Introduction

Ask ten people what "Physical Education" means and you will get ten different answers - sports, coaching, health, yoga, keeping fit. Each is a piece of the picture, but none is the whole of it. This opening unit of the CBSE Class 11 Physical Education course sets out what the subject actually is, where it came from, and where it is heading.

Physical Education is a planned part of education that uses physical activity and movement as its medium to bring about positive changes in a person - in the body, the mind and the emotions together. Because sport itself keeps changing - in the surfaces athletes play on, the gear they wear, the technology that trains and judges them, and the careers it now supports - this chapter is called Changing Trends and Careers in Physical Education.

What this unit covers

Following the textbook's own order, the unit is built from five topics:

• Meaning, aim and objectives of Physical Education - what the field is, how scholars define it, its single aim (the all-round development of the individual), and the objectives through which that aim is reached.
• Development of Physical Education in India after Independence - the committees, institutes, schemes and events through which the subject grew into a national system after 1947.
• Changing trends in sports - how modern materials, design and science have reshaped the playing surface, wearable gears and sports equipment, and the technology used in sport.
• Academic courses and career options in Physical Education - the recognised courses and the wide range of professions the field now opens up.
• Khelo India and the Fit India Movement - the two national programmes, one to build sporting talent and culture, the other to make everyday fitness a mass movement.