Deciding Putt with a Stick: Design Your Pre-Shot Routine

Using hockey sticks and tennis balls, students play playground golf with holes marked by hoops. Each student designs a four-step pre-shot routine and tests it on deciding shots that settle their group's result.

How to play

1. Set up six holes, each with a hoop and a tee 4–8 meters away; demonstrate the push stroke with the stick without lifting the ball (4 min).
2. Free shots on the holes to get familiar, counting hits without a routine (5 min).
3. Explain the four steps of a pre-shot routine: read the situation, pick the target, rehearse the stroke and say a cue word before hitting; each student writes theirs on the worksheet (5 min).
4. Second round of the holes using the routine on every shot; the partner checks that it's repeated the same way and lasts no more than 20 seconds (6 min).
5. Deciding shot: in each group the last shot is worth triple and everyone takes it with the whole group watching; then compare hits with and without the routine (5 min).

Rules

• The stick never goes above the knee.
• Nobody stands in front of the hitting line or within 6 feet of the hitter.
• The routine is respected in silence: the rest of the group doesn't talk during it.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: hit from the wheelchair with a shorter stick or push the ball by hand.
• Visual impairment: a classmate claps next to the hoop, and the distance is shorter.
• Autism: may rehearse the deciding shot beforehand without an audience to know what to expect.

Learning goals

• Design a pre-performance routine for a precision skill.
• Apply the routine consistently under pressure.
• Compare performance with and without a routine.

Equipment for a class of 25

• hockey sticks: 12
• tennis balls: 12
• hoops: 6
• cones: 6
• worksheets: 30

Teacher tip

Stress that the routine should be short and always the same: if it gets longer under pressure, it stops helping. If the school has mini-golf putters, they work better than sticks.

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