Unit 1- Classification of Skills

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Unit 1- Classification of Skills
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In sport, fine and gross motor skills are often
combined e.g. balancing on a beam with one foot
requires the strength of the muscles of the whole
body (gross) and the fine adjustments of the foot
and ankle movements.

• FINE MOTOR SKILLS involve the movement of small
  muscle groups e.g. hand movements in dancing,
  knitting blinking and writing

• GROSS MOTOR SKILLS involve the movements of large
  parts of the body or of the whole body e.g. a
  somersault, kicking a ball.

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OPEN AND CLOSED SKILLS

• This classification is based on the extent to
  which a performer needs to adjust to the
  environment in which the skills are being
  performed.
• Skills may not be totally open or closed, but lie
  somewhere on a continuum from 1 ? 10
• Batting tee Pitching Batting -ball thrown by a
  machine pitcher
• 1 5 10

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OPEN SKILLS

• OPEN SKILLS are
• Performed in an unpredictable environment
• Externally paced
• Timing depends on factors external to the
  performer
• Decision making process usually occurs quickly
• Team sports are generally more open skills

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Examples of Open Skills
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CLOSED SKILLS

• CLOSED SKILLS are
• Performed in a highly predictable environment
• Internally paced
• Performer controls timing of the movement
• Pre learned motor programs are required (mainly
  relies on perfecting technique)

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EXAMPLES OF CLOSED SKILLS
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Background Stages of Skill Learning

• As already covered in class, there are three
  stages
• Cognitive (understanding)
• Associative (practice)
• Autonomous (automatic performance)

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The best environment for learning

• The optimal learning environment
• Is interesting
• Is enhanced by the teacher or coach who varies
  the learning situation and provides challenging
  goals
• Has no distractions in the learning environment
• Has others around you to encourage you to learn

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Receiving information from the environment

• Before a sports person applies their skills into
  action, he/ she receives information from the
  environment. Through four mechanisms a response
  is carried out.

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The 4 mechanisms

• Input - the senses
• Information processing
• Output
• Feedback

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1. Input - the senses

• Any information obtained from the environment and
  passes onto our brain is called a CUE.
• Of the five senses- sight, hearing, smell, touch
  and taste- the most important sense for cues is
• SIGHT

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1. Input - the senses (cont)

• Hearing,touch and equilibrium ( body position in
  terms of balance) are also important contributors
  in terms on how we respond to information from
  our environment.
• PROPRIOCEPTION is a major contributor in
  determining the way we carry out a skill.
• This is how you feel the movement based on
  receptors in our muscles and tendons.

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Examples of the senses

• A GA shooting for goal uses vision for the
  target, equilibrium for balance and
  proprioception for the amount of power for
  shooting the netball towards the ring.

• A batter in cricket uses equilibrium for balance,
  sight to observe the ball onto the bat and
  proprioception for the amount of power to guide
  the ball down to the third man boundary.