CLASSICATION OF SKILLS

1
CLASSICATION OF SKILLS

• Analysis of movement skills enables us to
  understand their requirements and decide on the
  best ways to teach, practise and improve them.
• To analyse movement skills psychologists have
  identified a range of characteristics.
• It is difficult to be precise about
  classification as skills may have elements of all
  the characteristics or may change depending on
  the situation in which the skill is performed.
• The use of continua allows us to show that skills
  have characteristics to a greater or lesser
  extent depending on the situation.
• A continuum is an imaginary scale between two
  extremes and is usually represented in linear
  form, eg.
• Freezing Cold Warm Hot Boiling

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THE SIX CONTINUA

• MUSCULAR INVOLVEMENT (GROSS-FINE) CONTINUUM
• ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE (OPEN-CLOSED) CONTINUUM
• CONTINUITY (DISCRETE-SERIAL-CONTINUOUS) CONTINUUM

• PACING (SELF-PACED-EXTERNALLY PACED) CONTINUUM
• DIFFICULTY (SIMPLE-COMPLEX) CONTINUUM
• ORGANISATIONAL (LOW-HIGH) CONTINUUM

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MUSCULAR INVOLVEMENT CONTINUUM (GROSS-FINE)

• This classification examines the precision of the
  movement.
• Gross skills involve large muscle groups with
  little precision.
• Fine skills involve small muscle groups and
  intricate movements. They usually involve
  accuracy and hand-eye coordination.
• Gross Fine
• Running wrist/finger action of
• Swimming a spin bowl in cricket

4
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTINUUM (OPEN-CLOSED)

• This is concerned with how the environmental
  conditions affect the skill
• The environment includes all factors that affect
  the performance in that situation eg. Opponents,
  team mates, playing surface.
• If the skill is performed outdoors the weather
  may also be a factor.
• Open skills These skills are affected by the
  environment and have to be adapted to suit the
  situation. They are predominantly perceptual and
  involve decision making. and are usually
  externally paced.
• Closed skills are not affected by the
  environment and are always performed in the same
  way. They follow a set technical model and are
  usually self-paced.
• Open Closed
• A chest pass in a vault in
• Netball/basketball gymnastics

5
Continuity Continuum (Discrete-Serial-Con
tinuous)

• Discrete skills have a clear beginning and end.
• Serial skills have a number of discrete
  elements that are put together in a definite
  order to make a movement or sequence
• Continuous skills have no definite beginning or
  end. The the end of one cycle of the movement is
  the start of the next.
• Discrete Serial Continuous
• A catch Triple jump Cycling
• A penalty kick Trampoline sequence Swimming

6
PACING CONTINUUM (SELF-PACED- EXTERNALLY PACED)

• This concerns the level of control the performer
  has over the timing of the movement skill,
  relating to when starts and the rate at which it
  is performed.
• Self-paced skills the performer decides when to
  start the movement and the speed at which it is
  carried out. These are often closed skills.
• Externally paced skills The control of the
  skill is determined by the environment, such as a
  starting gun, opponents or the weather. They are
  often open skills and involve reacting to the
  situation.
• Self-paced Externally paced
• High jump Receiving a pass in hockey
• Serving in badminton Windsurfing

7
Difficulty continuum (Simple-complex)

• The complexity of the movement is determined by
  the amount of information to be processed,
  decision making involved, time available,
  quantity of sub-routines and use of feedback.
• Simple skills have little information to be
  processed, few decisions to be made, few
  sub-routines in which the speed and timing are
  not critical.
• Simple skills may still be difficult to learn or
  perform!
• Complex skills have a high perceptual load and
  many decisions need to be made. The skill will
  have many sub-routines where speed and timing are
  critical and will involve feedback.
• Simple Complex
• Sprinting Tennis serve
• Swimming Volleyball smash

8
ORGANISATONAL CONTINUUM( LOW HIGH)

• This concerns how closely linked the sub-routines
  of the movement are.
• Low organisation skills are made up of
  sub-routines that can easily be separated,
  practiced by themselves and then put back into
  the whole skill.
• High organisation skills in these the
  sub-routines are very closely linked together and
  difficult to separate without disrupting the
  skill. Highly organised skills are usually
  practiced as a whole.
• Low High
• Swimming stokes Cartwheel
• Trampoline sequence Golf swing