Fleishman E A (1972) identified the following nine psychomotor abilities (referred to as gross motor abilities): Extent flexibility, dynamic flexibility, explosive strength, static strength, dynamic strength, trunk strength, gross body co-ordination, gross body equilibrium and stamina.
If you are of average height, strong, good co-ordination and have an abundance of in your legs then you have the natural ability to be a sprinter.
All of these skills have different performance requirements. Individual and co-active skills require concentration and often performance of a pre-learned routine/sequence of movements. Interactive skills will require interpretation and variation depending on the situation. An obvious link can be drawn between these and open-closed skills.
Interactive Co-Active Individual
Skills
Individual: skills are where there is only one performer at a particular time and are performed in isolation. In a javelin competition for example the performer performs alone and then is followed by another performer who also performs alone and so forth. Other examples of this are penalties in football and gymnastics floor routines.
Co-active: skills are without confrontation with other performers, performed at the same time as them. Thought performing alongside fellow performers we cannot physically influence them e.g. in rowing or doubles in tennis.
Interactive: skills are those where other performers are directly involved. This means there are direct influences on performance of skill that is the active opposition you are directly involved with. This is shown in the game of football when the skills involved in tackling (timing, precision) meets with the avoidance skills of the opponent (eye co-ordination, timing, weight distribution etc). E.g. dribbling in football is an example of interactive skills because where you dribble the ball to depends of how your opponents reactions and so forth.
Self paced and externally paced are at different ends of the scale. At one end are closed, self-paced and discrete skills whilst at the other end are open, externally paced and continuous skills. Externally paced skills require reaction, timing
Self-paced: skills also known as internally paced skills let the performer control the rate of execution at which the skill takes place. These skills are usually closed skills, for example the javelin throw where the performer can within a reasonable amount of time take as long as he or she wants. The performer such as in the golf drive instigates self-paced skills; a player hits the ball when they are ready and not because they have been told to play the shot within a certain time range.
Externally paced: skills are when an outside instigator such as the environment or opponent controls the timing of the performance of the skill by the performer. To control the rate of movement by the performer they must pay attention to the external events. Usually open skills involving alot of reaction on the performers part i.e. in football the performer must time his or hers actions with their opponents and teams mates as well as the ball. When a player passes a football he becomes the starter whom controls the start and when the return ball is played when it reaches his partner. The return ball though is not fully externally paces as his partner is able to choose whether he shall take the ball late or early.
Discrete: skills when being performed are obvious because they can be taken out of the sport to be practised by oneself e.g. a free kick in football. It is a discrete skill because though in the game it is in fact a separate element of the game. With a clear beginning and end discrete skills are brief, well-defined actions. Such as in a free kick in football discrete skills make up actions involved in many different types of sports such as throwing and hitting, because they are single, specific skills.
Continuous: skills continually flow from element to element because it is not clear where each phase begins or ends e.g. cycling. Each cycle of movements becomes the beginning of the next and this is still repeated like a cycle. Continuous skills can during any moment of the performance of skill be stopped for example in cycling and running.
Serial: skills are composed from a number of discrete and continuous skills which have been put together. They’re easily divided in parts which means that they can then be practised in parts and later on linked together usually progressively to make up a routine or a sequence for example a triple jump or a dunk in basketball. The triple jump is a group of discrete skills put together making a new more complex movement i.e. Hop, Step and Jump. Another example is a floor routine in gymnastics which is mainly learnt as a series of skills with links to one another i.e. Handstand, Forward Roll, Cartwheel and so forth.
A profile of the skill requirements of a rugby tackle below:
Open: skills take place in a changing environment and are directly influenced by it. Open skills are hard to improve as they happen in different situations each time but skills will be improved over time due to experience. Each time these skills are performed they must require adaptation because of these different situations they occur in. Environmental conditions decide whether adaptation will be needed, these conditions include weather, positioning, speed of the ball, condition of the pitch and so forth. All of these different situations mean that an open skill is never performed in exactly the same way. As the situation comes upon us, we the performers use our knowledge, experience and perceptual skills to analyse the situation before we actually have to perform the right required skill. Examples of this include receiving a tennis serve in which we must consider a large range of factors such as speed, positioning, weather and then execute the correct variation of shot back. Sports that have constantly changing environments such as football, basketball and rugby usually involve open skills and so movements are always been adapted. Therefore open skills are usually externally paced, and continuous e.g. a pass in rugby.
Closed: skills are performed in more stable environments. They are self-paced and discrete skills. An example of this is in football: a penalty is a closed skill because the conditions are the same each time; the goal is 12 yards away. But in some situations the conditions are different such as in a free kick where the kick can be taken from many different positions on the pitch. This means that conditions are always changing. Because there are no outside physical influences on the performer, the closed skills can be improved which also makes training very easy. One a closed skill has been learnt they should be performed in exactly the same way each time. For example in football the penalty takers skill is exactly the same each time they take the penalty, because of no outside physical factors interfering. It all takes place in a stable, predictable environment so skills aren’t affected and tend to be habitual. A closed skill such as this has a clear beginning and end, is self-paced and follows set patterns.
Skills can be categorised on the continuum [right], between 0 (closed) and 10 (open), depending on the degree to which outside factors influence the performance of a skill.
Conclusion:
References:
The following are references I used to gain information on this topic:
- The world of Sport Examined - Paul Beashel & John Taylor
- Advanced PE for Edexcel - F Galligan et al
- Physical Education and the study of sport - B Davis et al
- Advanced studies in Physical Education and Sport - Paul Beashel & John Taylor