Other continuums are Knapp’s open-closed which is when skills are directly influenced by there surroundings e.g. environment and people. Pacing is where you are either self paced which are those controlled by the performer or externally paced which are those where the timing of the skill is controlled by an invigilator. Discrete/continuous is where the skill or skills have a clear beginning and ending or if they do not. Skills are put into four different categories: Perceptual ~ Interpreting stimuli, Cognitive ~ Thinking, Motor ~ Movement, Perceptual motor ~ thinking, decision making and movement. Skills are directly tied in with ability and indeed technique but they are all very different. Ability and technique tie together to help make skills and to help improve them.
Abilities are different from skills in a way that they are in fact inherited traits and can not be learned no matter how long the performer tries. For example a tall person is born with their height and can be good at sports that involve and generally require height whereas a short person can not learn to be tall they can not practice at being tall because they are not born with that ability and thus the tall person has a natural ability. There are many different types of ability and can therefore not be generalized into one specific category. There are fewer abilities than there are skills there are only about fifty in number. Abilities are also stable and enduring and require no practice at all to gain them or to keep them for that matter, but they do require some movement and use to keep them firm and supple. Some examples of abilities are response orientation which is reacting to different stimuli, manual dexterity which is being good with your hands, strength, reaction time which is how fast you react to various stimuli and “psychomotor which is our ability to process information regarding our movements and to put our decisions into actions” (Advanced Physical education and sport, 1996, page 126), psychomotor ability includes abilities such as reaction time, coordination and manual dexterity
Technique is the procedure used to help learn a particular skill in a particular sport. In order to learn the technique you must have the required abilities in order to learn and develop the skill fully. Example to throw a javelin you would first have to have learn the correct technique for it such as where you would position your legs, your body how you would hold the javelin and how you would throw it in order to prevent injury. Also another example is if you want to learn how to throw a shot putt you have to learn how to stand, how to hold the shot as to maximize the distance it is thrown, as well as how to hold and throw the shot in a way that would prevent injury and also how to safely release the shot.
To help enhance these components of fitness I would structure practices in a way that would start of with learning the skill. The skill would be repeated a few number of times and then I would teach the right technique as to make sure that the skill was learned thoroughly and in the correct way so as to prevent injury and negative feedback, where the performer would learn the skill and technique in an incorrect way and would continue to perform the skill in that way maybe even resulting in injury. I would use an Autocratic style of teaching in order to help the performer utilize their time and make sure that no mistakes were made when trying to teach them the technique and that the performer learned the technique thoroughly and in a way that meant there was no negative feedback and no injury and also so that the performer learned the technique well enough to be able to teach it to others and also to remember it when it was most needed in a game situation or competition. In order to teach the skill I would use a democratic way of teaching so that the performer could dictate to me the problems of trying to learn the skill and ask questions on how to improve the skill and to use it in a game situation as to improve their performance. I would use the continuums to in order to help the performer to train properly for a competition and to help them learn their skill area as properly as possible. For example: if the performer was a Goal Shooter in netball then I would make them practice their shooting over and over again in one place then add external factors such as other netball players as to make the performer react to different situations and to counter act their opponents tactics Also I would make them practice both indoor and outdoor in order to know both ways and to be able to perform well in either situation and as to not become distracted easily because they have trained both ways.
In this assignment I have outlined the differences between skill ability and technique and have shown that they are interlinked with each other and without certain abilities there can be no skills and without technique there also cannot be certain skills. I have identified the similarities between each and the differences and have also added sporting examples as to explain what each of them mean. I have also written about how I would structure practices to enhance these components of fitness by talking about what sort of teaching style I would use as well as saying how and what I would teach firstly and why I would teach it to the performer.
Bibliography
Barry, T., Crawford, D., Galligan, F., Howe, D., Maskery, C., Ruston, A., Spence, J., 2000, Advanced PE for Edexcel, Great Britain, Heinemann educational publishers.
Hill, M., Honeybourne, J., Moors, H., 1996, Advanced Physical education and sport, UK, Stanley Thornes publishers ltd.