There are three main types of the application of skill; individual, coactive and interactive.
An individual skill is one that is completely under the control of the performer and no affect from other competitors. An example of this skill is when a diver gets on to the diving board, performs his dive and gets out of the pool. He has no physical presence from any other person. A javelin thrower performs his or her skill individually. Although there are other competitors present in the area, they don’t perform at the same time. A figure skater can largely distance them self form the other competitors before and after they perform.
An interactive skill is where other performers are directly involved. In most games, how well you play depends on the how well your opponent allows you to play. A rugby match is a perfect example of interactive skills as highly interactive activities are those where space is shared and contact is allowed. Less contact sports such as netball or hockey there is potentially less interaction. It can be said that, the greater the level of interaction, the greater the possibility for opponents to affect each other.
Coactive skills are those in which competitors perform their skill at the same time but are divided by a physical separation such as a line on a running track or a rope in a swimming pool. The physical barrier prevents other competitors physically inhibiting the performer’s skill.
Each skill has different performance levels. Individual and coactive skills require lots of concentration and quite often a routine or sequence of movements. Where as interactive skills require anticipation and variation depending on the situation.
It is clear that an individual skill is different from coactive and interactive. They can be quite closed skill as they don’t have other competitors affecting the person in performing the skill perfectly. It is a skill that is performed in isolation and it is down to the performer to carry out the skill perfectly. It is therefore mainly their fault if they make a mistake. The other two skills are more like open skills with the pressure of other players or competitors playing with or against you as well as conditions i.e. weather or playing (poor surface etc.)
A coactive skill is slightly different from an interactive skill. An interactive skill depends on the team players and the opponents, so your skill can be reflected as good or bad depending on your opponents. The physical presence of spectators also has an affect. The performer is put under pressure as they are aware that others are watching them performing their skill. Personal experiences prove that the presence of others cause nerves which affects the skill trying to be carried out. During an important badminton match, players playing at the top of their game but under pressure, sometimes peer pressure, start to loose concentration. This can make the player nervous which affects the skill and performance which could potentially loose the game. This is because pressure, felt from the audience, affects the minds thought track and therefore the concentration moves from the skill to the supporters.
A racket sport is a mixture of all three skills. In singles you have the individual skill as you are the only one hitting the shuttle to the other side of the court, interactive, as you are playing an opponent and co active as there is a net that acts as the physical barrier.
A Badminton Smash
Middle
Gross Fine
Self Paced Externally
Paced
Open Closed
Continuous Serial Discrete
We see professionals in all three of these categories perform their skill both perfectly and defectively. They may not even be under any pressure or have any distractions from others. A professional snooker player may be on a 105 break but he misses an easy black. The player knows he can pot it as he practices day in day out. This shows that even an individual skill, that has importance, no longer becomes a simple process of performing the task but a complex process of performing it perfectly.
‘Does the presence of others make you perform that little bit better, or do they detract you from your skill?’
A coactive skill such as the 100m could follow both of the points. It’s a case for motivation. Some runners would respond to someone running past them which would encourage them to speed up and try and gain back the place. Others would drop their heads and think that they wouldn’t be able to catch up to retake the place and just stop trying. Individual skills wouldn’t have to deal with this problem, this is because, the performer has no guide of how the other competitors are doing as they are not competing at the same time, which means no real physical pressure therefore no physical affect on the skill. An interactive skill falls in between these two. It can depend on the opponents and their ability to pressure you into performing your skill badly. If they don’t put you under pressure, you gain confidence and are able to perform that little bit better.
In summary, although a skill can depend on ability, technique and quality, it is how we perform that skill and in the situation we perform it that can differ from one to the other all depending on a number of different factors. These factors may or may not be down to the performer, but it is up to the performer to overcome these factors and execute the skill perfectly. There is one skill but three ways it can be performed.
Bibliography
Galligan, Barry, Crawford, Howe, Maskery, Ruston Spence; Advanced PE for Edexcel, Heinemann Educational Publishers, Oxford, 2000
Davis, Bull, D. Roscoe, J. Roscoe; Physical Education and the Study of Sport, Hartcourt Publishers, London, 2000
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1,238 Words.