Skill, Ability and Skill Classification

What Skill, Ability and Skill Classification covers

Skill, Ability and Skill Classification is examined in AS Unit 1, Exploring physical education. It covers skill, ability, learning and performance, gross motor and psychomotor abilities and Classifying skills on continua.

The 3 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Physical Education students sit this topic in the first year.

• Skill, ability, learning and performanceSkill and ability, learning and performance, the efficient and consistent features of skilled performance, the novice and expert tennis serve, and why coaches need to know what skill looks like.Open →
• Gross motor and psychomotor abilitiesGross motor and psychomotor abilities with sporting examples, why abilities are specific, how abilities underpin skills, talent identification, fast and slow learners, and the claim that success depends mainly on ability.Open →
• Classifying skills on continuaWhy skills sit on continua, the pacing, difficulty, organisation, continuity, muscular involvement and environmental influence continua, the basketball free throw and the triple jump, and variable practice for open skills.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Skill, Ability and Skill Classification 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 produce a set result efficiently. Ability: an inherited, stable trait underpinning movement.

• Learning vs Performance

  Learning: a lasting change in behaviour due to practice. Performance: what a person does at one particular time.

• Gross motor ability vs Psychomotor ability

  Gross motor ability: a physical proficiency such as strength or stamina. Psychomotor ability: a capacity for processing information and making decisions.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is a skill in sport?

   Model answer

   A skill is a learned ability to bring about a set result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of energy. A skill must be learned through practice.

2. 2

   What is an ability?

   Model answer

   An ability is an inherited, stable trait that underpins the learning of skills. Abilities are largely fixed from birth.

3. 3

   How does a skill differ from an ability?

   Model answer

   Skills are learned, whereas abilities are mostly inherited. A skill is built from several underlying abilities.

4. 4

   What is learning?

   Model answer

   Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour that results from practice or experience. Learning is inferred from repeated performances.

5. 5

   What is performance?

   Model answer

   Performance is what a performer does at one particular time. Performance can vary from day to day.

6. 6

   How does learning differ from performance?

   Model answer

   Learning is lasting, while performance is temporary. A single good performance does not prove a skill has been learned.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Skill, Ability and Skill Classification revision questions

Is Skill, Ability and Skill Classification examined at AS in WJEC Physical Education?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Skill, Ability and Skill Classification cover in WJEC AS-Level Physical Education?

3 subtopics: skill, ability, learning and performance, gross motor and psychomotor abilities and classifying skills on continua. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Skill, Ability and Skill Classification organised?

By the WJEC 601-8485-1 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.