Skill What is ability Abilities are enduring characteristics

Skill

What is ability? • “Abilities are enduring characteristics which underlie a person’s potential to acquire skill in one sport or another” (Sharp) • 1) Abilities are innate – inherited from our parents • 2) Enduring – remain stable over time, some development can occur due to training. • 3) Ability underpins skill – various abilities combine, which allow movement to occur.

Examples of Abilities • • • Strength Balance Agility Co-ordination Stamina • Outline the abilities required for a skill within your chosen sport? • If the performer does not have the innate abilities required for a particular skill, they will never achieve excellence.

Fleishman’s classification of abilities Abilities Gross Motor Abilities or Physical Proficiency abilities – Those that involve movement and often linked to fitness Perceptual motor abilities – Those that involve processing information and implementing the movement.

Fleishman’s (1964) classification of abilities 1. Gross Motor Abilities • • • 2. • A series of underlying characteristics that contribute to moving a limb or limbs successfully. Innate inherited traits Every skill would require the combination of two or more of these abilities Perceptual Motor Abilities Related to the process of receiving, recognising, selecting and organising information that we receive from our senses.

What is skill? • What is the difference between skill and ability? • Skill is “The learned ability to bring about predetermined results with maximum certainty, often with the minimum outlay of time or energy or both” (Knapp) • • 1) skills are learned 2) skills have an end goal. 3) this goal is achieved with consistency. 4) minimal energy and time to accomplish.

Examples of skills • • Running Throwing Jumping Catching • What specific skills are relevant to your sport? • What makes one performance more highly skilled than another?

Different types of Skill…. . To perform a skill we must …… 1. Receive information from the environment 2. Understand the information we have received. 3. Select and use the correct physical response. 4. This all takes a very short amount of time!

Different types of skill • Cognitive skill – The use of the brain to reason and problem solve as a result of learning and experience. • Perceptual skill - selecting, interpreting and making sense of the information from our senses. • Motor skill – Skills that involve physical movement. • Psycho-motor skill – A combination of the perceptual and motor skills. Interpretation of environmental stimuli and the execution of movement.

Example A tennis player waiting to return serve 1. Watching opponent – foot position, body shape, arm action e. t. c. Perceptual 2. Make a prediction about where the ball is going to go – Cognitive 3. As they serve you begin to move to play the return – Motor. 4. You decide which shot you are going to play – Cognitive 5. You get into the correct position and perform a back hand to win the point – Psycho-motor. Activity • For your chosen activity, identify when each type of skill would be used during a personal performance.

Classification of skills • The process of classifying skills is commonly based on the use of a continuum or sliding scale. 1. Open/Closed Continuum This is based on the influence of the environment OPEN soccer goal save pass tennis stroke tennis serve springboard dive CLOSED shot putt 2. Gross/Fine Continuum This is based on the amount of muscular movement and the precision required during the execution of the skill. GROSS weight lifting javelin throw Basketball lay up cricket stroke golf putt ten pin bowling FINE darts/ snooker

3. Self paced/externally paced continuum This is based on the amount of control the performer has over the execution and timing of the movement. EXTERNALLY-PACED yachting tennis receiving serve soccer game Gymnastics tennis serve SELF-PACED weight lifting 4. Discrete/Serial/Continuous Continuum This is based on the relationship between the sub routines and identification of the beginning and end of a movement. DISCRETE weight lifting A Somersault SERIAL javelin throw Triple jump CONTINUOUS Swimming running

What is the relationship between skill and ability? • In order to perform any skill, we require specific abilities to execute the movement effectively. • Abilities are skill specific. Case Study Rowing World Class Start and Potential Programme It has a remit is to identify future Olympic Athletes. - Size and Shape - Power - Muscular Strength - Muscular Endurance Heather Stanning learnt to row at the University. She won Gold at the U 23 World Championships and is the current Silver Senior medal winner.

Homework 1. Complete worksheets 103, 104, 105 + 107 2. Write up the practical lesson using the four classification continuums. Add another two skills on each continuum making sure you are able to justify your answer.