Closed skills. These skills take place in a stable, predictable environment and the performer knows exactly what to do and when. Therefore, skills are not affected by the environment and tend to be habitual. Movements follow set patterns and have a clear beginning and end. The skills tend to be self-paced, for example a golf swing, and serving in Badminton or Tennis.
Barbara Knapp suggests that skills can fit on a continuum between open and closed on a scale of one-to-ten.
Closed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Open
↑ ↑ ↑
Badminton Golf Football
(Knapp’s Skill Continuum)
Skill is a result of ability combined with technique, in order to learn the correct technique; you must have the necessary abilities. Skill “requires practice and vaults from experience” (Roscoe & Roscoe). Skill and ability are often confused, though the differences are simple; skill is learned, ability as innate. Without ability you cannot learn and perform in sport. Examples of ability are Hand/eye co-ordination, in all racket sports; flexibility, mainly in gymnastics but it also features in just about every sport; speed, features heavily in football and also athletics and finally balance which is an essential component in all sports. All these contribute to skilled performance in all areas of sport. Other key qualities contributing to performance include consistency, accuracy, control and fluidity.
The three types of skill are used in different ways in my chosen racket, team and individual sports. For example, foot ball and badminton are all about perceptual motor skills whereas golf can be a mixture of cognitive and perceptual skills. A sporting example would be in golf when your selecting your type of shot, first you judge the distance from the pin (cognitive), then you select your club by interpreting how to play the shot (perceptual). All these sports rely on the motor skills aspect for obvious reasons, motor skills involve movement and the muscular system e.g. playing football involves high level of motor skills whereas playing golf requires a lot less. The motor skills are also different in small ways, most of the movements in the chosen sports are gross motor movements, though there are exceptions like a putt in golf or a drop serve in badminton.
When considering the title question, you must think about how the styles of teaching and the methods of practice effect the way in which we perform these skills in a competitive game. They should be taught in different ways for example age groups should be different and experience levels.
Open sports, in general, would benefit most from being taught by the guided discovery/problem solving methods as this would enable learners to think for themselves, thus becoming mentally and physically prepared for the kind of ‘problem solving’ situations they will come across in games.
Golf, being a closed sport for individuals, should be taught in a reciprocal as command style in order to gain the correct technique and progress further in the sport. The closed skills involved should be taught in groups with very small numbers or even on a one-on-one basis to ensure such disciplines as a correct swing is perfected and without fault.
Command style of teaching would benefit badminton or racket sports in general as the pupils, whatever skill level they may be, can get used to the motor movement as this is more of a closed skill than an open skill.
Football is a team game and should be taught in large groups or even in teams/games so different scenarios you come across can be taught as well as being perfected. This form of ‘massed practice’ can also improve your skill level and awareness of team mates and also opponents. Football also has a couple of skills you could say are nearly closed like a penalty or a throw-in as the action remains the same every time, its just the position of opponents that affect how you will choose to perform it. These skills that are seen to be ‘more closed than open’, should be taught in fixed, reciprocal and command to get practice & perfection, feedback and constructive criticism.
Also the three stages of learning will contribute. These are cognitive, associative and autonomous. “Learning is more or less permanent change in performance brought about by experience” (Knapp, 1973) this idea backed is backed up by autonomous learning.
Cognitive is the initial stage of learning, it’s essential if the performer wants to progress onto the next two stages of learning. Associative is intermediate, during this they will practice the skill by the information gathered during the cognitive stage and it is essential they gain feedback in order to understand if they’re performing correctly. Autonomous stage is when the ‘learner’ performs the tasks with little or no conscious thought. This s
This is when the are seen as being highly ‘skilled’ in their chosen sport and can control their actions in both open and closed aspects of the sport.
In my opinion both open and closed control of motor skills to individual, racket and team activities is without a doubt down to our own perception of events when placed in a sporting situation. You have to make split decisions and often reflect upon your performance after the game and wish you had done things differently. Like I could of used my strength more, or used your pace to beat an opponent, or taken longer to judge the distance from the pin. This all stems from how we are initially taught and then practise according to feedback and how well we can take criticism of our sporting actions. These are all open and closed control of motor skills working in relation to sport.
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