Because skill and technique are learnt, they are dependent on practice to be able to progress. As ability is innate, you are born with specific abilities, which will help you to develop skills and techniques.
In Hockey, passing drills can be used to enhance hand-eye co-ordination, whilst making the practice sport specific. This practice is designed to enhance mainly ability, but also some basic technique.
To be a sportsman at any level, you must have skill, ability and technique. These components of fitness are essential in the development and production of any activity, varying from simple movements such as walking, to more complex activities such as the high jump or tennis serve.
To be able to learn and perform any skill, it is essential that you have the right abilities. Ability is something generally thought of as being born with or are developed in early life.
This simple equation can be explained that in order to perform a particular skill in sport, we must learn the required technique. In order to learn the technique fully, we must have the necessary abilities.
When relating this theory to a named example: Swimming the concept should become clearer.
As you can see, in order to be successful within the skill of front crawl, you would have to have the basic ability of strength & speed within water that over time could be enhanced as other things progress.
Ability is seen as a fundamental, as without it we will never be able to develop a skill fully, for example the hand-eye co-ordination needed for a tennis serve.
Take badminton for example, if you start with one player on each side of the net. You start by hitting the shuttle over the net to each other. You can then start to change this practise by using limitations. You could say you are only allowed to hit the shuttle to a certain part of the court with the other player still hitting to any part. This increases movement to hit the shuttle back to the same spot. Now if you teach the players how to play other types of shot. I.e. long shot and drop shot you can persuade them to vary their returns and this increases pressure to hit the shuttle back, not only to the other side but also where the other player is standing. This means they are 'skilled'.
It can be said that performers at the top level must have been born with the correct natural abilities and then be able to learn the specific techniques to be able to perform the skill at a high level.
The main factor affecting the development of a skill is practice. The Phrase “Practice makes perfect” is commonly used when describing the importance of practice. Although this phrase isn’t actually true, as practice doesn't make perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect.
It is clear that practice does lead to improvement, as it is almost impossible to become perfect at a skill overnight.
The phrase most commonly used when speaking, specifically about practising is that "Practise makes perfect." The theory behind the idea that ' practice makes perfect' is that the frequent repetition of that movement involving the same nerve and muscle activity, again and again, establishes the movement pattern. The greater the repetition the more firmly established the movement pattern should be. If however the movement pattern is inappropriate for the learner, either in relation to their current age or level of ability, (e.g. if they are only 5 years old the adult movement for that skill is inappropriate) they will not achieve it. If the movement pattern that they are repeating is incorrect in relation to the specific objective that they are trying to achieve, e.g. the underwater pathway of the hand in front crawl, it will not bring about the desired change in performance. If the learner is required to do the practice for so long that they become physically fatigued or for so long without feedback on their performance and further stimulation and refocusing of their attention, the quality will deteriorate and they will be repeating incorrect and undesirable movements. In such situations it could therefore be argued that practice does not in fact make 'perfect' but it might well make 'permanent' i.e. it might make the wrong movement more firmly established.
I believe this to be true however the way in which the training sessions are structured and undertaken play a key role in whether or the skill will actually become permanent. I believe that the most important time for a skill to become permanent is when the skill is beginning undertaken for the very first time. For example, in front crawl, the learner should be made aware of the basics of streamlining with the minimum about of additional information linking to other strokes or indeed other parts of the same stroke. They should also be made aware of the 'feel' of the water and the basic movement of the arms and legs through the water at any given time through the stroke. Once these basic skills are repeated continuously, the learner will have created a movement pattern that will be within their brain permanently.
However, there are circumstances to suggest, "Practise does not make permanent." If a person does not have the ability needed to undertake a given skill using a range of techniques then no matter how much practise they have, the skill will not become permanent. Also another circumstance might be that the learner has incorrectly learnt a specific technique needed for a given skill (E.g. the arm movements within front crawl.) When trying to change this, practising becomes very hard as trying to change the original incorrect movement pattern is very hard and therefore, if the correct technique's movement pattern cannot be learnt then no matter how much he learner practises the technique for the skill will not become permanent.
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Bibliography
- Advanced PE for Edexcel – Heinemann
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by Tara Brabazon - Social Science – 2002
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by Jon Wyse, Mike Hill - Health & Fitness – 1999
- www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ quotes/v/vincelomba138158.html