Practitioner Summary: Thetraditional games persist in schools well into the 21st century andthe age-old problems of transferring taught techniques from the training fieldto the pitch remains. This paper explores the responses of secondary studentsand their teacher as they spent time designing invasion games. There wassignificant investment in the process of games making, as students describedthey worked hard as a team to create a game that was fun and challenging. Incontrast to popular belief, the students did not draw on their previous gameexperience, but sought to be immediately creative. Interestingly, game rulesfrom popular media such as Dodgeball and Harry Potter were included. Theprocess of games making was considered a particularly inclusive process thatserved to reduce students pre-disposition towards traditional games andchallenged them to think about the development of skill and tactical understanding.
