Skill, Ability, and Technique in Sports

Skill, Ability, and Technique in Sports

Introduction

In order to be a success at a particular sport, whether it's playing

football in the back garden or opening the batting for your country

you must have skill, ability and technique. Skill is the ability to

choose and perform the right techniques at the correct time, regularly

and with the minimum of effort in a specific movement in a sport.

Sportsmen use their skills to achieve particular objectives in their

sport e.g. scoring a century in cricket. Ability is the make up of a

sportsman. A number of different aspects of your make up can be taken

into consideration whilst talking about ability e.g. Height, Strength

and co-ordination. We inherit our ability from our parents. Techniques

are the basic movements that we make in any sport e.g. a block start

in a 100m sprint. We can combine a number of different techniques to

create a pattern of movement e.g. the triple jump.

Literature Review

Skill, ability and technique are always closely linked. The book '

Advanced PE ' puts forward the equation:

"Skill = Ability + Technique."

This shows us the close link. The book quotes,

" In order to perform a particular skill in sport, we must learn the

required technique. In order to learn the technique fully, we must

have the necessary abilities."

This quote agrees with the idea that all three areas are needed to be

a success at sporting activities.

Skill has been defined by a number of different experts. Here are two

definitions:

"An organised co-ordinated activity in relation to an object or

situation, which involves a whole chain of sensory, central and...

... middle of paper ...

...se both some top experts and

myself as an athlete believe that there are certain ways in which you

can improve on aspects such as hand/eye co-ordination. The way in

which technique can be improved is pretty straightforward but it

creates other issues such as why some sportsmen or women with a poor

technique still excel in their chosen sport? Overall skill is

developed by having good ability and having a technique that suits

your body type.

Bibliography

* Galligan, F.(2000) Advanced PE for Edexcel, Oxford;

Heinemann.p102-106

* Wesson, K, (2000) Sport and Pe, Oxford; Hodder & Stoughton.

P476-482

* www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/skills.htm

* www.vboa.freeservers.com/skillTechniqueAbil.html

* James, R, (2000) The complete A-Z physical education handbook,

Kent; Hodder & Stoughton.