Motor Skills & Skill Development Notes

Skill

• The ability to do something well in sporting contexts; motor skills are a type of skill.

Motor Skills

• A voluntary, goal-directed activity learned through practice.
• Requires movement of the body or limbs to achieve a goal.
• Sports are composed of motor skills (e.g., Tennis = volley, serve, forehand).

Sport-Specific Skills

• Movement patterns that replicate actions needed for specific sports.
• Involve similar muscle groups, contraction types, and range of motion as actual skill execution.
• More specialized, complex movements used in sports.

Fundamental Movement Skills

• Core skills that form the basis of more complex sport-specific skills.
• They are the foundation.

Predictability of Environment

• Three criteria:
  • Predictability/stability of environment (stable = consistent).
  • Pacing of the skill (internal/external - performer-initiated or not).
  • Variability (low or high - variations in performance conditions).

Closed Skill

• Internally paced skills where the performer controls the timing.
• High level of control over the performance environment.
• Lower inter-trial variability: skill can be repeated consistently.
• Higher predictability: environment is stable and predictable (e.g., indoors or controlled practice).
• Limited interruptions or changes in surroundings.
• Examples: Golf swing in calm weather, hitting a softball off a tee, a free throw.

Open Skill

• Externally paced skills where the performer has little control over timing/environment.
• Higher inter-trial variability: skills performed differently each time.
• Lower predictability: conditions are constantly changing (e.g., outdoors, game situations).
• Examples: Receiving a tennis serve outdoors, hitting a pitched softball, standing on a surfboard in the ocean.
• Open and closed skills exist on a continuum.

Gross Skill

• Use of large muscle groups, often involving powerful whole-body movements.
• Examples: Throwing, kicking, swimming, jumping.

Fine Skill

• Use of small muscle groups, involving precise movements and manipulation.
• Examples: Shooting darts, electronic games.

Types of Movements

• Discrete Skill
  • A skill with a clear beginning and end.
  • Examples: Somersault, hitting a ball from a tee.
• Serial Skill
  • A combination of discrete and continuous skills linked in a sequence.
  • Examples: Gymnastic routine, diving.
• Continuous Skill
  • A skill with no distinct beginning or end point.
  • Examples: Marathon running, swimming, cycling.

Motor Skill as an Enabler

• Proficiency in motor skills leads to better performance and motivation.
• Increased participation leads to further development (positive feedback loop).

Motor Skill as a Barrier

• Lack of motor skill development can lead to discouragement, reduced motivation, and a more sedentary lifestyle.

School Motor Skill Development

• Schools focusing on motor skill development are more likely to see increased performance and participation in physical activity.
• Modified sports can be used to encourage young people to participate and overcome barriers.

Stages of Learning

• Dependent on:
  • Task (skill being learned).
  • Feedback.
  • Practice.
  • Motivation.
  • Individual person (age/gender).
• Some individuals may never reach the autonomous stage.

Cognitive Learners

• Development of basic movement patterns.
• The skill is completely new to the learner.
• Emphasis on understanding the whole skill and correcting sequences.
• Learner determines what to do and how to do it.
• Best learning occurs through demonstration.
• Mistakes are very common, with significant trial and error.

Coaching Cognitive Learners

• Effective when:
  • The skill is demonstrated with effective technique.
  • Instructions are explicit and concise.
  • The task is simplified.
  • Simple feedback is given frequently.
  • Assistance with error detection and improvement strategies.

Associative Learners

• Refinement of movement patterns with a heavy emphasis on practice.
• Learner focuses on organizing and practicing movement patterns.
• Errors are less frequent and smaller.
• Feedback is introduced to help the performer.
• This is typically the longest stage; some may never progress beyond it, while others may regress.

Coaching Associative Learners

• Coaching is more effective when:
  • Practice experiences allow for more decision-making by the learner.
  • Learner is helped to identify important cues and what to attend to.
  • Support for error detection and self-correction is provided.
  • Feedback is specific.

Autonomous Learners

• Performance of movement is virtually automatic.
• Learner can perform skills without consciously thinking about the steps.
• Emphasis is on tactics and strategies.
• Learner can distinguish between relevant and irrelevant cues.
• Learner can detect and correct their own errors.

Coaching Autonomous Learners

• High-quality, organized practice sessions.
• Practice simulates competition standards.
• Motivation to continue improvement.
• Precise feedback is provided.

Enhancing Motor Skill Development

• Understanding stages of learning can assist coaches in enhancing motor skill development, participation, and performance.

Classification of Movement Skills

• Specificity
• Precision
• Type
• Predictability

Sociocultural Factors

• Sociocultural factors influence skill development significantly, through:
  • Opportunities for participation and practice.
  • Values and beliefs underpinning attitudes to learning.
  • Presence of influential role models.

Gender

• Children often select activities aligning with stereotypical views of masculinity/femininity.
• Traditionally, more physically demanding sports were deemed suitable for boys.

Cultural Traditions/Beliefs

• Cultural beliefs (e.g., restrictions in women's sports in Saudi Arabia).
• Religious beliefs (e.g., church attendance, prayer, holidays like Ramadan).
• Political beliefs (e.g., political statements/protests).

Socioeconomic Status

• Income: Affordability of participation.
• Occupation
• Education levels

Peers

• Friends significantly influence the types of sports and activities children engage in, thus impacting skill development.
• Younger athletes are generally more motivated to play with friends.

Family

• Parents facilitate involvement by providing transportation, uniforms, and funding registration fees.
• Logistical support and encouragement.
• Significant impact on a child's values and attitude to learning.

Direct Coaching + Instruction

• Traditional approach with structured, explicit steps to learning.
• Coach makes decisions, making it suitable for cognitive learners.
• Skill/drill-based activities.
• Specific corrective feedback.
• Limited opportunities for learner decision-making.
• Effective in early stages due to teaching emphasis.

Direct Approach Characteristics

• Learners forced to pay attention to the organization of the skill, reducing automaticity and potentially decreasing performance of simple skills in predictable environments.
• Maintains participant focus and maximizes practice time.

Direct Approach

• Adopted by most instructors in physical education and sport.
• Aimed at developing movement patterns or techniques.
• Knowledge transmission and explicit learning.
• Learners are told what to do and how to do it.
• Skill introduction - learner practice - adoption in game.

Direct Approach - Advantages & Disadvantages

• Disadvantages:
  • Learner is aware they are learning a skill.
  • Provides a closed environment.
  • Execution may break down under pressure, fatigue, or stress.
• Advantages:
  • Quick and easy to organize.
  • Keeps learners on task.
  • Facilitates rapid early learning.
  • Skills may be learned in isolation, having lower adaptability to game situations

Linear Theory

• Skill acquisition occurs at a linear rate.
• Progression from basic movement patterns to complex movements upon mastery.
• Time spent practicing relates directly to learning progress.
• Characterized by:
  • Expected movement form (demos).
  • High volume of practice trials.
  • Lots of drill and repetition.
  • Traditional; coach provides the movement template and instructs the learner what to do.

Non - Linear Theory

• Acquisition of movement skills with strong emphasis on exploratory behaviours, allowing individualised movement skill development through interactions between individual, task and environment
• Characterized by:
  • Practice mimics game play
  • Task simplification
  • Focus on movement (patterns of play)
  • Variability of practice through manipulation of task constraints
  • They adapt explore and find solution to ways of movement patterns can be performed in different contexts

Constraints-Based Coaching

• Encourages discovery of effective techniques and tactical awareness through game-based scenarios with less coach input.
• Practice tasks without specific instructions.
• Learner works it out through exploration.
• Coach supports the learner by manipulating constraints.

Learner Role

• Learner = active problem solver, therefore more Autonomous
• Greater knowledge required by coach eg. changing rules using smaller sided games
• Advantages:
  • Practice mimics game
  • Variability in practice
  • Implicit learning occurs
  • Movement and problem solving skills are developed
  • Promotes independent learning
• Disadvantages:
  • Coaches need knowledge of how to effectively structure sessions
  • Can be more time consuming to prepare and plan
  • Frequency of trials (reproduction of skills) reduced

Three Types of Constraints

• Individual: Physical/mental state, fatigue, intentions, height, strength, previous Experience
• Tasks: Rules, numbers of players, time, equipment used, space
• Environment: Access to Sensory information, indoors/outdoors, surface, weather

Individual Constraints

• Body type, fitness, technical skill, decision making skills, mental attitude, positive effect through; practice, self efficacy and fitness negative effect: if athletes lack fundamental skills, cause Increased anxiety
• Coach may consider implementing physiological skills + strategies
• Least likely factors to be modified as there biologically fixed

Environmental Constraints

• Location, weather, noise, practice facilities, surface to play on, cultural norms, family, societal expectations, coach, behaviour of peer
• Environments can refer to the physical or social

Task Constraints

• Most likely factors to be modified to improve coaching and skill development
• So many variable that can be manipulated as it's much Easier to
• Well suited to continuous skills where the movement is relatively simple and manipulate them eg. rules, pitch size, equipment, player numbers

Effective Practice

• A coach should design practice tasks that allow the learner to experience a reasonable amount of performance success
• Eg. reducing the level of difficulty for practice tasks
• A coach can progressively increase the difficulty of the practice task from relatively simple to increasing
• Complex

Part Practice

• Refers to breaking the skill down into smaller parts
• Eg. a tennis serve is a complex skill that is difficult for beginners, to learn the skill should be broken down into smaller parts + practice in isolation

Whole Practice

• Practicing the whole skill, preferred when the learner is proficient and the movement skill is relatively simple
• The goal of the skill is a sustained effort (eg. running)

Practice Distribution

• Refers to the relative spacing of practice time
• Eg. massed practice or distributed practice

Massed Practice

• Involves fewer practice sessions, of longer duration
• Often not so much of a choice but a reality of fitting in practice
• In junior levels skill learning may be hindered
• Conversely, for elite athletes, these sessions can offer opportunities to practice more complex skills

Distributed Practice

• Spreading practice out, where practime time is relatively short, and rest periods are reasonably long
• More suitable for learning continuous skills as well as fatiguing skills such as gymnastics, due to prolonged rest.

Practice Variability

• Refers to the extent at which a variety of skills are practiced, and the degree to which the skill is practiced in different
• Conditions. Eg. putts, chips and drives in golf
• Equally, practice variability can be aided by frequently changing conditions under the skill is performed

Blocked Practice

• Involve practice sessions, where the same skill is practiced repeatedly under the same practice conditions for a set period of time eg. volleyballers practising a dig in isolation
• Effective in cognitive stage, seeing improvements

Random Practice

• High level of practice variability, where a variety of skills are rehearsed in the same session
• No one skill is worked for a defined period of time. Eg. practising putts from different angles + lengths

Feedback

• Any sort of information a learner receives about their skill performance
• Feedback can come from a variety of sources and provides information about skill errors or information that refines successful movement patterns
• Coaches must think carefully about the type of feedback, they provide and how to tailor feedback to the needs of the learner

Intrinsic Feedback

• The information the performer receives directly from their sensory systems. Provided by the learners visual and proprioceptive systems (hearing) as well as their cutaneous system (skin)
• Eg. basketball player at the ft line is aware of their coordination of body parts

Augmented Feedback

• Information about a skill performance that comes from an external source
• Eg. coach telling you your ft fell short due to” lack of knee bend”
• Can be reinforced by another form in video analysis through reviewing games/faults/corrections

Knowledge of Performance

• Feedback regarding how a skill is performed, on the basis of process and skill technique
• Eg. golfer may realise they have a problem with weight transfer after watching a video of their swing

Knowledge of Results

• Information about the outcome of skill performance; success or failure in regarding the intended goal of the movement skill
• Eg. golfer puts their ball into the hole

Qualitative Feedback

• Provides general, less technical feedback about movement skill performance
• Eg. coach tells athlete their hips are to high in straight position

Quantitative Feedback

• Precise form of feedback that often refers to specific numerical values
• Eg. sprint coach informs their athlete the angle of their rear leg is to be 140 degrees

Frequency of Feedback

• Refers to how often a coach provides augmented feedback
• Can be measured in absolute units (number of times feedback is provided) or relative value (% of efforts for which feedback is provided)

Confidence

• Is the belief an athlete has in their ability to execute a specific task or goal successfully
• Self-confidence athletes: believe in themselves, exhibit positive emotions, remain calm under pressure, think more positively, great ability to follow understand and execute gameplan

Choking

• Confidence can be lost when athletes start focusing on things that are outside their control or become merely critical of their own individual performance
• Choking can appear as
  • Increase in negative self talk
  • Poor judgement + decision making
  • Inability to attend to relative cues
  • Poor skill execution
  • Decreased coordination

Strategies to build confidence

• Working hard, both mentally and physically
• Positive self talk
• Visualisation
• Setting small achievable goals
• Gaining confidence in supportive environment

Motivation

• The driving force behind an athletes desire and determination to achieve their goal
• Motivated athletes exhibit; a desire for success, willingness to take risk, acknowledgement of own ability, increase effort as task becomes more difficult

Goal Setting

• Specific: goals specific and detailed as possible
• Measurable: should be measurable and assessed against standard/previous performance
• Accepted: all stakeholders need to accept the goals (athlete, coach, family)
• Realistic: challenging but achievable
• Timeframe: ST + LT goals should be set with a specific date for goals to achieve
• Exciting: should challenge, excite and inspire
• Recorded: agreed goals should be recorded to provide a constant reminder and to act as motivation

Intrinsic Motivation

• Comes from within and involves factors such as enjoyment, satisfaction, improvement and enhanced feelings of
• Self-worth as the primary motivators for performance

Extrinsic Motivation

• External source and usually involves some form of material benefits such as the financial reward, awards/ trophies and glory/recognition

Arousal

• Arousal in sport can be defined as the degree of activation (physiological and psychological) that an individual experiences when faced with a sporting task/situation
• Athlete needs to be at an optimal level of arousal to perform at their best

Level of Arousal

• Under arousal: do not perform at their best, levels of motivation and intensity are low
• Optimal arousal: athletes perform at their best, level of preparedness and activation are optimal for the task at hand
• Over arousal: performance deteriorates, athletes are anxious and make poor decisions

Optimal Arousal Theory

• Each athlete will perform at their best if their level of arousal or competitive anxiety falls within their optimal functioning zone
• Eg. steve smith is hyperactive whereas mitch marsh is more laid back

Arousal Reduction Techniques

• Controlled breathing
  • Slowing down breathing to release tension and anxiety, can be used before and during performance, helps an athlete focus while they are preparing for the next action when an athlete is over aroused, breathing is one of the first disrupted
• Meditation
  • Mindfulness practice in which individuals attain a state of relaxation and clam by focusing on a particular object, though or activity, helps reduce stress before an event
• Biofeedback
  • Process for maintaining information about physiological functions (HR.. ) which are controlled by the autonomic nervous system, eg. precise moment of heightened anxiety and tensions athlete feels during sequences

Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)

• An athlete being exposed to increasing levels of stress, building up to levels similar to those experienced during competition/games
• Allows the athlete to gradually develop their ability to cope with pressure of competition and enhance overall performance

Stages of SIT

• Conceptualisation stage: become aware of positive and negative thoughts
• Rehearsal stage: learner to use coping strategies such as positive self talk/imagery
• Application stage: practicing the coping strategies, initially in low stress conditions before gradually progressing to high stress situations

Techniques to Increase Arousal Levels

• Elevated breathing rate: short sharp breaths trigger CNS to increase state of awareness
• Act energetic: athletes can increased their intensity and pump themselves up to increase arousal levels
• Positive self talk: athletes can increase arousal by repeating positive self-statements