive phase: The first part of a sprint, where the runner pushes hard and rises gradually to upright running.
Take-off: The moment in a jump when the body leaves the ground.
Extension: Stretching the body, arms or legs to their full length, as in a straight leg or a pointed foot.
Fluency: Moving smoothly from one action to the next without pauses or wobbles.
Power: Strength combined with speed, used in jumps, throws and sprint starts.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 4 says:

Pupils should be taught to develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports [for example, athletics and gymnastics] or other physical activities [for example, dance]
Pupils should tackle complex and demanding physical activities.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: improving a long jump

A pupil’s best long jump is 4.20 m. A video shows that they slow down in the last three strides, lean back at take-off and drop their feet early on landing. How should they work to improve?

Break the jump into phases: run-up, take-off, flight and landing. Look at the video phase by phase rather than the jump as a whole, and describe what happens in each.
Choose one priority. All three faults matter, but the slowing run-up affects everything that follows because jump distance depends strongly on speed at take-off. Fix this first.
Practise the run-up on its own. Use a marker to check the start point and practise accelerating steadily and running through the take-off point without chopping steps. Then practise a few jumps focusing only on staying tall and keeping speed.
Add the next fix. Once the run-up is reliable, work on the take-off: drive the free knee up, stay tall and look forward rather than leaning back. Later, work on the landing: extend both legs forward, keep the feet up for as long as possible, then bend the knees on contact so the hips move forward over the heels instead of sitting back into the sand.
Re-test under the same conditions, such as the same surface and number of attempts. Record the best of three jumps and compare it with 4.20 m. If the result drops at first, keep going and judge it over several sessions.

A good answer picks one fix at a time and measures the result. If the pupil’s run-up improves and they jump 4.41 m, that is 21 cm further, which is 5% more than 4.20 m. A model reflection is: “I fixed my run-up first, then my take-off, and I filmed myself to check each change.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking more practice alone will fix technique

Repeating a movement feels productive, but repeating a flawed movement makes the flaw automatic.

What helps: Practise with a clear focus. Film a few attempts, pick one thing to change and check it. A few careful repetitions are better than many careless ones.

Trying to fix everything at once

When a video shows several faults, it is tempting to try to change them all, and the result is confusion.

What helps: Choose one priority per session. Once it feels natural, move to the next.

Believing gymnastics is only for very flexible or small people

Photographs of elite gymnasts show extreme flexibility, so teenagers assume it is the main requirement.

What helps: Point out that control, strength and body tension matter just as much. School gymnastics rewards clean, well-controlled shapes at every level.

Reading a worse result as proof that nothing is improving

Changing a technique often means a temporary dip while the body gets used to the new movement.

What helps: Review progress over several weeks rather than one session. A short dip is normal when you are changing something that was automatic.

How to help at home

Film and watch in slow motion. Use a phone or tablet to film a skill such as a jump, a balance or a run from the side. Watching it back together, in slow motion if possible, makes it easier to spot what to change. Ask your child what they see before you comment.
Measure a standing jump. On a flat patch of grass, mark a start line and measure a standing long jump with a tape. Take the best of three, record it and test again in a few weeks. The same conditions each time make the comparison fair.
Hold balances and body shapes. Practise holding a plank, a single-leg balance or a straight-legged sit for 20 to 30 seconds, aiming for a still, tight body. Leave rolls, inverted moves and trampolines for supervised sessions with trained coaches.
Time a short sprint safely. In a park or field away from roads, an adult can time a 30 metre sprint on flat ground. A good warm-up first matters, and the focus is on form: a strong start, then relaxed, upright running.
Support recovery. Sleep, regular meals and rest days are part of improving. If your teenager has persistent aches or pain, ask the school or your doctor rather than training through it.

Builds on

Key Stage 3: Athletics technique
Key Stage 3: Gymnastics technique