GCSE Physical Education·Knowledge mats

GCSE Physical Education Knowledge Mats

All 4 sheets — Anatomy and movement, Training and data, Sport psychology and Health and performance — for £3.99. One landscape page per topic, every claim sourced and every image licensed.

4 sheets · one A4 landscape PDF each · instant download

Bought once for the set, not per sheet. Photocopy them for your classes freely — keep the running foot on the page, which carries the image credits the licences require.

£3.99 for all 4

Anatomy and movement

The Engine and the Levers

Two sprinters have the same muscles, so why does one run faster? What the two body systems actually do — bones as levers, antagonistic pairs, gas exchange, and cardiac output as heart rate times stroke volume — then aerobic against anaerobic as a supply problem. Levers are treated as a decision rather than a bone: the class is fixed by the order of fulcrum, load and effort, and a drawn figure sets the three classes side by side in their own panels. A second figure draws the same body three times so the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes, and the axes at right angles to them, can be seen rather than listed. A table of what exercise changes during it and over weeks of it, thirteen terms to define, a worked classification, and the misconceptions that cost marks.

Training and data

If You Can't Measure It, You Can't Train It

Two athletes train the same hours a week — why does only one improve? The two families of fitness with all eleven components named; the principles of training, with what a warm up and a cool down each do and why the DfE names both; and measurement done properly, because a fitness test is only worth running if it is valid, reliable and specific to the sport. A table gives a standard test for each component — Cooper run, sit-and-reach, Illinois agility, vertical jump, 30-metre sprint, ruler drop — and a drawn figure sets the training zones as percentages of a stated maximum heart rate, so changing the maximum moves every boundary with it. Eleven terms to define, a worked heart-rate calculation, and the misconceptions that cost marks.

Sport psychology

What's In Your Head, What's Around You

Two players have identical skill — why does only one perform under pressure? Skill classification as two continuums at once, drawn as a labelled quadrant so a free throw and a rugby tackle sit where they belong; SMART targets; the four kinds of guidance and both kinds of feedback; and mental preparation. A second figure draws performance against arousal as one curve, because too little and too much both cost performance — and a table defines arousal, anxiety and aggression, the DfE's own three examples of psychological control. Then the socio-cultural half: engagement patterns by age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic group and disability; commercialisation; sportsmanship, gamesmanship and doping. Thirteen terms, a worked goal rewrite, and the misconceptions that cost marks.

Health and performance

Three Sports, One Grade

You can name every training principle and still fail the practical — so why doesn't knowing automatically mean doing? Physical, emotional and social well-being, each defined rather than listed, and what a sedentary lifestyle actually costs: obesity, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and isolation. Then energy, diet and hydration — what carbohydrate, protein and fat each do, why even mild dehydration slows a performer, and a drawn figure that redraws one pair of bars at three ratios to show energy balance. Then the grade: one team activity, one individual, one either, and Ofqual's 60/40 split with 30% for the performance and 10% for a task the regulator never names. A band on what genuinely varies by board, ten terms, a worked eligibility check, and the misconceptions that cost marks.

The previews above are the full sheets, watermarked. Where a sheet carries photographs, every one is public domain worldwide or licensed CC BY, verified per image against the licence itself rather than a label, and the running foot names every creator, records that the images have been cropped and adjusted for print, and links the licence; figures are drawn in code for the sheet, and extracts are written for it or verified against a public-domain text. Nothing on any sheet is reproduced from a past paper, a mark scheme, an examiner report or a specification, and Empower Educators is not affiliated with any awarding body.