Physical EducationQ&A by dot point

Confidence and emotional control as features of the emotional factor: how positive emotions such as confidence and happiness affect willingness and decisiveness, the risk of over-confidence, and approaches used to build and steady confidence.

The emotional factors that impact on performance, including their features such as anger, fear and anxiety, happiness and confidence, and the positive and negative effects emotions can have on a performer.

Managing anger, fear and anxiety as features of the emotional factor: how these emotions affect performance when uncontrolled, and the approaches used to manage them such as relaxation, breathing techniques, positive self-talk and routines.

Concentration and level of arousal as features of the mental factor: sustaining attention and recognising cues, the idea of an optimum level of arousal, and how lapses in concentration or arousal that is too high or too low affect performance.

Decision-making as a feature of the mental factor: how a performer selects the most appropriate response under time pressure, the influence of experience and information processing, and the impact of good and poor decision-making on performance.

The mental factors that impact on performance, including their features such as decision-making, concentration, level of arousal and mental toughness, and the positive and negative effects each can have on performance.

Mental toughness as a feature of the mental factor: staying focused, confident and composed under pressure, resilience and recovering from setbacks, and the approaches used to develop it such as mental rehearsal, positive self-talk and routines.

Approaches to developing performance, including how a performer selects approaches that match the factor and the stage of learning, principles such as progression and specificity, and examples of approaches for the physical, mental, emotional and social factors.

Evaluating performance development and identifying future development needs, including comparing results against the baseline and targets, judging the effectiveness of the approaches, and justifying decisions about what to develop next.

Methods of collecting information about the factors impacting on performance, including the difference between qualitative and quantitative methods, examples such as observation schedules, video analysis, standardised tests, questionnaires and match analysis, and why a performer uses more than one method.

The performance demands of activities, including the physical, mental, emotional and social demands an activity places on a performer, how these vary between activities, and why understanding the demands directs development priorities.

Planning, monitoring and recording a personal development plan, including setting SMART targets, structuring a programme over time, the methods used to monitor progress such as training diaries and retesting, and why ongoing recording matters.

Fitness as an area of the physical factor: physical fitness components (endurance, strength, speed, flexibility), skill-related fitness components (agility, balance, coordination, reaction time, power), mental fitness, and how strengths and weaknesses in fitness affect performance.

The physical factors that impact on performance, including their three areas of fitness, skills and tactics, and the positive and negative effects each can have on performance.

Skills as an area of the physical factor: the qualities of a skilled performance, the classification of skills (simple to complex, open and closed), the stages of learning (cognitive, associative, autonomous), and how skill quality affects performance.

Tactics and composition as an area of the physical factor: how tactics outwit an opponent in games and how composition structures a performance activity, the strengths and weaknesses they target, and how good and poor tactics affect performance.

The practical performance component: performing in two physical activities with significantly different demands, assessed on the demonstration of skills, decision-making and overall effectiveness under competitive or challenging conditions, internally marked and externally verified.

Cooperation, communication and team dynamics as features of the social factor: how members work towards a shared goal, the role of communication, and the approaches used to develop cohesion such as team-building, set plays and shared goals.

Roles and responsibilities, relationships and etiquette as features of the social factor: how defined roles keep a team organised, how relationships affect morale and conflict, and the place of etiquette and environmental considerations in performance.

The social factors that impact on performance, including their features such as team dynamics, cooperation, roles and responsibilities, relationships and etiquette, and the positive and negative effects each can have on performance.