6 minute read
Dynamics of Skill Acquisition in Figure Skating: Part 1
Dynamics of Skill Acquisition in Figure Skating: Part 1
BY GARRETT LUCASH, KEITH DAVIDS, PH.D, AND FABIAN OTTE, PH.D
Advertisement
This is the first of a four-part series on motor skill acquisition in figure skating. Readers can refer to the reference list to explore topics more deeply. We specifically provided hyperlinks to many of the references to make this process easier for coaches. I encourage anyone who has questions to reach out to me: garrett@acskating.com.
The science of skill acquisition has emerged as a vital topic in coaches’ education in recent years. A solid understanding of how athletes learn can help coaches make effective and efficient use of precious resources such as time, facilities, equipment, and new technologies, motivating learners to continue developing their skills and expertise throughout life. Fundamental questions for coaches interested in understanding skill acquisition include: ‘How do people learn?’; and ‘What can coaches do to enhance learning experiences for athletes at all levels, from beginner to expert?’. Further, these guiding concepts and principles in skill acquisition aim to prevent practitioners from coaching how they were coached or copying the methods of coaches they idolize.
This article introduces key theoretical ideas on skill acquisition, which can help figure skating coaches make the most of their time and efforts based on contemporary ideas concerning how athletes learn. In particular, we discuss principles that can help coaches develop their practice designs to support individual learners at different skill and experience levels.
A brief history of skill acquisition research
The study of skill acquisition as an applied science originated in psychology and education in the USA in the late 1800s, so there has always been an explicit link between theory and practice. In the 1970s, the sub-discipline of sport science emerged in the UK, and many of the key concepts of skill acquisition were transferred from education to the study of sport performance and practice designs for athletes of all levels. Over the decades, several prominent theories of skill acquisition emerged, differentiated by an emphasis on: (i) conditioning between stimulus and response; (ii) the brain processing information sequentially, like a computer, making decisions and controlling movements; and (iii) an ecological approach that stresses how to help individual athletes successfully face the challenges of their dynamic performance environment. Here, we outline key concepts of the ecological approach to skill acquisition, which is linked to a constraints-led approach to coaching (Button et al., 2020). This approach is recognized by the International Council for Coaching Excellence in 2016 as a valuable framework for coaches to understand skill acquisition. Constraints-led coaching seeks to help athletes develop a successful relationship with their ever-changing performance environment.
Constraints-Led Coaching in Sport: What is it, and where did it originate?
Ecological scientists study relationships between organisms and their environments, especially how both continually interact and influence each other. These ideas provide insight for understanding how athletes learn to negotiate competitive performance environments successfully. In applied science, the issue of how organisms learn to satisfy the constraints on them was captured in a model by psychologist Karl Newell (1986), who proposed an explanation of how people learn skills. In this model, intentional actions during performance are understood as dynamic movement solutions that emerge as each learner interacts with an array of constraints related to the task and environment. In this context, the word ‘constraints’ originates from the scientific study of ecological, biological, physical, and chemical systems and has a narrow, technical meaning. Newell’s constraints model refers to characteristics or features of each individual athlete, the task, and the environment, which continually interact and shape each other. Constraints are not barriers, limitations, or impediments as might be conceptualized in common language; rather, as our practical examples show, they can be manipulated to invite certain actions that support athlete interactions during learning. For example (see Figure 1), individual constraints of athletes refer to familiar features for coaches, which may be physical (e.g., power, flexibility, strength) or psychological (e.g., emotional control, confidence, resilience) or refer to their amount of previous experience and skill level. Task constraints are well-known in sports coaching, including equipment, performance area surfaces and dimensions, and specific rules of the sport. Environmental constraints refer to conditions surrounding the athlete such as ambient temperature, coping with (or exploiting) forces of gravity and friction on the ice and family support, and peer group networks.
An ecological reasoning for skill acquisition means that during practice, athletes are encouraged to move and discover information, progressively refining this exploratory activity so that they detect richer, more reliable information sources from the performance environment to support their actions. Therefore, with practice and experience, athletes learn ‘to act to perceive and perceive to act simultaneously’ (rather than ‘sense, think, act’). A key message from Newell’s constraints model of learning is that coaches need to understand how different constraints continually interact to uniquely shape each individual learner’s performance behaviors. This means that no two situations are ever the same. Accordingly, constraints-led coaching emphasizes an individualized approach with at least three key principles that coaches should consider, as captured in Figure 2 above.
References
Bernstein, N. A. (1967). The Co-Ordination and Regulations of Movements. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Button, C., Seifert, L., Chow, J.-Y., Araújo, D. & Davids, K. (2020). Dynamics of Skill Acquisition: An Ecological Dynamics rationale (2nd Edition). Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics.
Chow, J.-Y., Shuttleworth, R., Davids, K., & Araújo, D. (2020). Ecological dynamics and transfer from practice to performance in sport. In A. M. Williams & N. Hodges (Eds.), Skill Acquisition in Sport: Research, Theory and Practice (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.
Davids, K., Bennett, S., & Button, C. (2008). Dynamics of skill acquisition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Lucash, G. (2020). The athlete’s navigation device. The Professional Skater. March-April. 12-13
Newell, K. M. (1986). Constraints on the development of coordination. In M. G. Wade & H. T. A. Whiting (Eds.), Motor development in children: Aspects of coordination and control (pp. 341-360). Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.
Otte, F. W., Davids, K., Millar, S-K., & Klatt, S. (2020). When and how to provide feedback and instructions to athletes? – How sport psychology and pedagogy can improve coaching interventions to enhance self-regulation in training. Frontiers in Psychology - Movement Science and Sport Psychology, 1(1444). 1- 14.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01444 - Available online at: https:// www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01444/full
Otte, F. W., Davids, K., Millar, S-K., & Klatt, S. (2021). Understanding how athletes learn: Integrating skill training concepts, theory and practice from an ecological perspective. Applied Coaching Research Journal, 7. Available online at: https://www.ukcoaching.org/resources/topics/research/ applied-coaching-research-journal
Rudd, J., Pesce, C., Strafford, B., & Davids, K. (2020). Physical Literacy - A Journey of Individual Enrichment: An Ecological Dynamics Rationale for Enhancing Performance and Physical Activity in All. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01904 – Available online at: https:// www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01904/full
Woods C., Rudd J., Robertson S., and Davids K. (2020a) Wayfinding: How ecological perspectives of navigating dynamic environments can enrich our understanding of the learner and the learning process in sport. Sports Medicine – Open, 6 (51): 1-11. - Available online at: https://sportsmedicineopen.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40798-020-00280-9
Woods, C., McKeown, I., Rothwell, M., Araújo, D., Robertson, S., & Davids, K. (2020b). Sport Practitioners as Sport Ecology Designers: How Ecological Dynamics Has Progressively Changed Perceptions of Skill “Acquisition” in the Sporting Habitat. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00654 - Available online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ fpsyg.2020.00654/full
Wulf, G. & Lucash, G. (2021) Optimizing Figure-Skating Performance part 2. The Professional Skater, March-April, 10-13