Skill is a very commonly used word that has a variety of interpretations. It is something that requires special training, ability to achieve.
In sport skill tends to be used more as a concept than a word, skills exist within a sport, like a serve in tennis or a tumble turn in swimming. Or, in terms of a sport itself being a skill.
For any skill to be executed efficiently you must learn the correct technique to accompany that skill. E.g. when learning how to swim, the correct technique must be taught and learned. Swimmers must know what movements they need to do in order to propel themselves through the water efficiently, this can only be achieved by learning the correct skill and the techniques that go with it, the ability of the person also play a part in this learning process.
When we learn techniques and skills we do this in a hierarchical way. There are three different stages.
The first is the cognitive stage, it involves a lot of thought. This stage involves creating a mental image by gathering information from coaches and watching the techniques take place. It uses visual guidance that is simple and easy to take in. This is a crucial stage as the image must be correct or the skill will be learnt incorrectly and this is very hard to change.
The second is the associative stage, you must practice what you learnt in cognitive stage. Knowledge of performance and feedback by your coach is essential for improvement and will often re-visit cognitive to reinforce the mental image. In the associative stage verbal guidance is added to visual and you learn to associate techniques will skills.
The final is the autonomous stage, the information is committed to your long term memory. The skill is recalled subconsciously and executed without thinking, enabling the person to concentrate on other factors such as the environment around them and what other players are doing at that time. However without practicing these skills the fineness of them will be lost, but, if they are re-learnt then the skill will return very quickly.
Once a skill has been learnt, it is essential that it is practiced, as explained above, the skill in that area can be lost.
There are ways to organise and structure practices to improve performance, technique and skill.
The first is distributed practice, this involves the division of practice into sections to break down skills and separate them out so they are easier to learn and remember. An example of this would be a swimming practice session where the swimmers would complete a set, get out of the pool and receive feedback about the set they had just completed. This is good for beginners, as the feedback is very important at this stage, it is also good for those with low fitness levels.
Another way of organising a practice is called massed practice. This is very good for people competing at elite level and for those with good fitness. The sets will have short breaks in between them to take on liquid and rest. This type of training is much harder. It may also focus on a “game” situation to prepare athletes for the real thing. This depends on the sport in question, for example a football session may include a game whereas a running or swimming session may include a race etc.
Once the way that the practice is organised has been decided, the next step is to decide what type of practice needs to be done and what variables need to be taken into account in order to acquire the desired result.
Fixed practice is commonly used for high level athletes. It involves the repetition of an activity to allow the skill to become “over learned” by the person so that the movement pattern becomes second nature.
It is ideal for skills that are always performed in the same way. Some good examples of this are dives, starts and turns in swimming. These skills are closed, allowing the swimmer to concentrate on other factors such as their body movement and position in the water.
Another type of practice is variable practice, it involves different forms of guidance than the fixed practice. The styles of teaching will include visual, audio and mechanical. The feedback can vary immensely and practice is very flexible. How the skills are practiced can vary, from command, where a coach directs the whole time with no influence from the learner and little feedback, to Reciprocal, where others have the knowledge and pass it onto fellow athletes allowing for greater individual feedback. However, the athletes must not receive or pass on the wrong information or the skills will be learnt in the wrong way.
This, again, can relate to a swimming session where the coach may decide to do a set that involves many different skills in the same practice like individual medley, this involves every stroke and many of the turns encompassed in swimming. This does not involve much feedback.
Alternatively, experienced members of the club may take smaller groups to do some skills work where they would receive a deeper understanding of the skill itself.
There are other variables that effect the type and organisation of practice. Pacing is an important factor in this. If something is self-paced then the performer decides when to start, e.g. playing tennis, you decide when to serve the ball.
Externally paced is where someone else controls the start of the skill. An example of this is a swimming or running race in which the starter decides when you begin.
Practice can have high organisation, which shows no obvious subroutine and is hard to break down into different sections. This is similar to fixed practice.
In contrast, low organisation can easily be broken down e.g. preparation, execution, result and recovery. This is similar to variable practice in some ways.
Both high and low organisation can apply to all sports and most show varying levels of each.
Finally, practices can be performed individually, where you train in isolation without contact from other players or doing the activity simultaneously to another athlete.
They can be co-active, athletes perform at the same time as one-another but with no direct confrontation or physical contact. An example of this is an individual swimming event, (opposed to a relay) where you compete side-by-side.
The last form is interactive, which is done under the direct influence of others. These apply in all invasion games such as rugby, football and hockey etc.
In conclusion, there are many factors effecting learning through practice, they come in many forms. Some are fixed and some are variable, some require high levels of performance and some lower.
All the factors have a direct influence in the building from ability, to learning the technique, to acquiring the skill and finally, locking the skill in the memory. So that it becomes autonomous and so grooved that we are able to perform the skill at any time with the minimum degree of effort and thought. But, still making the skill accurate and effective every time, making the user of that skill a great athlete in their sport.
