Discuss the differences between skill, technique and ability, and how practice makes perfect

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Name: Oliver Wells

Centre Number: 17655

There is a strong correlation between the three terms; skill, ability and technique. A sporting example could be a footballer taking a penalty. The ability would be whether the player is naturally gifted at scoring penalties, the skill would be scoring, and the technique would be the way the foot contacts the ball. We can relate the 3 terms by the following equation:

Ability is the main building block for any sports person, (we are either born with it or not). If one is lucky enough to inherit good ability, their chance of excelling to a higher level in sport, will be far greater than one who has poor or no ability. A sporting example could be a cricketer. If he is born with poor hand-eye co-ordination, no matter how much he improves his technique and skill level, he will never become a world class cricketer.

Technique is the movement involved in learning any skill. The extent to which a technique can be developed is determined by their ability. For example; Tiger Woods has learnt the correct technique in how to contact a golf ball to make the most powerful and accurate drive. This correct technique he uses proves to create a perfect skill execution. The reason why he is so good is very much linked to the high level of ability he was born with.

Skill is usually the resulting combination of ability and technique, and can be defined as “the learned ability to bring about predetermined results with maximum certainty, often with the minimum outlay of time or energy or both.” It is described as ‘learned’ as it can always be improved with practice. A skill is seen as a co-ordinated fluid act, involving complex movements brought together in a consistent and controlled manner.

There are four main categories of skill, which are needed for success of any performer. The most simple are motor skills, these are muscular processes such as running. Cognitive ...

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There are four main categories of skill, which are needed for success of any performer. The most simple are motor skills, these are muscular processes such as running. Cognitive skills are also essential and involve thought processes, an example would be adding up the measurement of a long jump. Perpetual skills are skills involving interpretation of stimuli, where a successful performer would interpret information in a more logical and thoughtful way than others. Lastly, the most complex type of skill are Perpetual Motor skills which involves thought, interpretation and movement, i.e. cognitive, perceptual and motor skills put together. If the performer can establish a high skill level they are already at a high advantage over opponents. Perceptual motor skills can be linked by the diagram:

Performers with experience have a greater advantage over novices with these skills simply because they have had more time to learn them. They have therefore improved their performance by factors such as positive and negative feedback, and trial and error.

The phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ is the key to any sportsmen’s success. One of the main types of practice is trial and error, (where you attempt a skill which you may find difficult, and repeat it until you master or perfect it). A prime example of trial and error is David Beckham. He has a very high ability in football, especially in free kicks, however he wouldn’t have become a world-class free kick taker if it wasn’t for the hours upon hours of practice on the training pitch he put in practising them.

There are four main types of practice, which trial and error falls into:

Fixed Practice – Allowing skill to become ‘over learned’ by repetition of the activity, and eventually becomes second nature. This type of practice is ideal for skills that are always performed in the same way, such as: Closed skills, interactive skills and coactive skills, as they require fixed practice to allow the motor sequence to be perfected.

Variable Practice – Developed and progressed close skill brought into an open skilled environment. The performer can practice the skill in a more realistic and challenging environment, e.g. dribbling the ball from side to side, until the performer is confident and can take that into a game situation to practise it more openly, with factors such as the opponent, affecting them

Distributed practice – Usually associated with variable practices. The practice is usually broken up into many activities, to allow time for extrinsic feedback from the coach and recovery time. This type of practice is most used for beginners.

Massed practice – continuous session with no breaks, where performers able to act on intrinsic feedback. This type of practice is more suitable to experienced performers

Key factors which are important in the practice stage of a skill are:

Motivation/Verbal Persuasion by self – must have a desire to achieve.
Intrinsic feedback – knowledge of your own performance and self criticism on how you can improve through the kinaesthetic sense.
Extrinsic feedback – getting feedback from coaches and experts helps improve your weaknesses.

Learning by guidance is also very successful way in order to improve. The simplest stage is visual guidance. This is when performers watch and learn from images and videos (most suitable for beginners). Verbal guidance is coaches talking about the relevant skills and how to improve them; it therefore helps if you already have a basic understanding of the skill. Mechanical guidance takes the physical approach where coaches position the learner in the correct way and demonstrates the correct movement so the learner can remember the correct technique easier. An example would be a coach standing behind the player moving the learner’s tennis racket into the correct position to play a forehand.

In conclusion, although it is possible to see the similarities between skill, technique and ability, there are many differences between them, each fundamentally important in becoming a successful sports player. If one has an aspiration in playing a particular sport to a high standard, they will not succeed unless they have core ability in that area. If they happen to have ability, they will still not reach a high skill level unless this ability is applied to the sport and the right technique is learned. They will not establish a continuous high level of skill over time unless practice is repeated over and over. On other words, disregarding their differences, a performer will not be successful unless all four factors are applied to, but if they are the performer has the potential to be very successful.

Bibliography: Advanced PE for Ed-excel – Textbook