Ch 8 - Skills & Skill Acquisition
QUESTIONS
1) Define the term skill
2) Define the term ability
3) Explain why it is possible to have excellent ability, but to lack skill in sport
4) Some people are born with an excellent natural ability but may never become a skilful
performer due to a lack of practice. For how long does a performer need to practice a skill in
order to become an expert?
5) Name all eight factors that affect variations in skill level within a given sport
6) Explain how three of these factors can affect variations in skill level
7) Name all six characteristics of skilled performance
8) Explain three of the characteristics of skilled performance
9) Explain how two of the characteristics of skilled performance are demonstrated in an elite
gymnastics floor routine
10) Name the three skill classification continua
11) Describe the term fine skill and provide an example of a fine skill
12) Where does passing a ball in netball fit onto the ‘open/closed’ continuum and explain
why
13) Where does 100m sprint onto the ‘basic/complex’ continuum and explain why
14) State the four stages of the information processing model in order
15) During games, players process information from a number of sources. Name three
sources of information
16) Explain the input stage of the model using a sporting example of your choice
17) Explain the decision making stage using the same sporting example
18) Explain the role of the long term memory in the decision making process
19) Explain the role of the feedback stage of the model in improving future decision making
20) Name the two ways we receive information during the feedback stage
21) During the decision making stage of the model, information is stored in the short term
memory. How can a performer prevent that information from being lost?
22) Explain what the limited channel capacity hypothesis says about our ability to process
information
23) Describe the following hypotheses:
• Single channel hypothesis
• Multi-channel hypothesis
24) Describe how a noisy crowd might affect the decision making of a football player
according to the single-channel hypothesis
25) Name the three stages of learning
26) Describe the characteristics of a performer at each of the three stages:
• Cognitive stage
• Associative stage
• Autonomous stage
27) During the cognitive stage of learning a skill is broken down and the components are
learned individually. How would you break down a tennis serve to help a cognitive learner?
28) Describe the difference between whole and part practice
29) How could fixed-variable practice be used to teach passing in football?
30) Explain how whole-part-whole practice could be used to teach the front crawl in
swimming
31) Which practice technique would be most suitable for a cognitive learner?
32) Define the term feedback
33) Name the four different types of feedback
34) Provide one example of feedback from each source:
• Extrinsic
• Intrinsic
• Knowledge of results
• Knowledge of performance
35) State the four stages of the feedback loop in order
36) Which form of feedback is most suitable for a cognitive learner (beginner)? Explain why.
37) Which form of feedback is most suitable for an autonomous learner? Explain why.
38) State two advantages of using knowledge of results as a feedback method
39) State two advantages of using knowledge of performance as a feedback method
40) State two disadvantages of using knowledge of results as a feedback method
41) State two disadvantages of using knowledge of performance as a feedback method
42) Identify and explain the three characteristics of good feedback
43) Why is receiving feedback so important?
44) Name four different types of guidance
45) Which type of guidance should be used when teaching a new skill for the first time?
46) Name two ways in which visual guidance could be provided
47) State two advantages of using visual guidance
48) Provide a disadvantage of using visual guidance
49) State two advantages of using verbal guidance
50) State two advantages of using manual/mechanical guidance
51) Define the term mechanical guidance
52) State two disadvantages of using verbal guidance
53) State two disadvantages of using manual/mechanical guidance
Ch 8 - Skills & Skill Acquisition
ANSWERS
1) A learned and practiced ability that brings about the result you want to achieve with
maximum certainty and efficiency
2) The qualities a person is born with (e.g. Speed, agility, flexibility) that allow them to
acquire skills
3) Because effort and commitment are needed (through frequent practice), to develop skills.
4) 10,000 hours
5) Age and maturity, arousal conditions, Facilities, Environment, Teaching/coaching, Anxiety,
Motivation, Culture
6) E.g. Age and maturity – Starting young provides more time to develop skills and become
expert
7) Accurate, consistent, fluent, coordinated, aesthetically pleasing, goal directed
8) e.g. Goal directed – ‘focusing performing on a specific target and being determined to
achieve that target’
9) e.g. Fluent – A gymnasts movements must be quick, smooth and flowing in order to
achieve a high score from the judges. E.g. Consistent – The gymnast must perform to a high
level, demonstrating control throughout their routine as mistakes will result in them being
marked down by the judges
10) Open/closed, complex/simple(basic), fine/gross
11) ‘Precise movements that require high levels of accuracy and technique; they involve
small movements and small groups of muscles (e.g. Fingers)’ – e.g. Spin bowling in cricket
12) Towards the open end – as the player has to react to the situation (e.g. The changing
positions of defenders and attackers).
13) Towards the basic end – as it involves little decision making and no separate sub-routines
14) Input, decision making, output, feedback
15) Visual (eyes), auditory (ears), sensory (skin), movement (muscles)
16) E.g. Returning a tennis serve – input: the information received by the senses (e.g. The
speed of the ball and angle of the serve)
17) Decision making – The information is analyses and a decision is made (e.g. To return
down the line or cross-court).
18) Those who have practiced often will have information stored in their long term memory,
improving and speeding up the decision making process
19) Information received about the outcome can be stored and used when making a decision
next time (e.g. Seeing that the arrow laded too high on the target in archery – next time the
archer decides to aim a little lower)
20) Intrinsic and extrinsic
21) If a skill is rehearsed, information will be stored within the long term memory for
improved decision making in the future
22) If we try to do more than one thing at once, our performance suffers as the brain struggles
to process all the information
23) Single-channel – Only 1 piece of information can be processed at a time. This
information must be dealt with before another can be acted upon. Multi-channel – The brain
has several channels each dedicated to a different task. Performers can therefore process
visual, auditory, sensory and movement information at the same time. Performance suffers
only if two similar tasks are attempted simultaneously.
24) The performer may be distracted by the crowd noise, meaning they are not able to
process information on the pitch
25) Cognitive, associative, autonomous
26) a) Limited knowledge, consciously think about the actions involved in performing the
skill, many mistakes are made. b) Repeating and practicing skills, technique is improving,
fewer mistakes are made, some conscious thought is required. c) Skills performed
automatically and without conscious thought, mistakes are rare, when mistakes occur
performer can analyse what went wrong and adapt
27) Teach - racquet grip, ball toss, stance etc...
28) Whole – practicing the whole skill at once (e.g. Tennis serve) part – breaking a skill
down and learning the component parts (e.g. Racquet grip, ball toss)
29) Fixed - Use a fixed passing drill to teach the basic skill, variable – Repeat the technique
in a range of situations (e.g. Possession drill, small sided games)
30) a) Whole - Length of front crawl b) Part - breathing drill/kick drill/pull drill (depending
upon the weakness identified during the whole phase) c) Whole – length of front crawl again,
putting the improved technique into practice.
31) Part (as they need to learn the components of a skill first)
32) The information a performer receives about their performance
33) Extrinsic, intrinsic, knowledge of results, knowledge of performance
34) a) Feedback from a coach b) The feel of a movement c) knowing your position in a race
d) knowledge of how well you performed (e.g. timing of shots in cricket)
35) Performance, feedback, assess performance, adjust technique and practice...
36) Extrinsic – As they are yet to develop a feel for the movement and require expert
feedback as they don’t yet fully understand the skill/technique
37) Intrinsic – As they have an advanced understanding and can make immediate adjustments
based on the ‘feel of the skill’
38) Results give a quick measure of success (so useful for cognitive learners where
improvements are usually rapid), can provide a target for improvement, helps show
improvement over time if recorded regularly.
39) Feedback can be tailored to suit the ability level of the performer (simple feedback for
beginners and specific, complex and detailed for experts), suitable for lower level performers
as it does not involve comparisons with others.
40) Poor results can be demotivating, improvement slows down beyond the cognitive stage
which may be demotivating, results may not reflect skill or quality of performance (e.g.
Coming third in a race with strong performers may be a better result than winning against
weaker opposition)
41) Can be difficult to analyse performance of experienced athletes, there may be many
skills/techniques that require feedback which can be time consuming, videos may need to be
watched first in order for feedback to be accurate.
42) Fast – given as soon as possible after the event, Factual – based on evidence from a
performance, Focused – upon the key areas for development (not generic)
43) To help us assess how we have performed and make adjustments through training to
improve performances
44) Visual, verbal, manual, mechanical
45) Visual – as the performer needs to develop a basic understanding of what the skill should
look like
46) Videos, demonstrations, images/photos
47) Can see accurate performance/form a mental picture of what the skill should look like
(useful for cognitive learners), slow-motion video can help to focus on specific and technical
aspects (useful for autonomous learners), useful in all stages of learning
48) Demonstrations need to be expertly performed, poor quality video may not show the
detail required
49) It is immediate, adjustments can be made straight away, coaches can use questions to
check understanding, can be combined with visual guidance to paint an accurate picture
50) Useful in cognitive stage to help develop a feel for the movement, helps performer to
develop ‘muscle memory’, can provide a safe environment to try dangerous skills (e.g.
Harnesses to assist with learning a somersault in trampolining), provides a sense of security
reducing anxiety and fear.
51) Guidance using physical supports (e.g. Floats when swimming, harnesses in gymnastics)
52) Complicated instructions are hard to take in (see limited channel capacity), some
movements/techniques cannot be well explained using words, may be unsuitable for
cognitive learners if they cannot yet visualise what is being explained
53) Learners may become dependent on support from coach/equipment, can give an
unrealistic feeling of the movement, learners may resist having support taken away
