Discuss the differences between skill, ability and technique and explain how you would structure practices to enhance these components of fitness.

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Jessica Cobb

Discuss the differences between skill, ability and technique and explain how you would structure practices to enhance these components of fitness

Skill, ability and technique are clearly separate entities however in sport they are easily used incorrectly in terms of meaning and situation. The general belief is that ability and technique combine to make skills.

        Skill is a co-ordinated act, which involves complex movements brought together in a smooth consistent manner. It is hard to define levels of skilfulness as our interpretations are often based on our own individual experiences. Welford defines skill as,

An organised co-ordinated activity in relation to an object or situation which involves a whole chain of sensory, central and motor mechanisms.’

                                        

(Welford; as cited by Galligan et al, 2000)

        Skill as it stands covers a wide variety of actions. It can therefore be broken down into different types. These are cognitive or intellectual skills that require thought process, perceptual - the interpretation of presented information, motor which is the movement and control of muscles and perceptual motor, which involve the thought, interpretation and movement skills. Practical examples of these are:

Team – In Netball, shooting at goal from a thrown ball.

Individual – Gymnastics, a tumbling sequence.

Racket – Tennis, a top spin forehand down the line.

However in order to perform skills, ability is required. Ability is innate; this means that you are either born with it or develop early on in life a level of ability, which you may never improve. Abilities are said to be the building blocks of sport because without them it would be impossible to develop skill. The most common abilities used in sport are flexibility, speed and indeed hand/eye co-ordination. Examples of these are speed in netball to move away from a defender, the innate flexibility of a gymnast to perform a routine and in tennis, the hand/eye co-ordination to play every shot in the game.

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Technique is often confused with skill, yet it is clearly different. Technique is simply the way that the skill is carried out. Technique therefore can be improved. This is the idea behind practice and preparation. In netball, in order to throw the ball in different situations, different hand movements are needed. The way in which the feet are placed on a beam in gymnastics protect the body from injury yet allow free movement and In tennis, when topspin on a shot is an objective, the technique is the way the racket ‘brushes up’ the back of the ball.

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