Skill

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Skill

• Skill has been defined as
• The learned ability to bring about
  predetermined results with maximum certainty,
  often with the minimum outlay of time or energy
  or both. ( Guthrie, 1956)
• a skill is something you learn, you can
  (eventually) do consistently and you can perform
  efficiently.

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• FEEDBACK - is information received by a
  competitor either during or after a performance.
  Feedback can take place in a number of ways.
• Intrinsic Feedback
• Extrinsic Feedback
• Knowledge of Performance (KP)
• Knowledge of Results (KR)

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• INTRINSIC FEEDBACK - been able to recognise
  mistakes or faults in your own performance and
  having the knowledge/ experience to make
  suggestions on how to improve it.
• EXTRINSIC FEEDBACK - is feedback that comes from
  someone else. It could be a teacher, a coach, a
  spectator, its up to the performer whether they
  act upon it.
• to be effective it is important that external
  feedback is
• restricted to one or two specific comments at a
  time
• does not confuse or de-motivate the athlete
• occurs either during competition or soon
  afterwards.

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Extrinsic - feedback from a coach
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• KNOWLEDGE OF PERFORMANCE (KP) -
• although knowledge of performance can come from
  the athlete it is more likely to be obtained from
  external sources such as coaches or even through
  video replays.
• knowledge of performance means analysing the
  nature of the performance and working out how it
  can be improved.
• KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS (KR) -
• this is a little bit different from knowledge of
  performance.
• this form of feedback comes from external sources
  such as the result of the game.

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• this is just one way of how to measure how well
  or how poorly they are performing.
• There are two types of skill -
• OPEN - what you are doing may vary. It all
  depends on your environment. A goalkeepers skill
  is open, he has to stop the ball going in his
  net. The way he does this depends on how the ball
  is aimed.
• CLOSED - you do the same thing over and over
  again, in exactly the same way. The environment
  remains the same. A golfers skill is closed. The
  skill is repeated in the same way.

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OPEN SKILL - Goal Keeping CLOSED SKILL - Golf
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• ADAPTING SKILLS - some sport skills cannot be
  learned as closed or fixed skills. They need to
  be adapted to changing situations with the player
  able to react quickly in adjusting the skill to
  meet the precise circumstances. Some activities
  require performers to perfect both open and
  closed skills.

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Ability

• Ability is innate - meaning we are born with it.
  Some people are naturally more co-ordinated or
  faster than others. Where natural ability is
  highlighted at an early age it provides a great
  basis to develop those abilities into advanced
  skills in sport and physical activity. These
  natural abilities include
• Speed
• Agility
• Co-ordination
• Flexibility
• Balance
• Reaction Time

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• SPEED AND REACTION TIME - Speed can be very
  important in sport and physical activities. There
  are two main kinds of speed in sport.
• How quickly a performer can move.
• How quick their reactions are.

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• AGILITY - is the ability to move quickly and
  flexibly
• agility is also inherited in terms of the
  flexibility of your joints and your body shape
  and size.

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• CO-ORDINATION - is the control over your
  movements and the ability to be able to link
  movements together effectively and easily.

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• FLEXIBILITY - is the amount you can bend or
  stretch your joints.
• You inherit your flexibility and usually become
  less flexible with age.

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• BALANCE - similar to co-ordination, balance is
  also to do with controlling body movement.
  Retaining balance when moving or even standing
  still .

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Different Levels of Skill

• Advanced skills take time to learn. The way the
  skills are performed determine whether it is a
  skill of a top level performer or a novice.
• The novice may be
• inconsistent
• put in a lot of effort without producing an
  effective performance.
• Not able to perform the skill as quickly or
  effectively
• not able to adapt the skill when required simply
  because they do not have the experience to do
  this

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• The top level may be
• high level of consistency
• appear to perform with little effort or energy
• perform quickly and effectively
• capable of adapting the skill, to meet changing
  situations.

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Learning Skills Information Processing

• When learning and doing skills, you are also
  processing the information. During a competition
  or match we need to process the following
  information about the present situation.
• What is happening (input)
• How do we react (decision-making/output)
• Was the right reaction used? (Feedback)
• INPUT - at all times a performer must be aware of
  what is going on around him/her. For example, in
  tennis how fast is the ball travelling?

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• DECISION-MAKING - A performer must make a
  decision, so for the tennis example which shot
  shall I play?
• OUTPUT - is the result of both input and
  decision-making, choosing the right shot. But
  maybe could have placed in more accurately.
• FEEDBACK - whether or not the shot was a correct
  one the player should now be thinking how they
  can improve the shot for next time.