Discuss the differences between skill, ability and technique and explain how you would structure practices to enhance these components of fitness.

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Discuss the differences between skill, ability and technique and explain how you would structure practices to enhance these components of fitness.

The terms skill and ability have many differences and this links with a term commonly used in sport; technique.

There are many different classifications of skill; it has been said that skill is, "The ability to perform a technique with consistency and control with minimum effort." (Galligan 2000).

There are cognitive skills, perceptual skills, motor skills and perceptual motor skills. Each different skill will use different muscles and movements to carry out a certain task.

Skills can be affected by the weather and surrounding environment, they can be classified as either open or closed skills.

You can find examples of these skills in the appendix.

Ability is closely linked with skill. In order to learn any skill in sport we must have the abilities required. They are innate; you are born with them or they are developed early in life; this is suggested by a quote from ‘McAdedle 1994’; ‘Without the basic building blocks or movement vocabulary we will never be able to develop skill fully.’ Abilities required to play sport would be hand eye co-ordination; flexibility and speed without these you will never become a superstar.

"Technique can sometimes be confused with skill. To perform a particular skill in sport we must learn the required technique, but in order to learn the technique fully we must have the necessary abilities." (Morton 2000).

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This equation can be used;

SKILL = ABILITY + TECHNIQUE (Galligan 2000)

Examples of how this equation is put into real sports are listed in the appendix.

Some components of fitness are flexibility, strength, power, speed co-ordination, reaction time, body composition and stamina. Each different sport will require all these different components of fitness to be able to perform in their sport. Some sports will require different or more than others. There are different types of practices that could be used to imrpove the fitness needed to perform better in sports; the types of practices are listed in the appendix.

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