First term key words

• Skill

  the learned ability to bring about predetermined results with maximum certainty, often with the minimum outlay of time or energy
• Cognitive skills

  Intellectual skills​. Thought process required
• Perceptual skill

  Skills that require decisions, judgements​
• Motor skill

  An action or task that has a goal and that requires voluntary body and/or limb movement to achieve the goal and is learned rather than being innate
• Sub routines

  Small part of an entire skill – ie the toss in a tennis serve
• Perceptual load

  How much thinking needs to take place​
• Continuum

  A measurement line    indicating two extremes.
• Gross muscular involvement

  Involves large muscular movement/ muscular groups.​

  Precision is not important when performing the movements
• Fine muscular involvement

  Involves intricate/precise movement​

  Uses small muscle groups.​

  Usually involves accuracy and an emphasis on hand-eye co-ordination (but not always)
• environmental influences

  The extent to which the environment affects performance.

  Playing surface​

  Team mates​

  Opposition​

  Weather
• Continuity

  The flow of a skill

  Discrete - Clear beginning and ending​. If repeated must start again

  Serial - Discrete movements linked together in a specific order to form a movement or sequence

  Continuous - Have no clear beginning or end​. The end of one cycle of the movement is the start of the next.​ The movement skill usually has to be repeated several times for the skill to be meaningful.​
• High organistation

  Sub-routines are very closely linked together.​

  Difficult to separate the sub-routines without disrupting the skills.​

  Skills usually practised as a whole as the skill cannot be broken down.
• Low organisation

  Made up of sub-routines that are easily separated and practised by themselves.​

  After being practised separated the sub-routines can be put back together into the whole skill quite easily.
• Kinasthesis

  The feel of a movement​
• Chaining

  Building up a skill bit by bit​
• Whole practice

  Skill is taught in it’s entirety
• Part practice

  Skill broken down into sub-routines to learn in isolation​
• Massed practice

  Involves very short, or no, rest intervals within the practice session.
• Distributed practice

  Involves relatively long rest intervals within the practice session.
• Fixed practice

  Practice taking place in a stable environment, with practice conditions remaining unchanged.
• Varied practice

  Practice conditions change so the performer has a range of experiences. The conditions should closely resemble ‘true life’ situation.
• Motor programme

  Generalised series of movements stored in the long term memory, retrieved by a single decision.  
• Intrinsic

  from within
• Cue

  Signal. Visual cue = visual signal/stimulus​
• Cognitive learning phase

  understanding/thinking - Learner needs to understand what needs to be done
• Associative learning phase

  practise phase - the performer compares the movements performed with the mental image that they hold of what is should be
• Autonomous learning phase

  Automatic – very little conscious thought
• Visual guidance

  Creates a mental image of the skill.
• Verbal guidance

  Involves the giving of oral instructions – key tool for teachers
• Manual guidance

  Involves the coach physically manipulating (holding) the body of the learner through the correct movement pattern.
• Mechanical guidance

  Involves using a piece of equipment to shape the skill/ provide support