Chuldow Squad Pages

Learning and Performance

Introduction and definitions

Through focussing on the factors that influence learning and performance of motor skills one must initially apply definitions to such terms. This is essential if one is to analyse and understand the effects of the influences themselves. The word 'motor' literally means 'a thing that imparts motion' and 'skill' is defined as 'practised ability'. Therefore, motor skills can be said to be a learnt ability to impart the desired motion within the body, these definitions were taken from the oxford compact English dictionary. Professor GP Meredith (Information and Skill) defines performance, or excellence of performance, as, "The successful integration of hierarchy of abilities (all the abilities we have) appropriate to the given task under given conditions." Learning in relation to sport is said by R. Magill to be, "a change in the capability of the individual to perform a skill that must be inferred from a relatively permanent improvement in performance as a result of practice or experience." Learning and performance of motor skills are affected by many factors both positive and negative. A good motor skills teacher must learn to include as many of these positive factors in their teaching as possible, and must try to exclude or compensate for the negative ones.

Differences in the learner

Of course, it may not always be so simple. Any individual has physical, psychological and social differences that affect their learning and performance. Some may have a body type that is more suited to one sport than another, for example, or some may be more pre-disposed toward an aggressive sport because it suits their personality better. Some may prefer a sport because socially it is more widely accepted, or because they have been influenced by a certain society. Whatever the reason, it can be said that an individual will enhance their performance and learning by following their natural tendencies to begin with. Likewise, a negative effect will occur if an individual has been pushed into a sport he/she does not want to learn. Also, every learner has a different capacity for developing effective methods of concentration. For example, some people are better at analysing large amounts of information, whereas others may be better at reading and reacting to instructors and fellow participants. Some
may also find an affinity for a narrow, non-distractible type of attention. Whatever the tendency, an instructor must play to that strength to create the most effective learning atmosphere and to encourage the best performance. If, to the contrary, an environment is created that inhibits the learner, then 'choking' may occur, and the individual's performance may deteriorate to the
point where they are incapable of regaining control and concentration.

Cognitive theories and sub routines

This individuality of the learner is recognised by the 'cognitive' school of psychology. It is said that a learner can be better understood in terms of the processes they are involved in. This approach is called 'information processing'. It suggests that the processing of information can be broken down into separate components, or sub processes and that each of these has a limited
capacity or duration that affects the amount of information processed. The approach suggests seven main stages; reception, translation, transmission, reduction, collation, storage and retrieval. Different physical and psychological aspects of a person affect their ability in each of these stages and thus their ability to learn in different ways and to perform under different
circumstances. For example, a learner may be capable of understanding and taking something in very quickly, but may have difficulty recalling that information at a later date. Or a learner may be capable of teaching another accurately, even though they themselves are incapable of the desired performance. In general the cognitive theory suggests that the learner will take on an
entire skill, whether in knowledge or practical application, in stages or small parts rather than, as the gestalt theory suggests, learning a skill or technique as one complete action. When teaching a motor skill, such as kicking a ball, the skill can be broken down in to segments i.e. the pull back/chamber, the strike and the follow through. Each of these sub-routines can be taught separately and then joined together at a later date, so the learner is taking on small, easy to process, pieces of a larger skill. However, if an instructor breaks a skill down into to many parts, or provides too much information, there is a danger that the
learner will begin to over analyse and possibly negatively affect the learning and performance.

Cognitive vs. behavioural

Learning is said to be a hypothetical construct as it can only be inferred from either observing behaviour or skills, or by testing and evaluating performance. The cognitive theory relies heavily upon the hypothetical and studies of the intrinsic thought process of the learner. The behaviourist theory, however, focuses on the testing and evaluating of the subject, relying heavily upon only
that which can be seen and recorded and less upon the internal workings that cause these behaviours to happen. This is most famously documented in the findings of Ivan Pavlov (1927) and his classical conditioning experiment using dogs. This experiment combined stimulus-response bonds with conditioned stimulus-response bonds, thus a conditioned response from a conditioned stimulus was changed to an unconditioned response to a conditioned stimulus. More recent work by Thorndike (1874 � 1949), and later Skinner (1951) is perhaps more applicable here. They suggest that positive feedback to a correct response will lead to a continued performance of that skill until it has become second nature or a motor skill. The continued negative feedback to an unsuccessful student will lead to poor performance, compromised learning and the eventual deterioration of the existing acquired skills. For a motor skill to be considered learnt it must be, by definition, a recognised change in behaviour, and that change must be permanent. The performing of a motor skill must be accurate, efficient and adaptable and should continue to improve over time until
it becomes a reflex rather than a conscious process.

Motivation

To retain the attention of a learner there needs to be, at base level, two main things, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The learner can focus in two ways, width and direction. With width there is broad focus wherein the athlete must be sensitive to several cues, and narrow, where the athlete has only limited cues to focus on. With direction the learner may focus internally,
towards the athletes own thoughts/ feelings/ actions, or externally, on the opponent/ ball/ environment. If they and/or the teacher cannot motivate the learner, by varying means, then the attention range will be narrowed or lost. During the learning of basic motor skills the attention of the learner has to be sharpened to the skill itself rather than the application of the technique in its sporting/ life context. In order to optimise learning and performance the learner needs to be able to engage in at least the two types of aforementioned attention focus. If a learner has difficulty with one or the other then he or she will not be able to fully gain the motor skills that are being taught to them.

Learning transfer

The main ability needed for the transfer of skills is response generalisation. This is the ability to take a polished skill and transfer that response to a different/ new stimulus. For example, if a tennis player is able to perform a forehand smash on a tennis court with a tennis ball and racket, the player should be able to quite easily transfer that skill to a similar stimulus-response bond i.e. playing badminton or squash. The same movement, in response to a stimulus, is needed in both situations. Negative response
generalisation would be the same player attempting to put spin on the shuttlecock, as he/she would the ball in a tennis match, this is done out of habit or instinct but is detrimental in the current situation. Transfer of learning can also take place within the same sport, and in fact the same person. This is known as bi-lateral transfer and is the process of transferring skill from say the left hand to the right hand or vice versa. Not all learning transfer is positive, there is also negative learning transfer, this is when
previously learnt skills actually impede the learning of a new skill i.e. a rugby player that starts to play football; he could, out of instinct, catch a high ball as he would on a rugby pitch. But not all learning transfer is either positive OR negative. With some skills being taken to a new sport there is a �zero transfer� in other words a previously learned skill neither aids nor impedes the learning or performance of a new skill, such as, a sprinter becoming a rower. The predominantly lower body trained athlete�s skills would neither impede nor aid the learning of the techniques needed for rowing, which is predominantly upper body orientated sport. Learning transfer and response generalisation are among the major factors of learning and performance of motor skills at the autonomous stage of skill acquisition.

Conclusion

In conclusion I have found, through my research, that there are a great many factors affecting the learning and performing of motor skills, both positive and negative. These factors come from both within the learner and as an outside influence, culminating in a comprehensive system by which we can understand and use the world around us. Yet again I am amazed by the human body, and brain, for its ability to acquire information, process it, store it and then retrieve and use the information in a flexible and efficient manner. Motor skills can be used in a wide variety of situations, if not all, and are most definitely not solely connected with sport and fitness. Motor skills can be anything from kicking a ball to typing on a keyboard and most defiantly play a key role in our lives whether we realise it or not. The learning and performance of motor skills have many different theories connected with them, but they all lead to the same conclusion. Motor skills must both strengthen the stimulus-response bond and be practical in the task they are designed for so as to efficiently, and eventually expertly, perform it.

By Matt Kemp (2nd Dan)