Learning motor skills involves three main principles: interest, feedback and practice. The University of Victoria states “The principle of interest is a student’s attitude towards learning a skill, feedback principle is internal and external sources of information about motor performance and practice principle is practicing the motor skill correctly” (University of Victoria, 2012, accessed 10/3/15). These three principles are essential for learning to take place. The purpose of this report is to classify, present, identify, justify and synthesise motor programs/learning, subroutines, classification of skills and the types of practice.
2.0 Classification of Skill
A motor skill is a skilled movement in which a motor program, …show more content…
The learner improves their ability to execute the skill as they move through these stages of skill acquisition and gain a better understanding of the skill. The three stages include the cognitive, associative and autonomous stage. Stages of Skill Acquisition states “The cognitive stage is the beginning stage where the individual is working out what needs to be done to perform the skill. The associative stage is where the individual practices the skills and begins to apply them in game settings. The autonomous stage is where the movement come easily and individuals can focus on the environment in which the skills are occurring” (NSW HSC, 2014). The stage of learning I demonstrated would be associative because I recognise when there is an error, ‘how to do’ instead of ‘what to do’ and I am reducing the degree of error (Amezdroz ET AL, 2004). Having acquired the understanding of what the skill is, I need to repeat the movement to develop the synchronisation of my mind and muscles. As my kinesthesis improves, it will give me fluency to the movements and my performance of the skill becomes more consistent. Gradually I will feel more at ease as my confidence increases (NSW HSC …show more content…
Massed practice is a skill practiced continuously and consistently. Distributed practice consists of short, frequent practice with rest intervals. Whole practice is the learning of a skill in its entirety and part practice is the learning of each of the separate components of a skill. Block practice involves repetitious learning of one component of a multitask skill and random practice is when all components of a multitask skill are practiced in random order. Constant practice is when only one class of skill is practiced and varied practice is when there are variations within the one class of skill (Amezdorz ET AL, 2010). Drill practice is practicing a skill repetitively and problem solving practice requires creativity, adaptability and involves several possible courses of action (Amezdroz ET AL, 2004). The types of practice most beneficial for associative stage of learning would be whole, part and massed. Firstly, whole practice would be beneficial because there are many components of the tennis serve that need to be perfected. To have an effective serve you would need to learn the skill in its entirety. For example, practicing the tennis serve with all the correct subroutines in its completeness will improve my tennis serve. Then, part practice as there are many components to the serve. It would be very valuable to break each