1. …Intro to Motor Skills & Abilities1.
Unit One
…Intro to Motor Skills & Abilities
Welcome to the first set of slides for Motor Learning and Performance. I think we’re starting with a relatively easy chapter, so hopefully you can hit the ground running, as it were, and get to grips with this odd online course delivery thing. I should say something quickly here about the course structure, and then get on with the topic.
First, please note that my assumptions are that you i. go through the slides, playing the audio as you go; ii. take the online quiz on the relevant chapter or chapters; and iii. Participate in the online discussions of the material so you can hopefully fully develop your understanding of the material. Alright then…on with the show. 2.

2. …Classifying motor skills
Chapter 1
…Classifying motor skills
And here’s the first topic…

3. Terminology… Skills, Actions, Movements Skills = Actions Movements
These are goal directed movement activities (“family of movements”; “equivalence class”)
Movements
Actual limb configurations used to achieve the action/skill
Differ from person to person, and within skill
Examples?
See “a closer look” on p. 4
Definitions: Imagine the example of throwing – there are many, many ways of throwing a ball. To throw the ball is the objective. It is the general action you are going to use to get the ball away from you (as opposed to kicking, for instance). So throwing is the skill, the action (the two words are equivalent here and throughout this course). However, each actual throw requires a particular sequence of activities by the limbs…these are movements. So the action or skill is the throw, but the movement might be over-arm, sidearm, or underarm, for example.

4. Classification…gross/fine
Size of musculature required
Gross motor skill – large musculature
Here’s our first classification. A bit different to the book’s definition, but this is the one we’ll use – fine skills use the small muscles, while gross skills use the larger ones. How do you decide whether a muscle of muscle group is small or large (and hence how a skill is gross or fine – well, remember, it’s a continuum. Hence the continuum is good for comparison between skills, and for judging extremes, but not so good for many skills that lie in the middle somewhere. Exam questions will focus on extremes!
Fine motor skill - small musculature

5. Classification…gross/fine
Size of musculature required
Used a lot in special ed. & adapted PE
Some motor deficits are more noticeable with a particular type of skill
Examples?
The fine-gross continuum is useful in a number of settings, as people differ in their mastery of these types of skills depending on their development and their (motoric) health. For example, very young children will master walking (gross skill) long before they master doing up buttons (fine skill).
For the three examples, if you’re not sure what each of the skills is (gross or fine), then I’ll tell you…but you’ll have to ask.

6. Classification…discrete/cont.
Specificity of action’s beginning and end
Discrete motor skill
Serial motor skill
System #2: here the classification focuses on the duration of the skill, on whether it tends to use a repetitive movement (like swimming - continuous) or just one cycle through an action (like throwing - discrete). Doing several discrete skills at once, connected together so that they appear to be one (like dancing, or juggling, or a gymnastics routine) is known as a serial skill, but we are going to call those continuous too. You won’t see the word serial on any exam of mine.
Continuous motor skill

7. Classification…discrete/cont.
Specificity of action’s beginning and end
Used often to help analyze how a skill is controlled
Discrete – controlled more by planning
Continuous – controlled more by feedback
Examples?

8. Classification…open/closed
The stability of the environment (environment refers to object acted on or performance context)
Closed motor skill – unchanging environment
Open motor skill - changing environment

9. Classification…open/closed
The stability of the environment (environment refers to object acted on or performance context)
Also used to help analyze how a skill is controlled
As the skill becomes more open, it is increasingly likely to be reliant on feedback
Examples?