Understanding Movement Skills and Their Development

Skill

A skill is a learnt ability to practice and perform movements with confidence and success.

Fundamental Movement Skills

Movement patterns that involve different body parts; they are foundation movements to more specialised/complex skills.

Types of Fundamental Movement Skills

Balance, Vertical Jump, Hop, Skip, Kick, Dodge, Overarm throw, Leap, Side Gallop, Two Handed Strike, Catch, Sprint RUn

Balance

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like archery, gymnastics, surfing, skateboarding, skiing.

Vertical Jump

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like basketball, volleyball, high jump, gymnastics, figure skating.

Hop

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like AFL, basketball, soccer, martial arts, long jump, triple jump, high jump.

Kick

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like soccer, American football, martial arts, oztag, kickboxing.

Skip

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like gymnastics, hurdling, jumping, martial arts.

Dodge

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like netball, soccer, basketball, hockey, rugby, oztag, dodgeball.

Overarm Throw

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like cricket, baseball, softball, javelin, water polo, European handball.

Leap

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like long jump, high jump, pole vault, triple jump, gymnastics, volleyball.

Side Gallop

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like tennis, squash, badminton, dance.

Catch

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like cricket, rugby, oztag, baseball, softball, lacrosse.

Two Handed Strike

A fundamental movement skill used in activities like tennis, cricket, golf, hockey, baseball, softball, T-ball.

Sprint

A fundamental movement skill used in some track events, basketball, football, cricket, soccer, baseball.

Specialised Skills

Skills required in organized activities, developed after mastering the fundamental movement skills.

Fundamental vs Specialised Skills

Comparison of fundamental skills like vertical jump and specialised skills like running into bowl in cricket.

Locomotor skills

Fundamental movements that involve traveling from one place to another, including walking, running, jumping, hopping, and skipping.

Non-locomotor skills

Movements performed while staying in one place, focusing on stability and control, including actions like bending, stretching, twisting, and turning.

Gross motor skills

Skills which use large muscle groups and are the foundation of fine motor skills.

Fine motor skills

Skills that use smaller muscle groups and involve the use of very fine motor movement to achieve an especially delicate task such as shooting an arrow.

Manipulative skills

Involved the use of an object, manipulating by performing actions such as holding, controlling, hitting, and throwing.

Nature and transfer of movement skills

Not all sport specific movement skills can be transferred across all sports; for example, sprinting cannot be transferred to lawn bowls.

Skill Continuums

The skills needed for various sports vary from situation to situation, making it difficult to classify skills precisely.

Types of Skill Continuums

Open and closed continuum, Gross and Fine motor continuum, Discrete, serial, and continuous continuum, Externally and Internally paced skill continuum

Open and closed continuum

Environmental effect continuum. A classification of skills based on whether they are performed in a stable or unpredictable environment.

Open skills

Affected by the environment, mainly perceptual and externally paced, requiring decisions from the performer and adaptations to a changing environment.

Closed skills

Not affected by the environment, usually self-paced and occur in a fixed/predictable situation. The performed controls the technique and what happens next

Gross and fine motor skill continuum

Movement Precision Continuum. A classification based on the amount of muscle movement and precision required when performing a skill.

Gross skills

Involve large muscle movement and are not very precise, such as walking, running, jumping, and throwing.

Fine skills

Involve precise movements performed with great detail and generally require high levels of hand-eye coordination, such as throwing a dart.

Discrete, serial, and continuous continuum

Movement continuity continuum. A classification of skills based on the nature of the skill's execution.

Discrete skills

Have a definite beginning and end, requiring a restart for repetition.

Serial skills

Involve a number of discrete skills put together in a set order to form a whole action.

Continuous skills

Do not have a clear start and finish; the end of the cycle is the beginning of the next.

Externally and internally paced skill continuum

Control of Pace continuum. A classification based on whether the timing of the skill is controlled by external factors or the performer.

Self-paced skills

Controlled by the performer, who decides when to execute the skill.

Externally paced skills

Controlled by the environment, including a decision and a reaction, often influenced by an opponent.

Transfer of movement skills

Learning and performing one activity affects the performance of related skills and activities. Transfer of learning refers to the influence of previous experiences on learning new skills or performing skills in new contexts

Positive transfer

Practice in one activity results in improvement on another activity.

What are the two hypothesis as to why positive transfer occurs?

Identical Elements Theory, Transfer-Appropriate Processing Theory

Identical Elements Theory

The more similar the motor skills and contexts, the greater the positive transfer of skills.

Transfer-Appropriate Processing Theory

The amount of positive transfer is related to the similarity of cognitive processing activities involved.

Negative transfer

Practice on one activity interferes with the performance of another activity. Negative transfer occurs due to two skills being performed in a similar context, but the movement characteristics are different

Role of practice

Practice helps in learning, mastering, and refining skills. Movement skills can be practised with physical and mental practice.

Massed practice

A learning technique where a large amount of information or skill is practiced in a single, intense session. This is similar to cramming. Athletes with a solid foundation can benefit from cramming.

Distributed practice

Breaking up skill practice into multiple, shorter sessions with rest periods in between. This is beneficial for learning complex skills. Athletes who are new to the skill and are less motivated benefit from this.

Whole practice

Practicing a complete skill without breaking it into smaller parts. Used for simple, fast, or highly organised skills. Athletes who know the basic components of the skill benefit from this.

Part practice

Breaking down a complex skill into smaller, manageable parts. Used for complex skills that can be broken into sub-routines. This is used for athletes who are new to a skill.

Psychological strategies

Can significantly enhance performance by emphasizing the process rather than the outcome. This can reduce performance anxiety and build confidence.

Mental practice

Cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill without movement, effective for skill learning. Sport psychologists use visualisation and rehearsal to help reduce anxiety.

Visualisation

Involves picturing the performance and imagining future performance in a physical sense.

How to Visualise

Visualise the outcome you want, Use all your senses from a first-person perspective, Practice frequently

Feedback

Used to reinforce success, remove errors and motivate the athlete.

Internal feedback

The awareness the athlete has about their movements and performances during/after an action.

External feedback

Information about a performance that comes from outside the performer, such as from a coach.

Delayed feedback

Feedback provided after a skill or performance has been completed, allowing for reflection.

Concurrent feedback

Information about performances given during the execution of an action or skill.

Knowledge of results feedback

Information about the outcome of a skill, such as scoring a goal or time taken to complete a race.

Knowledge of performance feedback

Focuses on the quality and pattern of movement rather than just the outcome.

Skill Acquisition

The learning process involving mechanic movements, physical literacy, coaching practice, and athletic development to gain a new skill.

3 stages of skill acquisition

cognitive stage, associative stage, autonomous stage

Cognitive stage

Focusing on learning the skill. The performer makes large frequent errors. A coach needs to provide lots of feedback and demonstrations.

Associative stage

Focussing on refining the skill. Movements are smooth and although errors occur, they are not large or frequent. Athletes can provide their own feedback but can benefit from feedback given by a coach.

Autonomous stage

Performs the skill automatically, no longer thinks at all about the skill. Athletes can provide their own feedback but can benefit from a coach. Errors are minor and occur rarely.