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Skill, Technique & Ability

A question often asked is what is the difference between skill, technique and ability? What is a skill? Skill is an athlete's ability to choose and perform the right techniques at the right time, successfully, regularly and with a minimum of effort. Athletes use their skill to achieve athletic objectives e.g. sprinting a 10.0 second 100 metres. Skill is acquired and therefore has to be learned. Types of skills * Cognitive - involves thought processes * Perceptual - involves interpretation of information * Motor - involves movement Psychologists have categorised human behaviour into three broad domains: * Cognitive skill (knowing) - know and understand the vital aspects of the sport * Affective behaviour (feeling) - success at the sport depends on mental attitude and developing psychological skills to cope with stress * Psychomotor skill (doing) - excellence in sport requires the execution of precise, fluent and effective movement patterns which require the combination of perceptual and motor skills What is Technique? Techniques are the basic movements of any sport or event e.g. a the block start in a 100 metre race is a technique. We combine a number of techniques into a pattern of movement e.g. triple jump - running and then the hop, skip and jump phases. What is ability? Ability is the make up of an athlete which we inherit from our parents. Abilities underpin and contribute to skills. Abilities can be essentially perceptual, essentially motor or a combination of both. Most abilities to do with action are a combination and are referred to as psychomotor abilities. At the present time there is no definitive list of psychomotor abilities. Stallings L M (1982 Motor Learning from theory to Practice) identified the following psychomotor abilities: Muscular power and endurance, flexibility, balance, coordination and differential relaxation (selective adjustment of muscle tension). Fleishman E A (1972 The structure and measurement of psychomotor abilities.) identified the following nine psychomotor abilities (referred to as gross motor abilities): Extent flexibility, dynamic flexibility, explosive strength, static strength, dynamic strength, trunk strength, gross body coordination, gross body equilibrium and stamina. If you are of average height, strong, good coordination and have an abundance of fast twitch fibres in your legs then you have the natural ability to be a sprinter. Relationship between skill, ability and technique SKILL = ABILITY + TECHNIQUE

 

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