Skill Categoriesand

Skills Analysis

19.2

Basic Skill Categories

• Locomotor-moving skills• Manipulative-handling skills• Stability-balancing skills

• In 1970’s physiologist Ann Gentile established a two-dimensional system for classifying skills

• Based on two factors:– Requirements of an action– Demands of the environment

Locomotor-moving skills

Uses large muscle groups (ie. Running, walking, jumping)

Manipulative-handling skillsUses smaller muscle groups; precise movements; require hand-eye coordination

Stability-balancing skills

Classification of Skills

• Possible classification systems: team vs. dual vs. individual; summer vs. winter

• A more comprehensive classification of motor skills:– According to the effects of environment on

learning and executing skills

Closed Skills

• performed under constant, relatively unchanging conditions

• the movement form itself is often the goal of the skill

• e.g., gymnastics routines

Teaching Strategies for Closed Skills

• Goal: stereotyped movements that consistently produce the desired response

• Strategy: learning environment structured so that the desired response will occur

• Repeating the selected movement pattern consistently without allowing external influences to affect the performance– e.g., noise

• Use of kinesthetic and proprioceptive feedback especially effective

Open Skills

• Environments are continually changing and require performers to adjust and respond to the environment around them

• Responses cannot be made effectively far in advance

• Demand the capacity to adapt, anticipate, and be flexible in responses

Teaching Strategies for Open Skills

• The learning environment should closely approximate the environment in which the skill will take place

• Learners should exercise variability and adaptability and different scenarios that approximate real environment

• Learners may be wise to identify patterns in the environment that provide information about the movement of objects and players

Open-Closed Continuum

Open skills Closed skills

Learning Progression For Open Skills Along the Open-Closed Continuum

• Start learning with making the skill more closed (e.g., one pitch speed)

• Once a certain level of proficiency has been achieved, make the skill more open (e.g., live pitch)

• i.e., remove a component of uncertainty of the skill in order to simplify its overall execution

Stages of Skill Observation (NCCP)• Identify the purpose of the skill

– Gives a framework from which to observe and analyze the skill

• Break the skill into phases– Preliminary movements– Back-swing or recovery movement– Force-producing movements– Critical instant– Follow-through

• Identify key elements of each phase– E.g. the way a quarterback sets his feet will have a great influence on

the path and velocity of the ball

• Develop an observation plan– What key elements will be observed? A scanning strategy to hone in on

one area of skill

Five phases of skill analysis

• Take a few minutes to read one of the Five Phases (pg 263) and explain to the class

• Preliminary movements - me• Back-swing or recovery movement - Nick• Force-producing movements – Nicole• Critical instant - Brandon• Follow-through - Daniel

Adapting Skill Development to Match Ability Levels

• Beginners rarely posses ability to grasp all elements of a skill

• Break down skill into elements that can be mastered separately

• Simplify skill by leaving out parts

• Practice skill in simplified situation (dribbling soccer ball around pylons)

• Slow down speed of skill

Shaping Complex Skills

• Encourages learners to develop or “shape” a skill gradually

• Briefly demonstrate/explain the complete skill to be learned.

• Use a simplified or incomplete version of the skill that includes the most important action or actions.

• Use something the participants will be successful in doing and allow time to practice the simplified skill.

• Add missing parts and the whole skill is shaped into a reasonable example of the finished product through practice.

Chaining • suitable for complex actions with

sequential parts e.g. triple jump. A possible sequence to chain the hop, step and jump phases of triple jump is as follows:

• demonstrate the whole action• demonstrate the hop phase and

let them practice• demonstrate the hop and step

phases and let them practice• demonstrate the hop, step and

jump phases and let them practice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAC1qLiJSA8&feature=player_embedded

Backward Chaining

• Some skills, but not all, may be built up by starting at the end of the skill and working backwards.

• Focuses on “payoff”– E.g. shot follow-through and release of ball rather

than footplant and drive from legs

• An alternative for people having real problems learning a complex skill by either forward chaining or shaping.