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Katherine Thomas is with the Department of Exercise Science and Physical Education at Arizona State University in Tempe. She teaches with the Maglischo Coaching Seminar conducted by ASCA, and will be a featured speaker at the ASCA World Clinic in Orlando, Sept. 2-6, 1997.

In the issue of QUEST, a publication of the National Association for Physical Education in Higher Education, 1994, she had an article entitled, “The Development of Sport Expertise: From Leeds to MVP Legend.” This article makes a number of relevant points regarding the automation of skill execution in athletes. The following are some of the summary points from that article.

As skill execution improves, the cognitive aspects of motor execution become automated. For Low-Strategy sports such as swimming, variables such as physical size and ability combine with motor skill to determine expertise. In other high strategy sports, such as basketball, the cognitive pattern of knowing what to do in a situation plays a more significant role in expertise.

Practice does not guarantee skill. Skill tests must include an analysis of form. Consistency of good form is one factor in developing expertise.

At lower levels of expertise in swimming, knowing what to do and how to do it, can mean significant performance differences. (i.e. knowing when to do a flip turn, and when that is inappropriate (breaststroke & fly).) When efficient execution is less likely (young ages) then size becomes an advantage. Children with average skills levels will be outdistanced by children with greater size. Once everyone is doing the skill with reasonably effective form, then the differences come from other areas like strength.

In studies of swimmers at the high school and college level, distance swimmers were able to elaborate more knowledge, had more facts, and expressed a greater need for knowledge than did sprinters. Some sprinters expressed the idea that they were not much interested in the understanding of swimming, they just wanted to swim. Long distance swimmers expressed a clear need to understand stroke mechanics.

All the nationally ranked age groupers in the study were able to generate many facts about their stroke technique. There were 85 facts that had been identified in the study about breaststroke. The 7 and 8 year olds were able to identify 60 or more of these, and the older swimmers up to 81 of the facts. As age increased, the swimmers could verbalize the stroke more, and needed to rely less on demonstration to show what they knew.

Coaches were also studied, with one group being interested in stroke understanding, and the others were not. The knowledge oriented coaches turned out an almost equal number of nationally ranked sprinters and distance swimmers, while the non-stroke interested coaches turned out an overwhelming number of sprinters. Knowledge may not guarantee success, but it may be an essential ingredient in success with certain types of skills.

Initial motor skill is cognitive, and knowledge is critical in the early stages of motor learning. You must know what to do. The second stage is refining the skill, so the facts about effective and efficient movement are critical. In the second stage, the learner learns how to detect errors and correct them. Those who become experts move through this stage. The non-experts do not.

The third stage is automatic. The learner no longer has to think about the performance of the skill itself, and can concentrate on strategy, effort and similar items.

With this in mind, the teacher at the initial stages should begin with a demonstration, and a few simple hints and cues. First attempts simply allow the learner to get the general idea and understand the goal. Provide more demonstrations and many practice trials. As long as the practice is inconsistent, more cues or information will not help. Add cues as the practice becomes consistent in a given area. As more competence appears, the teacher should provide more opportunities for practice, and limit demonstrations while asking the learner to verbalize both the goal and the tasks. Once the task looks similar at all trials, then the learner is ready for more information that will refine the task. Provide one point at a time, and many trials until consistency is achieved.

As the coach progresses with the athletes, the cues should take the form of questions that require the learner to think and verbalize. “Did that feel right? What was wrong with it? What should you do next time to correct it?”

The final goal is to have the athlete detect the errors. If the coach is always detecting errors, there is no need for the athlete to do so himself. This is a point where many athletes become “stuck” as they do not engage their own minds in seeking creative solutions to their needs. The coach may ask the questions, but at the level of higher learning, the athlete must recognize and solve the problem themselves.