Movement Skills

Movement Skills

1. Classification of movement skills including fundamental movement skills, sport specific skills, open and closed skills, gross and fine skills, and discrete, serial and continuous motor skills

   • Open Motor Skills
     • are performed in an unpredictable environment, conditions are constantly changing. Externally paced and
   • Closed Motor Skills
     • stable predictable environment, self paced, consistent, eg: throwing a dart or archery
   • Discrete
     • Have an obvious beginning and end. Examples –kicking a ball or a netball pass. Very short skill.
   • Serial
     • When several discrete skills are performed in a sequence. This combination of discrete skills is classified as a serial motor skill. Examples - gymnastics floor routine
   • Continuous
     • have no definite beginning or end point Examples - Walking and running. Sometimes beginning and end points are assigned, such as in a 100 metre running race, but the actual motor skill is continuous in nature.
   • Fine Motor Skills
     • Involve the recruitment of smaller muscles groups Associated with movements requiring precision
   • Gross Motor Skills
     • Involve the recruitment of large muscle groups Less emphasis on precision

2. Fundamental movement skills

   • Fundamental movement skills are foundation skills that provide basis for the development of more sport specific movement skills.
     • Stability skills involving balance and control of the body.
     • Locomotor skills that enable us to move through space, such as walking and running.
     • Manipulative skills involving the control of an object such as throwing, catching, striking and kicking.

3. Stages of Learning

   • Cognitive
     • an idea of what is required is obtained Thinking Stage focus is on producing movement routines errors are made but performer doesn’t know how to correct them rate of improvement is rapid blocked practice leads to best improvements practice should be kept as “closed” as possible
   • Associative
     • movement patterns begin being fine tuned and refined performance becomes more consistent and errors occur less frequently concentration on movement routines lessens and more external stimuli can be considered performers begin to develop some problem solving strategies of their own rate of improvement slows as does rate of errors
   • Autonomous
     • movements become “automatic” and typically seen in elite performers attentional focus shifts to external factors such as opponent moves players develop anticipation skills errors are quickly self-corrected
   • Factors Affecting Ability to Learn
     • Age – chronological age (physical and mental)
     • Ability – perceptual and motor
     • Gender
     • Stage of learning (cognitive, associative, autonomous)
     • Physiological characteristics (including body composition and fitness)
     • Psychological characteristics (motivation, interests, attitude, personality)
     • Experience (information processing, motor programs)
     • Sociological characteristics (family and other influences)

4. Practise Strategies

   • Part and Whole Practice
     • Part Practise
       • involves breaking a skill down into its various segments and mastering each part. useful when skills involve multiple segments / parts that can be performed independently. allows beginners to experience success before attempting other parts of the skill.
     • Whole Practise
       • used at associative and autonomous stages when basic parts of skill have been mastered important when segments need to be performed in rapid sequence ie. A cartwheel in gymnastics
   • Amount of Practice
     • Negatively accelerating curve - rapid rate of improvement until plateau
   • Distribution (massed or distributed)
     • Massed
       • involves long training sessions that occur less frequently more prone to fatigue and off task behaviour if concentration drops used by most non-professional performers (including students) because of other demands of school, work, etc
     • Distributed
       • involves frequent and short training sessions has breaks during each session typically used where high intensity training is involved requiring recovery / breaks has greater opportunity for feedback and movement refinement Research has shown this method results in greater learning Used more frequently by full-time professional teams Team tactics and game strategies are best introduced at the associative or autonomous stage and should be practiced in a more closed environment before opening up the drill to more closely reflect the game situation.
   • Variability (blocked or random)
     • Blocked
       • involves practicing the same skill repeatedly without changing to another task. e.g. 50 shots at goal often used with beginners needing to understand basic movement principles best used in closed environments
     • Random
       • uses varied sequencing of motor skills in the same session e.g. dribbling 5m passing to a team mate and then doing a lay up best used at associative or autonomous stages
   • In the graph above you can see that one’s Performance when using BLOCKED practice will increase more when compared to practicing using RANDOM Practice. However, the learning, retention and transfer of skills to games that occurs when using RANDOM Practice will increase significantly more compared to when using BLOCKED practice.

5. Feedback

   • Intrinsic Feedback
     • using the performer’s own senses to receive feedback
       • Auditory
       • Proprioception
       • Visual
       • Touch
   • Augmented Feedback
     • Supports the performer’s own internal feedback Usually provided by the coach
       • Knowledge of Results
         • specific feedback about the outcome of a task useful for beginners used less as performance improves and internal feedback increases
       • Knowledge of Performance
         • focuses on characteristics of performance(parts involved), not just skill outcome usually offered at completion of task Can be provided in several forms including coaching cues or video footage
   • Purpose of Feedback
     • to fix errors through knowledge of results or knowledge of performance.
     • to motivate performers to improve through encouragement – “You are doing so well”
     • to reinforce correct skill performance - “Your ball toss is at the right height”
     • Feedback should always be CLEAR, CONCISE, LIMITED IN INFORMATION and POSITIVE!!

6. Motor Skils

   • Motor Skills are activities or tasks that require voluntary head, body and or limb movement to achieve a goal.
   • The link between motor skill development and participation and performance
     • Basically, reduced motor skill development will lead to decreased participation and performance in physical activity. If a child doesn’t develop fundamental motor skills, such as running, jumping, balancing, catching and throwing, they are less likely to participate in physical activity. They are also less likely to successfully develop sport-specific motor skills, meaning that their performance in sports will be decreased.

7. Factors Affecting Skill Learning

   • Any factor that affects an individual’s ability to learn and perform a skill is called a constraint. These can be broken into three categories:
     • Individual Constraints
       • • Body shape and size • Fitness level • Mental skills
     • Task Constraints
       • • Rules of the sport • Resources and equipment available • Team size/number of players
     • Environmental Constraints
       • • Physical environment (e.g. parks, ovals etc.) • Weather • Societal norms (e.g. Vic = Aussie Rules, NSW = rugby) • Coaching available • Support from family and friends