Skill Acquisition in Sport

This is the first motor learning textbook to look specifically at the processes associated with sporting movement, sporting expertise, and performance sport. It brings together the work of many of leading figures in the psychology of motor learning and skill acquisition.

Success in sport depends upon the athlete's ability to develop and perfect a specific set of perceptual, cognitive and motor skills.

This book examines how we learn such skills and, in particular, considers the crucial role of practice and instruction in the process. Leading authorities within the field provide a comprehensive review of current research and theory on skill acquisition. Potential avenues for future work are highlighted and, where possible, implications for instruction and practice are discussed.

Containing full discussion of current and complex issues in motor behaviour and recommendations for effective practice in the field, Skill Acquisition in Sport will be of interest to those involved in movement sciences and motor behaviour work in sport, as well as physical therapy, ergonomics and human factors.

Preface 1. A historical perspective on skill acquisition 2. Contextual interference 3. the utilisation of visual feedback in the acquisition of motor skills 4. One trial motor learning 5. Individual differences in skill acquisition of motor skills 6. Decision training: cognitive strategies for enhancing motor performance 7. Understanding the role of augmented feedback: the good, the bad and the ugly 8. Instructions, demonstrations and the learning process: creating and constraining movement options 9. observational leading: is it time we took another look? 10. Implicit motor learning, reinvestment and movement disruption: what you don't know won't hurt you 11. Deliberate practice and expert performance: defining the path to excellence 12. A life-span model of the acquisition and retention of expert perceptual-motor performance 13. Psychological and related indices of attention during motor skill acquisition 14. From novice to expert performance: memory, attention, and the control of complex sensorimotor skills 15. Perceptual and cognitive expertise in sport: implications for skill acquisition and performance enhancement 16. The evolution of coordination during skill acquisition: the dynamical systems approach 17. Perceptual learning is mastering degrees of freedom 18. Musculoskeletal constraints on the acquisition of motor skills 19. Emergence of sports skills under constraints