Skill Acquisition

What Skill Acquisition covers

Skill Acquisition is examined in Unit A2 2, The Application of Science to Sports Performance. It covers skill, ability and learning, cognitive, perceptual, motor and psychomotor skills, open, closed, self-paced and externally paced skills and discrete, serial, continuous, gross and fine skills.

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Skill, ability and learningSkill and ability, learning, the characteristics of skilled performance, observing performance and video analysis, consistency, gross motor and psychomotor abilities, and performance curves.Open →
• Cognitive, perceptual, motor and psychomotor skillsCognitive, perceptual, motor and psychomotor skills, examples from games, developing cognitive and perceptual skill, novices, selective attention and a goalkeeper's penalty save.Open →
• Open, closed, self-paced and externally paced skillsThe skill continuum, open and closed skills, self-paced and externally paced skills, practising each, classifying a tennis serve and a rugby tackle, and why skills move along a continuum.Open →
• Discrete, serial, continuous, gross and fine skillsDiscrete, serial and continuous skills, gross and fine skills, the triple jump, practising serial and continuous skills, classifying snooker and golf, and whole and part practice.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Skill Acquisition further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Skill vs Ability

  Skill: a learned capacity to achieve a set result with minimum effort. Ability: an inherited, stable trait that underpins many movements.

• Open skill vs Closed skill

  Open skill: a movement adapted to a changing, unpredictable environment. Closed skill: a movement performed the same way in a stable, predictable setting.

• Self-paced skill vs Externally paced skill

  Self-paced skill: a movement whose timing the performer controls. Externally paced skill: a movement whose timing is set by the environment or an opponent.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is skill in sport?

   Model answer

   Skill is the learned ability to bring about a set result with maximum certainty and minimum effort. Skill is developed through practice.

2. 2

   What is ability?

   Model answer

   Ability is an inherited, stable trait that underpins the learning of skills. Balance, coordination and reaction time are abilities.

3. 3

   How does skill differ from ability?

   Model answer

   Skill is learned and specific to a task. Ability is largely inherited and supports many different skills.

4. 4

   What is learning in sport?

   Model answer

   Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour or performance resulting from practice and experience. A single good performance is not proof of learning.

5. 5

   What are the characteristics of a skilled performance?

   Model answer

   A skilled performance is consistent, efficient, fluent, controlled and aimed at a goal. The movement often looks effortless.

6. 6

   Why is observing live or recorded performance useful for learning skills?

   Model answer

   Observation lets a learner see what a skilled movement looks like. Recorded footage can be slowed down and replayed for analysis.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Skill Acquisition revision questions

What does Skill Acquisition cover in CCEA A-Level Sports Science and the Active Leisure Industry?

4 subtopics: skill, ability and learning, cognitive, perceptual, motor and psychomotor skills, open, closed, self-paced and externally paced skills and discrete, serial, continuous, gross and fine skills. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Skill Acquisition organised?

By the CCEA 7210 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.