This document discusses the classification and learning of skills. It defines skills as abilities to perform movements well. Motor skills involve precise muscle movements and can be classified by precision (fine or gross), movement type (discrete, serial, continuous), and environment predictability (closed or open). Learning a skill progresses through cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages as the skill is mastered. Humans process information through senses, cognition, memory, decision-making, and feedback to continuously improve motor skills.

1. Skill Learning
Unit 2- SAC 1

2. Classification of a Skill
• Skill: Is the ability to do something well.
• Motor Skill: Part of a movement, or group of
movements that produce a desired outcome
when performed in a sequence.

3. Motor Programs
• Is an organised set of individual skills or
subroutines that result in the production of a
specific skill

4. Motor Ability
• Is an ability specifically related to the
performance of a skill
• May explain how someone can have “natural
ability” at a skill

5. Classifying Motor Skills
1. Movement precision
2. Type of movement
3. Predictability of environment

6. 1. Movement Precision
• Fine Motor Skills: involve the
cooperative use of small muscle
groups and senses of sight &
touch.
• Gross Motor Skills: a combination
of large muscle actions resulting in
a coordinated movement.

7. 2. Type of Movement
• Discrete Skills: Skills of brief duration with a
distinct beginning and end.
• Serial Skills: A series or group of discrete
skills joined together to make a complicated
skill.
• Continuous Skills: Skills with no distinct
beginning or end and involve repetitive
movements.

8. 3. Predictability of Environment
• Closed Skills: Performed in a predictable
environment with no changes or
interruptions.
• Open Skills: Performed in an environment
that is constantly changing. Can involve
opponents, surface conditions and weather
conditions.

9. 3. Predictability of Environment
• Not all sports fit neatly into either open or
closed motor skills

10. Summary of Skill Classifications

11. Stages of Skill Learning
• There are three recognised stages of learning
to achieve mastery of a skill:
1. Cognitive
2. Associative
3. Autonomous

12. 1. Cognitive
• Beginner stage
• Understand skill and technique
• Makes many errors
• Highly variable results
• Use demonstrations
• May struggle with sequencing of subroutines
• Simple and small amounts of feedback
• Short period of time in this stage
• Focus on performing skill in closed environment

13. 2. Associative
• Make minor errors
• Emphasis on refining skill
• Begins to “feel” desired skill
• Begin to practice in competitive situations
• Can adjust skill through feedback
• Gradual improvement
• Requires large amounts of practice

14. 3. Autonomous
• Consistent results
• Automatic and efficient movements
• Focus more on strategies/tactics
• Can adapt and practice skill in competitive
situations
• Can self identify problems and correct
• May move backward to relearn or refine skill

16. Humans as Information Processors
• Mechanisms involved in processing and
learning a physical skill:
1. Input via senses
2. Information processing
3. Output produced by the muscles
4. Feedback

17. 1. Input
• Specifically from
hearing, vision & touch
• Equilibrium- position of
body in space and
positioning
• Proprioception- ability
to feel a movement
• Ability to detect and
identify cues

18. 2. Information Processing
• Perceptual mechanism interprets sensory
information
• Signal detection is important and depends on:
– Ability of sense organs
– Strength of the cue
– Noise
– Speed of the cue
– Level of arousal

19. Arousal
• An optimum level of arousal is important for
signal detection
• Inverted U Theory

20. Selective Attention
• Your perceptual
mechanism must
interpret many cues, but
can only process one at a
time
• Selective attention: is
the ability to filter out
irrelevant information,
reducing information
processing time.

21. Anticipation
• Allows the performer to predict what will
happen next based on experience
• Allows for a quicker response as not all cues
are processed

22. Humans as Information Processors
• The ability to learn a new
skill will depend on:
– Physical maturation
– Physical fitness
– Attention and motivation
during learning
– Feedback
– Memory
– Amount & type of practice
– Perceptual ability

24. Memory

25. Short Term Memory
• You can improve your short term memory
and ability to learn a skill by:
– Chunking or coding: a method used to reduce
individual pieces of information into meaningful
chunks
– Avoiding distractions/noise
– Make the information more meaningful
– Rehearse or practice straight after instruction

26. Long Term Memory
• Stores unlimited information for retrieval at
any time
• Motor programs from other skills can be
used and refined to assist current skill
learning

27. 3. Decision Making & Output
• Once the decision has been made, a motor
program is selected from the long term
memory and sent to the muscles via the CNS

28. Reaction Time
• The delay between the stimulus and the
initiation of the movement.
• Depends on the task and the individual.
– Simple Reaction Time: Involves one stimulus and
one response. Eg. Starters Gun
– Choice Reaction Time: Multiple stimulus and
responses.

29. Reaction Time
• Influences:
– Age
– Gender
– Intensity of stimulus/cues
– Number of choices (Hicks Law)
– Warning signals
– Probability of the signal
occurring
– Psychological refractory period
– Stimulus-response
compatibility

31. 4. Feedback
• Information on the
performance or outcome of a
skill
• Motivates
• Reinforce learning
• Changes to the performance
• Should be constructive and
useful

32. Types of Feedback
• Internal: “feel” of the performance
• External: from sense organs
• Augmented: external from source other than
yourself
• Positive
• Negative
• Continuous: during the performance
• Terminal: at the completion of the skill
• Knowledge of results: result of the skill
• Knowledge of performance: actual performance of
the skill

33. Practice
• Massed: little or no rest between
performances of the skill
• Distributed: small and short practice with
rest in between

34. Practice
• Whole
• Part: breaking down into sub-routines

35. Practice
• Drill practice: repetitive drills
• Problem solving practice: discovery to
determine what skills or changes to the skill
need to be employed in different situations
• Physical practice
• Mental practice/imagery: mentally
rehearsing the skill in your mind