Open skill means the outcome is largely affected by the environment, which means the skill used is rarely going to be exactly the same twice as the environment is constantly changing, for example making a tackle in rugby.
Closed skill mean the outcome isn’t really affected by the environment, which means the skill used is generally going to be exactly the same as the environment doesn’t change and nothing else can influence the outcome except yourself, for example a penalty in football.
External/Self-Paced Continuum:
External Internal
Externally paced means the environment controls the pace at which you perform the skill; this could be an opponent applying pressure or a time in which you have do the skill. You have to be able to keep attention on external events to adapt to the pace in which is most suitable, this involves reactions and are largely open skills, for example making a pass in rugby.
Internally paced means you control the pace at which you perform the skill, this generally occurs during individual sports such as snooker and are generally closed skills.
Simple/Complex
Simple Complex
Simple skills take very little concentration and are easy to perform, the skill is generally one motion and cannot be broken down for part training but has to be whole training, for example walking or jogging.
Complex skills take a lot of concentration and require a lot of practice in order to perform; the skill generally has to be learnt in part training.
High/Low Organisation
High Low
High Organisation skills are complicated and require a lot of attention to get correct, the skill can’t be broken down and learned separately but only as a whole as the skills are linked to closely together
Low Organisation skills are simple and require little attention, the skill can be broken down into simpler stages and learnt as separate stages, an example of this is passing a football.
Whole/Part Training
Whole Part
Whole training is training of movements or actions that are trained in whole parts and are not broken down into smaller sections when being learnt, an example of this is jogging or running, you would learn this in one fluent movement.
Part training is when the movements or actions are broken down into individual sections to help practice in separate parts to make the learning easier the parts are then put together and practiced as a whole, examples of this would include a pass in football or a serve in tennis.
Serial/Discrete/Continuous
Serial skills are when a group of discrete skills are strung together to make a longer more complex overall movement, the main example of this would be the triple jump in athletics, starting with a hope then skip then jump, each of which are discrete skills.
Discrete skills are skills that have a set beginning and end such as a serve in tennis, the set beginning being the toss up of the ball and the set end being the follow through, all sports are mainly made up of discrete skills.
Continuous skills are skills that have no set beginning or end; they can often be in a constant cycle, the skills can be stopped at any moment, swimming, jogging and running are the main examples of continuous skills.
Individual/Coactive/Interactive
Individual skills are skills that are performed without any pressure from any other competitors; they do their skill on their own and are not in direct competition with anyone else, the main examples of this are snooker and triple jump. Individual skills are virtually completely closed and self-paced skills, with the environment having little or no impact.
Coactive skills are those performed at the same time as another competitor but not in direct competition as the other competitors cannot affect ones performance, examples of this would be a sprint race or swimming race. Coactive skills are normally slightly more open and slightly more externally paced however still mostly closed and self-paced.
Interactive skills are skills that are affected by the environment, these skills only occur in direct competition games such as badminton and tennis and also all team games, the competitor has much less control over the environment and the pace at which the skills are performed, other competitors have the opportunity to put one under pressure in order to force the pace of the skill to be increased or place pressure in order to make the environment harder to, for example in football of passing a ball, pass the ball through to another team-mate. Interactive skills are normally open and externally paced skills.
Conclusion
Why do Coaches Classify Sports?
The classification of sports is important to coaches as it helps analyse performances, it helps manage practice, as it makes coaches more aware to what type of skill is needed and is involved in that particular position or sport and helps base the training around that particular skill. The classification of skill allows obvious and specific improvement points and so helps an athletes overall performance both in training and competition.
Advantages
- Allows to train specific parts of skills and improve certain aspects of an athletes game
- Allows coaches to identify weaknesses in certain skills
- Allows better analyse of players performances
Disadvantages
- Can make training to repetitive in order to improve a specific skill
- Can make coaches over critical of players performances based upon certain skills
- Can make players to specific to a certain position
