Chapter #2: Motor Learning for Effective Coaching and Performance

From Jean M. Williams book Applied Sport Psychology

Motor Learning Defined:

▫Motor Skill learning = a set of internal processes, associated with practice or experience, leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for skilled movement behavior.

▫Capabilities = once a skill has been learned the potential, or likelihood, for exhibiting skilled performance is quite high.

Phases of Motor Skill Learning: (Cognitive, Associative, and Autonomous)

▫Cognitive Phase:

Focuses on gaining a understanding of how the skill is to be performed.

Characterized by verbal activity by the athlete (talk themselves through the movement)

Athlete develop a motor program for the skill Motor Program = internal program that

contains a set of instructions to guide the movement.

Cognitive Phase:

•Athletes in this phase are unable to focus on the aspects of environment. (i.e. external events like teammates positioning)

•Phase is characterized by inconsistency, numerous errors that are gross in nature.

•The dominant sensory system is Vision

•Phase is complete when the athlete can reasonably execute the skill the way it was demonstrated.

Cognitive Phase:

•Role of the Coach:

▫Is to facilitate the athlete’s development of a basic movement pattern by clearly communicating the critical aspects of the skill.

▫Cues should be short and precise.

▫Use a lot of Demos

▫Numerous repetitions (blocked practice)

Associative Phase:

Focus is skill refinement to eliminate extraneous movements and make fewer, less gross errors.

Some attention can de directed to external environment

Visual learning is replaced by proprioceptive control.

Visual search strategies to monitor external environment are developed

The phase lasts longer than the cognitive phase, and not all learners will transition to the final stage of learning.

Associative Phase:

• The role of coach:

▫ Design practice to optimize skill refinement.

• Closed skill = performed in a stable environment and requires athlete be able to consistently and accurately replicate the movement pattern (fixation).

• Open Skills = is when the environment is changing and unpredictable (diversity).

• Anticipatory skills can be acquired and enhanced through specific training in visual strategies.

• Effective feedback should focus not only on the movement pattern but the proprioceptive feel of performing the skill.

Autonomous Phase:

• Emerges when the learner can perform the skill at a maximal level of proficiency.

• Requires little conscience thought.

• Role of Coach:

▫ Help athlete maintain their level of skill and motivate athlete to continue to improve.

▫ Be careful when wanting to change a highly skilled athlete’s well learned technique. Small changes can be made, but major changes in technique puts the athlete back into cognitive phase

Practicing Considerations:

Athletes must be motivated to learn

Athletes must practice with the intent to improve.

Practicing Considerations:

Blocked Practice:

All the trails of a given task must be completed before moving on to the next task.

Produces better acquisition performance, but poorer long term learning.

Practicing Considerations:

• Random Practice:

▫Practice in random order

▫Leads to better learning (two possible mechanisms)

Athletes have to use more elaborate processing strategies to keep the task distinct.

There may be some forgetting of the “solution” to the task. Thus athlete must go through more solution generations with random practice.

Practicing Considerations:

• Repeated Block Practice:

▫Combines Random and Blocked (block practice in random order)

• Constant Conditions vs Variable Conditions:

▫Variable practice allows the learner to discover relationships among environmental conditions.

Practicing Considerations:• Whole vs. Part Practice:

▫ The transfer of learning principle defines which one to use.

▫ Whole = requires that the athlete practice the skill in its entirety. Good for less complex skills, skill is not to dangerous, athletes are capable and motivated, and their attention span is long enough to deal with the whole.

▫ Part = breaks the skill down into segments and practiced separately then done together. Good for complicated skills.

▫ Progressive part = Practices first two parts separately then practiced together, then a third part is practiced and then combined with the first two and so on until the whole skill is performed.

Feedback:

•the information athletes receive about their performance.

Feedback:

• Intrinsic Feedback = is info athletes receive as a natural consequence of moving; provide by the athletes own sensory systems.

• Augmented Feedback = info provided by an external source (coach, stop watch, teammate, ect.)

▫Kiss Principle = Keep It Short and Simple

▫Verify athletes understanding of the feedback by asking them to repeat it and explain how they will correct it.

Feedback:

Feed back serves three functions:

Motivation Reinforcement and punishment Error correction

•   Law of Effect = actions followed by reward tend to be

repeated.

Faded Feedback = the constant reduction of augmented feedback due to the increase in skill level of athlete

Bandwidth Feedback = coach defines an acceptable bandwidth of error before giving augmented feedback

Learner Regulated Feedback = augmented feedback provided only when athlete requests it.

Analyzing the Skill:

•First, compare athlete’s technique w/ correct technique.

•Second, select which error to correct. (Only one at a time)

•Third, determine the cause of the error and what the athlete must do to correct it.

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