The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among perceived motivational climate, learning motives, and strategy use in school physical education classes. A set of inventories was administered to 246 fifth and sixth grade pupils attending elementary schools. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicated that perceptions of mastery-oriented and cooperative motivational climate were associated with pupils' mastery-oriented learning motives, which were in turn related positively to strategy use. Furthermore, perceptions of performance motivational climate were associated with performance-oriented and work avoidance learning motives, which were positively related to the use of self-handicapping strategies. These results suggest that students' perception of mastery-oriented and cooperative motivational climate are more related to adaptive motivational patterns of physical education learning than is the case for perceptions of performance motivational climate. The role of perceptions of motivational climate in promoting the learning motives of pupils and strategy use in physical education classes is discussed.