Skill Aquisition Flashcards
What is a skill?
A learned ability to bring about a predetermined result with the minimum oflay of time, energy or both
What is classification?
Categorising similar skills together based on their characteristics
What is a continuum?
A line with a classification extreme at each end
What are the characteristics of a skill? (8)
Aesthetically pleasing, consistent, controlled, efficient, fluent, learned, accurate and goal directed
What does it mean when a skill is aesthetically pleasing?
The skill is good to watch
What does it mean when a skill is consistent?
The skill repeatedly has a high success rate
What does it mean when a skill is efficient?
The skill is produced with the least amount of energy and in the quickest time
What does it mean when a skill is controlled?
The skill is under the control of the athlete
What does it mean when a skill is fluent?
The skill is performed smoothly without stopping and starting
What does it mean when a skill is learned?
The skill has been developed through practice
What does it mean when a skill is accurate?
The skill is performed with precision
What does it mean when a skill is goal directed?
There is a clear aim in mind
Why do we classify skills?
To help us understand how best to tech and practice them
Environmental influence continuum
- how environmental conditions affect the movement of a skill
- open and closed
Open skill characeristics
- sporting environment changes while the skill is being performed
- externally paced
Eg/ netball chest pass
Closed skill characteristics
- Sporting environment is stable
- self paced
Eg/ gymnastics vault
Muscular involvement continuum
- the extent of the muscle groups used in the movement
- gross and fine
Gross skill characteristics
- performer uses large muscle groups
- little concern for precision
Eg/ 100m sprint
Fine skill characteristics
- performer uses small muscle groups to perform skill
- require precision, accuracy and control
Eg/ table tennis return shot
Difficulty continuum
- how complex a skill is in terms of the information needed to complete the skill
- simple and complex
Simple skill characteristics
- requires little decision making
- low preceptual load
- skill may still be difficult to learn
Eg/ gymnastics somersault
Complex skill characteristics
- lots of decision making
- high preceptual load
- speed and time is crucial
Eg/ tennis serve
Organisation continuum
- How easily a skill can be broken down into sub routines and how closely the sub routines of the movements are linked
- low organisation and high organisation
Low organisation skill characteristics
- easily broken down into sub routines
- practiced in isolation
- put together to make the whole skill
Eg/ trampoline sequence
High organisation skill characteristics
- difficult to break down into sub routines
- sub routines merge together quickly as the skill is performed
Eg/ golf swing
Pacing continuum
- The level of contol the performer has over the timing of the skill and the speed at which it is performed
- self paced and externally paced
Self paced skill characteristics
- performer controls the speed of the movement and the timing fo the skill
- usually a closed skill
Eg/ long jump
Externally paced skill characteristics
- performer has no control over the pace of the movement and the timing of the skill
- usually an open skill
- usually involves opponents
Eg/ windsurfing
Continuity continuum
- how clearly defined the beginning and end of the movement/ skill is
- discrete, serial and continuous
Discrete skill characteristics
- skill has clear negining and end
Eg/ football penalty
Serial skill characteristics
- number of discrete skills all performed together
Eg/ triple jump
Continuous skill characteristics
- the skill has no clear begining and end
Eg/ cycling
What is transfer?
The influence that one skill has on the learning and performance of another
What are the 4 transfers of learning?
Positive, negative, zero and bilateral
What is positive transfer?
When the learning and performance of a skill helps the athlete learn and perform another skill
Eg/ overarm throw helps a volleyball serve
What is negative transfer?
When the learning and performance of a skill hinders the athlete when learning and performing another skill
Eg/ backhand in tennis hinders a backhand in badminton
What is zero transfer?
When learning and performance of one skill has no effect on the learning and performance of another skill
Eg/ front crawl has no effect on a penalty in football
What is bilateral transfer?
When learning and performance a skill on one side of the body leads to it being performing equally as well as on the opposite side of the body
Eg/ dribbling in basketball with both hands
How can a coach ensure positive transfer?
- point out similarities between two movements
- limit time between performing the two skills so performer can retain the feeling of the movement
- overlearn initial skill
- rewards and reinforcement
- eliminate bad habits early
What are the effects of negative transfer?
- understanding the requirements of the task before practicing
- environment of practice replicates the real situation
- conflicting skills should not be taught close together
What are the 3 methods of presenting practice?
- whole practice
- whole-part-whole
- progressive part training
What factors influence methods of presenting practice? (5)
- skill type
- level of performer
- environment
- time available
- size/ structure of the group
What is whole practice?
Performing the skill in it’s entirety without breaking it into sub routines
What is progressive part training?
When the first subroutine is taught and practiced until perfected and the rest of the parts are then added sequentially until the whole skill can be performed
Whole practice skill characteristics
- fast ballistic and discrete
- highly organised
- simple skill
- autonomous
- self paced and closed
Eg/ golf swing
Positives and negatives of whole practicing
+ creates clear mental image
+ improves skill consistency and fluency
+ kinaesthesis can be developed
- not suitable for beginners
- can cause information overload
- can cause fatigue
Whole-part-whole practice characteristics
- fast and ballistic
- complex skill
- cognitive learner
- autonomous learners
Eg/ front crawl
Positives and negatives of whole-part-whole practicing
+ kinaesthesis can be maintained
+ weak parts of the subroutines can be improved
+ confidence increases when siccess is achieved
- time consuming to isolate subroutines
- cannot be used with highly organised skill
- kinaesthesis can be negatively affected if the part is not integrated effectively
progressive part practice characteristics
- low organised
- serial
- complex
- dangerous
- cognitive learner
Eg/ triple jump
Positives and negatives of progressive part practice
+ reduces overload and fatigue
+ cofidence and motivation increases success in each part
+ focuses on one part of the skill at a time
- time consuming
- cannot be used with highly organised skills
- kinaesthesis is not fully experienced
What is grooving?
overlearning a skill by practicing to perfection
What are the 4 types of practice?
- massed
- distributed
- variable
- mental
- fixed
What is massed practice?
Continuous practice without rest periods
What are the characteristics of massed practice?
- discrete
- closed
- self paced
- simple
- highly motivated autonomous learner who is physically fit
Positives and negatives of massed practice
+ promotes and improves fitness
+ motor programmes are formed and stored in the long term memory
+ efficient use of time
- can be fatiguing
- no time for feedback unless it’s concurrent
- players eed to keep motivated
What is distributed practice?
Practice with rest periods included
What are the characteristics of distributed practice?
- complex
- serial and low organised
- externally paced
- open
- dangerous
- continuous
- cognitive, unmotivated performer who is not physically fit
Positives and negatives of distributed practice
+ good for beginners
+ allows time for terminal feedback
+ allows time for recovery after a tough session
- time consuming
- not useful for autonomous learners
- causes negative feedback because breaks are not productive
What is varied practice?
Practising skills in a constantly changing environment
What are the characteristics of varied practice?
- open
- externally paced
- complex
- cognitive, unmotivated performer
Positives and negatives of varied practice
+ allows player to adapt to changing environment
+ positive transfer from training to games
+ increases motivation and confidence
- time consuming
- might cause fatigue and overload
- risk of negative transfer if skill is not integrated properly
What is mental practice?
When an athlete goes through a performance in their mind without creating movement
What are the characteristics of mental practice?
- complex
- serial
- cognitive (short key parts)
- autonoumous (specific strategies)
Positives and negatives of mental practice
+ increases confidence and reduces anxiety
+ performers can see themselves as successful
+ stimulates muscles
- mental image might not be accurate
- difficult if environment isn’t quiet
What is internal mental practice?
Seeing yourself perform from within through your own eyes and being aware of your emotions
What is external mental practice?
Seeing your performance from an outside perspective where your body is like a spectator
What are motor programmes?
A set of movements stored in long term memory that specify the components of a skill
What are the 3 stages of learning?
Cognitive, associative and autonomous
Cognitive stage of learning
The first stage of learning used by a novice, understanding subroutines which are explored by trial and error
What are the characteristics of the cognitive learning stage?
- uncoordinated movement
- many mistakes made
- require guidance for cues to focus on
- attention is on how to perform the skill
Associative stage of learning
The second stage of learning as motor programmes are developing and performance is smoother
What are the characteristics of the associative learning stage?
- smoother movement
- errors become fewer and less gross
- begin to use internal feedback to detect errors
- practice skill in variety of conditions
Autonomous stage of learning
The final stage of learning used by an expert when the movement is detailed and specific
What are the characteristics of the autonomous learning stage?
- movement is automatic, controlled and detailed
- motor programmes fully formed
- confidence increases so less need for feedback
- concentrate on fine details and tactics
What is a learning plateau?
A period of no improvement in practice
What is drive reduction?
Decline in the rate of learning and improvement, causing the performance to deteriorate
What are the causes of learning plateau?
- lack of motivation
- reached ability limit
- poor coaching
- incorrect goal setting (too high/ low)
- physical or mental fatigue
What are the solutions for a learning plateau?
- use more praise and rienforcement
- use varied practice
- alternative coaching methods
- set goals using SMARTER principles
- training more often and intensly
What do learning theories do?
They provide an understanding of how we learn
What is the cognitive learning theory?
- insight learning (Gestalt)
- learning skills through experiencing the whole skill
- using their insight (past experiences) to adapt the skill to the sporting situation
- part learning is not effective (reduces kinaesthesis)
- lightbulb moment
What is the behaviourism learning theory?
- operant conditioning (Skinner)
- The use of rienforcement to ensure the correct responces are repeated
- strengthening the link between a stimulus and responce
- once bond is made it increases likelihood of desired responce being reproduced
How could a coach apply behaviourism learning theory to training?
- allow for trial and error
- positive rienforcement for correct behaviours
- negative rienforcement for incorrect behaviours
- manipulate environment to ensure desirable behaviour responce
(as a result behaviour is shaped)
What are the rienforcement types in behaviourism learning theory? (3)
- positive rienforcement is when a pleasant stimulus is given after a correct responce
- negative rienforcement is when an unpleasant stimulus is removed after a correct responce
- Punishment is and unpleasant stimulus given to prevent incorrect actions being repeated
What is the social learning theory?
- observational learning (bandura)
- learning by watching and replicating the actions of other model performers
- models are significant others that are held in high esteem
What are the 4 learning stages from the social learning theory?
Attention, retention, motor production and motivation
What is attention from the social learning theory?
- making the demonstrations attractive to the performer
- point out key cues of the performance
- perfomance must be accurate
- role model or significant other
What is retention from the social learning theory?
- being able to remember and recall the demonstration
- demonstration is repeated
- allow time for performer to create mental image
What is motor production from the social learning theory?
- having the physical and mental ability to actually to perform the task
- skill needs to be at the right stage of learning for the performer
- performer must be physically and mentally capable of coppying the skill
What is motivation from the social learning theory
- having the drive to perform the skill
- learner must have the drive to copy the demonstration
- coach should generate this by using praise and rewards
What is constructivism from the social learning theory?
- learning is a social process, we learn skills from the people around us who we interact with (Vygotsky)
- role of social interaction
- more knowledgeable other (MKO)
- zone of proximal development
Role of social interaction (constructivism)
- interpsychological = performer learns from people whom they interact
- intapsychological = individual thinks about what they can do on their own and what they have learned from others
What is a more knowledgeable other and what do they do(constructivism)
- a person who has greater understanding of the task than they do
- provide demonstrations
- promotes positive values and high effort
- Inter psychological and intra psychological learning
- helps performer to develop what they can do with helps and what they cannot do
Zone of proximal development (constructivism)
- learner will have three levels of a skill performance
1) what the performer can achieve independently
2) what a performer can achieve with the help of an MKO
3) what the performer can not do at this moment in time
What is feedback?
Informations revieved by a performer to aid error correction
What is the purpose of feedback?
- rienforce correct actions
- correct errors
- eliminate bad habits
- act as a motivator
- build confidence
What are the 6 types of feedback?
negative, positive, intrinsic, extrinsic, knowledge of performance and knowledge of results
What is positive feedback?
- information about what was correct, so it is rienforced and more likely to be repeated in the future
- offers motivation to maintain effort
- rienforces stimulus responce bond
- skill or outcome related
What is negative feedback?
- information about incorrect actions, so that they are not repeated and errors can be corrected
- gives clarity about what needs to be improved
- can be demotivating
- can be intrinsic or extrinsic
What is intrinsic feedback?
- feedback from within using kinaesthesis
- recieved by internal proprioreceptors
- sensory feedback
What is extrinsic feedback?
- feedback from an outside source
- performer gains a view of what needs to be improved and how they need to do this
- can be positive or negative
What is knowledge of performance?
- information about why the skill was successful/ unsuccessful, including technique and quality of movement
- positive / negative
- intrinsic/ extrinsic
- can cause information overload
What is knowledge of resuts?
- information about whether or not a skill was successful/ unsuccessful, feedback about the outcome
- extrinsic
- can be motivating or disheartening
What is guidance?
It’s used to aid/ enhance the learning of a skill
What are the 4 methods of guidance?
visual, verbal, manual and mechanical
What is verbal guidance?
Gidance given through a verbal format, used to explain the tasks and direct performers to the key points of a task
Positives and negatives of verbal guidance
+ can be given immediately during a performance
+ good for open skills that require a quick thought process
+ used with visual guidance
- information overload
- loss of concentration from lengthy explanations
- cognitive learners dont understand technical terms
What is visual guidance?
Where the performer sees the correct method to complete the skill through a demonstration, video or image
Positives and negatives of visual guidance
+ illustrates what the skill should look like
+ builds clear mental image
+ highlights weaknesses
- demonstrations must be accurate
- too much info can induce overload
- performer must be able to match the demonstration
What is manual guidance?
Physically supporting or manipulating the performers body forcing a responce
Positives and negatives of manual guidance
+ good for cognitive learners
+ whole skill can be attempted
+ reduces axiety and builds confidence
- performer can become reliant if too much support is given
- causes bad habits if guidance interfers with the feel of the skill
- demotivating if the performer can’t complete the skill by themselves
What is mechanical guidance
A device/ equipment is used to shape movements and help skill performance
Positives and negatives of mechanical guidance
+ good for cognitive learners
+ can help disabled or injured athletes
+ reduces axiety and builds confidence
- performer can become reliant if too much support is given
- causes bad habits if guidance interfers with the feel of the skill
- demotivating if the performer can’t complete the skill by themselves
Information processing model
What is memory?
- stores and receives info
- compares against previous experiences
- selects motor programmes to produce movement
- working memory model
What are the components of Baddeley and Hitch working memory model and what do they do?
- central executive - maintains overall control
- phonological loop - language
- visuospatial sketchpad - visual semantics
- episodic buffer - short term memory
- long term memory
What does the phonological loop do?
- temporary storage of auditory information
- creates a memory trace that is sent to LTM to trigger the motor programme
- memory trace will fade away if not rehearsed
Eg/ process call from team mate
Eg/ saying dance routine out loud to not forget
What does the visuospatial sketchpad do?
- processes visual and spatial information
- holds it temporarily
- stores kinaesthetic info about the movement
Eg/ images of set plays
What does the episodic buffer do?
- stores 3-4 chunks/ episodes
- allows different parts of the working memory to work together
- produces sequences of info to send to the LTM which initiates motor programme
- gathers perceptual info
Eg/ seeing flight of ball, sound of ‘man on’, muscle feel as you receive the pass
What is temporal anticipation?
Anticipating when the action will be performed
Eg/ 100m start, anticipating the gun
What is spatial anticipation?
Anticipating what action is going to be performed and where
Eg/ rugby, predicting an over the top kick over top if full back
What is a schema?
Generalised motor programme that allows the performer to adapt their skills and transfer experiences of one skill to another
What are the two main sections of Schmidt’s schema theory?
- recall schema
- recognition schema
What are the 2 sections to recall schema?
- initial conditions - gather info to see if you have been in the situation before
- response specification - deciding what movement you are going to perform based on initial conditions
What are the 2 sections to recognition schema?
- sensory consequences - gathering information about the movement using intrinsic feedback and kinaesthesia
- response outcome - gathering information about the result of the movement (successful or unsuccessful)
How do you develop schema?
- variable practice to build a range of experiences
- ensure skills are transferable from training to game
- give feedback to help improve skills
- give praise and positive reinforcement
- practice range of skills until they are well learnt
