Motor Learning and Skills

What is motor learning?

The process of acquiring motor skills through patterned movements for skilled action.

What is a skill in sport?

A learned action with a predetermined outcome or goal.

What distinguishes skills from abilities?

Skills are acquired through practice, abilities are innate.

What is the formula linking skill, ability, and technique?

Skill = ability + application of technique.

List four types of skills.

Motor, cognitive, perceptual, perceptual-motor.

What is a motor skill?

Movement without much thinking, e.g. sprint racing.

What is a cognitive skill?

A skill involving a lot of thinking, e.g. chess.

What is a perceptual skill?

Using senses to assess, e.g. reading a golf green.

What is a perceptual-motor skill?

Applying correct movement after interpreting, e.g. out-dribbling in soccer.

What is learning in motor skills?

A relatively permanent change in behaviour caused by experience.

How is learning measured?

Through observation of performance.

What is performance in sport?

A temporary display of a skill that may vary with situation.

Why may a single performance not indicate skill level?

Skill is shown through consistency, not one success/failure.

What is an inter-individual difference in learning?

Different people learn at different rates.

What is an intra-individual difference in learning?

One person learns different skills at different rates.

What is required in addition to training to learn skills?

A desire to learn.

What is skill transfer?

The effect of a practiced skill on learning a new skill.

What is positive transfer?

When training improves performance, e.g. tennis serve aids volleyball serve.

What is zero transfer?

When training has no effect, e.g. cricket learning and netball shooting.

What is negative transfer?

When training hinders performance, e.g. baseball swing hurts tennis serve.

What is skill-to-skill transfer?

Learning one skill aids another, e.g. throwing a ball to javelin.

What is practice-to-practice transfer?

Training transfers to competition, e.g. batting against a bowling machine.

What is ability-to-skill transfer?

Innate abilities contribute to skill, e.g. balance in gymnastics landing.

What is bilateral transfer?

Skill positive transfer between limbs, e.g. kicking with weaker foot.

What is stage-to-stage transfer?

Building new motor skills upon previously learned ones.

What are the three stages of learning?

Cognitive, associative, autonomous.

What is principle-to-skill transfer?

General principles learned early apply later, e.g. long levers aid throwing → javelin.