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Skill Development in Sport
The theme of this issue relates to how athletes learn motor skills. When designing practice and instruction, many coaches rely on assumptions and methods handed down from prior generations. These methods may not maximize athlete learning and performance. A great deal of current literature both challenges and clarifies the way motor skills are practiced.
In short, coaches should take time to critically analyze some common instructional methods. They should understand they are teachers. They should understand that true learning is often a cumulative and long-term process that is difficult to measure in the short-term.
I have provided a series of excerpts from current readings (Featured Readings), as well as a variety of other topics which relate to teaching and learning practices in sport. All of them have a list of extended readings, so I encourage you to explore the topic further.
Gib Darden
Coaching & Sports Section Editor
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Demonstrating Motor Skills is a critical aspect of practice. After all, showing a skill is a lot better than talking about it right? More importantly, showing it done right is most important. So we think. Check out this topic by Gib Darden (this section editor) which reports that the expert demonstration may not be the most effective way of demonstrating.
Focusing Athlete Attention appropriately is important to learning. Should we focus on our movement (body) during practice? The ball? The implement? Does it make a difference? Sure it does. See what Byers and Hunfalvey recommend on this topic.
Speed or Accuracy is a common dilemma with many skills. With real-life, or movements that require a tricky combination of speed and accuracy, how should the athlete practice? Surely if too much speed is emphasized, then accuracy will be sacrificed right? Not necessarily, according to Traci Ciapponi.
Mixing Repetitions explores the common struggle to use our practice time wisely. No one argues the fact that repetition is most critical to mastering a skill, but Brian Jackson argues that the key to transferring your reps to the game lies in the order in which you practice your drills.
Decision Making skills are essential to sport success. But how do we teach it? More importantly, how do we recognize it in order to teach it? Cheryl Coker explores the role of detecting and improving "decision" errors. This research highlights the skills necessary to succeed in sports which require rapid decision-making.
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"Athletes Have to Know You Care Before They Care What You Know."
- Jack Donahue -
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If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please email one of the following Coaching & Sports Section Editors:
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Help to support quality physical education and health education by contributing to this site.
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Participation in Sports: Predictor of Success
To once again support the notion that the sport experience is a rich life experience for all children, Bob Becker discusses evidence that participation in activity programs is perhaps the best predictor of an adult's success. Check out this short article..
The Games-Based Approach: Better for Skill Development
Does your youth sport program use the traditional stand-in-line, one at a time drill approach, or a more interactive, fun, and instructive approach? Is it Games-Based? Give it some thought!
Parents' Role in Skill Development
Nothing pleases parents more than their child learning skills and experiencing success in sport. However, they play a critical role in this quest. Just sometimes, it is not what we think it is. See what Shane Murphy says about Picking a Sport for your child. He also has a neat perspective on when parents should be involved in their child's sports (Parental Involvement). Finally, Murphy shares excellent practical examples for how parents should be involved in an article found on MomsTeam.com. In 5 ways for Sport Parents to Set a Good Example, we should all listen closely.
A Good Practice...
You should enjoy the down and dirty Signs of a Well Run Practice, no matter who you are.
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By nature, coaches analyze and predict. This continuing column is for those who inquire about the latest scientific advances to further best practice in coaching. There is some really useful information in these studies.
Role of Genetics in Explaining Performance
Ever wonder what the actual contribution of genes are to performance levels? We have all wondered about the limitations and possibilities of athletic "ability." Read what Will Hopkins had to say about the topic.
Teaching a Motor Skill: Using Biomechanical and Motor Learning Principles
Using an application to soccer and the instep kick, I believe all those trying to be a better teacher can use this information to help athletes learn skills. There are some excellent teaching methods here complete with video clips and scientific principles.
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The Bridge Builder
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you a bridge at the eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."
~ Will Allen Dromgooles ~
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Coach/Athlete Relationships
Learning motor skills are often secondary to developing positive relationships. Here are two nice perspectives on the topic.
The first one offers insight on How to Talk to a Coach, particularly useful for parents.
Athletic Insight, an online journal, provides an interesting perspective on how to foster Relationships Between Coach and Athlete. It is long, but broken in sections for ease of reading.
Cutting and Benching in Sports: Skill Development Denied
Yes, I know, the topic is here again. But it bears repeating. The message is even more powerful when it is from a Parent's Perspective, such as Brooke deLenche provides. She also write a provoking look at Equal Playing Time in sports.
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After-School Skill Development for All
All children should receive the opportunity to master skills. This neat program offers a packaged, ready-to-implement program for a variety of age groups. SPORT FOR ALL is designed to develop fundamental sport skills and encourage physically active lifestyles for youth who may otherwise not get the opportunity. It provides training for program leaders and all materials for an appropriate and positive sport program.
NAYSI (North American Youth Sports Institute) offers a Free On-line Course with some good information. Follow links to the NAYSI.
All coaches can benefit from reviewing the Bill of Rights, which have withstood the test of time and remain a base for all youth coaches. I invite all coaches to reflect on each one of the rights for a moment!
A great collection of coaching and instructional books for coaches of all levels and all sports can be found at Human Kinetics.
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A theme of skill development would be incomplete without citing a website devoted specifically to the instruction of several sport skills, using free video segments and quality instruction. With SportsID, you may not need to buy instructional tapes any more.
Okay, here is another one. I just couldn't pass this one up. The Sports 3D site is a 3D instructional site designed to help learn skill with interactive video. Promises to have potential!
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The 9th Annual USA TODAY National Sportsmanship Day Essay Contest
"The Institute for International Sport and USA TODAY are pleased to announce the 9th annual National Sportsmanship Day (NSD) Essay Contest. Check out this site to find relating information."
"The Qualities Of A Coach"
By Susan Patria
"As teachers and coaches our values, our morals, our ethics are not something that is usually brought out into the open. But can we truly do that? Aren't we who we are because of our spirit?...I am a coach in every aspect of my life. I would be a fraud, an untrustworthy person if I was different in the gym, different in the classroom than I am in the rest of my life." Read the rest of this article. It's a good one.
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