Assessment of Skill and Performance

• Skilled performers


  • Usually stronger and more flexible, have better body coordination and whole body balance, and have better stamina than do unskilled performers
  • Have better kinaesthetic awareness and proprioception - can utilise sensory information from within their body concerning body position and limb awareness
  • Have better anticipation of what might happen next and appropriate response to it - rely on external environmental information, memory and 'feel' during the performance
  • Have quick and efficient timing of responses (reactions and movements), making them appear to have all the time in the world
  • Have excellent limb coordination, holding their arms steady and having excellent hand and finger coordination
  • Have very consistent performance, making very few errors during an activity
  • Maintain correct technique despite fatigue or the game situation
  • Are able to respond to many cues and recognise and respond only to those cues that are relevant
  • Are more aggressive, competitive, ambitious, self-assured, adventurous, confident, determined and committed; have better concentration; are able to self-regulate anxiety and arousal; and can understand and use complex skills and patterns
• Skilled performer


  • Able to perceive, decide and act in a manner that is efficient in terms of both energy and time
  • Faster and more accurate and has greater consistency than unskilled performers
  • Appears to be smooth and effortless
  • Has composure
  • Is able to adjust to changes in plans
  • Is relatively unaffected by the competitive environment
  • Is able to regulate personal effort levels
  • Is able to overcome physical demands and pain
  • Is able to cope with poor officiating
  • Can handle the pressure in the final stages of a contest
• Measurement


  The act of assessing, usually by the assigning of numbers to whatever is being assessed
• Test


  An instrument that can be used to make measurements
• Appraisal (or evaluation)


  A dynamic process in which a decision is made concerning the value, merit or quality of what is being measured
• Purposes of measurement


  • Placement of athletes into ability groups
  • Diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses
  • Prediction of future performance results
  • Motivation of the performer
  • Achievement and improvement of levels of skill
  • Evaluation of instruction methods
• Subjective appraisal


  Depends on the observer's personal judgment of how well the skill was performed, based on personal feelings and affected by the mind and temperament of the observer, rather than the attributes of the object
• Strategies to make subjective appraisals more objective

  • Using prescribed judging criteria, established in advance by people with the required expertise and sanctioned by the appropriate governing body
  • Ensuring that competitors, judges, coaches and the audience know these criteria well in advance
  • Using a panel of judges
  • Using judges with no personal or competitive affiliations with any competitors
  • Disregarding the highest and lowest scores for each performance from the judging panel and averaging the remaining scores
  • Using established measurement tools such as ratings scales and checklists
• Objective appraisal


  Involves an impartial measurement based on certain indisputable facts about the performance, without bias or prejudice, such that observers will give the same result for the same performances
• Types of measurement in appraisal of skill

  • Information-processing capacity (e.g. memory and reaction time)
  • General motor ability (e.g. speed and power)
  • Specific sports skills (e.g. kicking and passing)
• Performance measures


  • Norm-referenced tests
  • Criterion-referenced tests
  • Rating scales
  • Percentile rankings
• Validity


  The degree to which a test measures what it is designed to measure
• Reliability


  The ability of the test, and the test results, to be repeated
• A test cannot be valid if it is not reliable
• The reliability of a test should be determined before its validity
• Personal judging criteria


  The presuppositions brought to the performance by the judge, which are very subjective
• Prescribed judging criteria


  Established criteria created by the sporting body, which are then used to appraise performance, often in the form of a checklist or rating system to help objectify subjective measurements
• The more detailed the judging criteria and stringent the judge, the better the objectivity and reliability of the judging criteria