Street Performance

What is a Skill?Personal Definition:

This is something that is gained as opposed to something that you already have. Skill involves learning via practice and experience.

Definition of Skill:The capability of producing a performance result with maximum certainty, minimum energy, or minimum time; developed as a result of practice.

A Skilled Performer learns to be effective and efficient in….

1. Meeting the performance goal or ‘end result’ with maximum certainty e.g a dart player throwing into the bulls eye with a high degree of certainty on demand.

2. Minimization of the energy required for performance i.e. the reduction or elimination of unwanted or unnecessary movement e.g a skilled wrestler who saves energy for the last few minutes of a match.

3. Minimising the movement time in which the goal is achieved e.g sprinter or jab of a boxer

Factors Influencing Your Performance

Ability LevelA Person’s ability is dependent on genetics as well as environment e.g. the reason someone is physically strong could be a result of their natural body type or because they are involved in strenuous physical activity.Learners displaying greater levels of strength, co-ordination, balance or reflexes cope with demands of a new skill better than others. This occurs due to upbringing or can be a genetic advantage through what sort of build they have.

Ability Level

Ability level

GenesChemical material passed on through family members from one generation to the next. Determines our physical characteristics, strengths and weaknesses

EnvironmentBackground we have experienced growing up in- what we have experienced, who has influenced us e.g. playing on bars and beams, children learn balance and develop strength and co-ordination.Allows a person to develop in certain areas- effects can be positive and negative.

Previous ExperienceA person with previous experience in an activity (iefamiliar with skills, rules etc) will be morecomfortable performing the activity than someonewho is performing the activity for the first time,simply because they know what to do.

Learning a new skill can take hundreds of hours toperfect. The practicing of a skill involves refiningtechnique in order to eliminate errors from themovement pattern. Those who have had previousexperience are more advanced in working throughthese phases than those who have had noexperience.

EquipmentMore likely to be better prepared because they know what equipment is ideally needed for the activity.

SkillUsually had some advice or coaching on how to perform the main skills needed to participate in the activity

Rules and TacticsKnows the basic rules and patterns of play needed to participate in the activity successfully

Negative ExperiencesPeople who have had negative experiencesassociated with an activity may bediscouraged (and my discourage others)from wanting to participate in the activity inthe future.E.g. Someone who couldn’t do it welland got laughed at by players andcoach so therefore hates the sport

Transfer of LearningInformation or skills related to one topic/sport can sometimes be

carried over to help or hinder the acquisition of information or skillsrelated to another topic/sport.

Positive transfer - Recognizes common features among concepts, principles, or skills;- Consciously links the information in memory; and- Sees the value of using what was learned in one situation in another

Negative Transfer- Learner incorrectly believes there are common features- Improperly links the information while encoding it - Incorrectly sees some value in using information from one setting in anotherE.g. Skill at tennis may cause a person to make mistakes at Badminton.

Skill & Knowledge of a Sequence

These phases apply to all movements of skill performance.– Preparation phase- The person is preparing the body for the

movement they are about to complete.– Execution phase- the movement itself is completed– Follow-through phase- the body slows down in controlled manner to

prevent injury and allow the execution phase to be completed at maximum

Back-Swing(Preparation phase)

Action(Execution phase)

Effect phase(Follow-through)

Sub-RoutinesAll skills are made up of individual parts called sub routines. All sub-routines must be mastered and performed in the correct order to perform a skill successfully. E.g’s of subroutines are grip, body position, swing or strike, a weight transfer and follow through.Sub routines can be used to help mental psychology/choking e.g Sharapova or Nadal

Amount & Quality of PracticeRole of Practice? What is it?Practice allows a person to become familiar with the requirements of a skill. Practice is very important in mastering a skill, as it allows the performer to repeat a movement over and over again, reinforcing through succeeding and failing.

Massed PracticeMassed PracticeLearning that takes place under conditionsin which all practice trials occur with nointerval between - in other word, in onecontinuous period of time. These sessionsare good for athletes with high level offitness and experience and are most suited to fixed practice

e.g. perform 50 baseball pitches, practice tennis serve for 1 hour

Distributed PracticeDistributed PracticeDistributed practice is a technique whereby the studentdistributes his/her study effort in a given course overmany study sessions that are relatively short in duration.These sessions are good for athletes with lower levels offitness and experience and are most suited to variablepractice

e.g. work on forward rolls for 5mins, then spend 5 mins ofhandstands, repeat after 2 minute break, do 10 lineouts,10 scrums and then 10 ruck/maul drills

Skill Break Down

Simple SkillA simple skill is one that is straightforward with very few subsections to go through to perform the skill. This skill also requires little concentration and cognitive ability of the performer.

Complex SkillA complex skill involves a large attention span because they are complicated and are practiced in training repeatedly to make it easier to perform in competition.

Simple Skill

Complex Skill

Catching ball with 2 hands

Catching over longer distance Catching with

one hand

Catching one hand while running Catching with bad

hand

Catching ball with one hand while doing another movement, i.e. running

Open SkillOpen SkillSports such as Netball, Football, and Hockey usually involveopen skills. This is because the environment is constantly changing and so movements have to be continually adapted. Therefore, skills are predominantly perceptual. The skill is mostly externally paced, for example a pass in football.

Closed SkillClosed 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 free throw in Basketball, and serving in Squash or Tennis.

Cognitive or Understanding Stage

Learn what has to be done to perform the skill successfully and isachieved by gaining a good knowledge of the technique by seeing the skill done correctly and listening to advice. Performing the skill requires all of the athlete’s attention so usually a large number of Errors made in this phase. This phase usually has a success rate of 2 or 3 out of 10 attempts.

Assist learning: – Correct feedback from experienced coach or player– Correct demonstrations/ knowledge– Lots of time– Learning cues

Associative or Practice Phase (longest phase)

Performances are becoming more consistent as motor programmes are being formed. While the simpler parts of the skill now look fluent and are well learned, the more complex elements requires most of the spare attention. The athlete is starting to get a sense of internal 'kinaesthetic' feedback when they perform the skill well. They are starting to detect and correct their own errors and success rate has risen to 5-7 out of 10.

Assist learning:– Correct feedback/coaching– Time

Autonomous or Automatic Phase

In the final stage of learning, performances have become consistent, fluid and automatic. The motor programmes involved are well learned and stored in the long-term memory. There is now spare attention which can be focused on opponents and tactics. To stay at this level they should continually practice. Success is now 9 out of 10.

Whole LearningWhole LearningRefers to learning by wholes rather than parts. For exampledribbling a Ball.

PositivesExcellent for teaching a simple skill

Negatives:Can get complicated and maybe making a small error thateffects the whole skill i.e. bad stance

Part LearningPart LearningSkill is broken down into parts (called subroutines) and learnt one part at a time e.g. golf swing (grip, stance, prep, exec)

PositivesIdeal for teaching a difficult skill

NegativesCan be long and boring

MotivationMotivation is thought to be a combination of the drive within us to achieve our aims and the outside factors which affect it. With this in mind, motivation has the following two forms:

Intrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation This is motivation from within. A desire to perform well and succeed. The following will be true:

Desire to overcome the problem or task Development of skills and habits to overcome that problem Rehearsal of successful habits until they are perfect A feeling of pride and enjoyment in performing the skill Repeated goal setting in order to progress and maintain

motivation

Extrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation comes from a source outside of the performer. These are things which can encourage the athlete to perform and fall into two groups:

Tangible rewards: Physical rewards such as medals and money. These should be used sparingly with young athletes to avoid a situation where winning a prize is more important than competing well Intangible rewards: Praise, recognition and achievements. These should be used on a regular basis to encourage the athlete to repeat the behaviour which earned the praise.

ConfidenceConfidence:Confidence is: assurance: freedom from doubt; belief in yourself and your abilities; a feeling of trust (in someone or something).

– People that perform skills with higher confidence are more positive and therefore have better levels of success.

– Those that do so with low confidence are negative in what they do, doubt their ability and therefore experience less success.