Analysis On Skill Acquisition

Skill acquisition is the science that underpins movement learning and execution and is more commonly termed motor learning and control (William and Ford,2009). Skill acquisition is learned in a hierarchical structure which means it progresses in stages. Fitts suggested that there are three stages to learning a skill. The first stage is the Cognitive stage, this is the first stage where the activity is introduced and the performer comes to terms with the instructions. Depending on the skills needed for the activity this stage will change in length especially if the performer has previous skills that can be applied, having said that this stage is still the shortest. Coaches need to provide feedback and use demonstrations to make it as easy as possible for the learner, but make sure not to over whelm the subject. The second stage is the Associative stage which emphasises on practice, and by doing so the speed of the messages sent from the brain to the muscles improves. There are less mistakes made in this stage and coaches should give
Two theories have been proposed for this topic. One is the open-loop theory which suggests that the decisions are made in the brain and then all the information for that decision is sent as one message to the muscle that will perform the movement, which makes it ideal for fast continuous movement. The other theory is the closed-loop theory and suggests that again the decision is made in the brain but the information isn't sent as one message to the muscle, instead it is sent as lots of different messages to the muscle that will initiate the movement., which explains slow movements well. In this theory feedback is always available and is vital to correct movements in comparison to the open loop which feedback isn't always available and it ins't