Lesson video

Hi, everybody, and welcome to today's lesson.

I'm Mrs. Brookes, and quite simply today we're gonna be looking, as part of the sports psychology unit, what our definitions of skill and ability are.

And this will be a real foundation for the rest of the lessons that you're about to do in this sports psychology unit.

So our outcome, by the end of the lesson, we'll be able to define those two terms and also be really clear in explaining the differences between what is a skill and what is an ability.

Now, the keywords, obviously two of them are our skill and our ability.

We've also got two others that are very much linked to what we're gonna talk through, which are predetermined and innate.

Now, with regards to skill, we are really gonna look at a very extended definition, but for now we're just gonna remind ourselves that a skill is something that is learned.

So it's either a learned action or a learned behaviour.

However, an ability is very much inherited, and those traits that we get through that inheritance is that that will determine the individual's potential to go on and then learn and acquire that learned behaviour, which we now know is skill.

If we see the word predetermined, that's just reminding ourselves that that is an outcome that's often decided in advanced or it's a predictable outcome.

And that word innate is something linked very much to in being inherited.

So it's when you have something that's existing in you from birth.

So there are two parts to our lesson.

The first part is where we'll look at that ability, we'll be able to define it and describe it, and that will develop into the second part of the lesson when we'll look at that definition and that description of skill.

Okay, now, the reason for doing this lesson is often skill and ability are used in the same way, but we need to understand that they actually mean different things.

So a really good way of starting this is to use a simple acronym called SLAP, and that will really guide us on the rest of our lesson in terms of that key difference between skill and ability.

So we have here our SLAP, and hopefully you can just take from this, that skill is learned or learn, and the ability is innate, and that's inherited from our parents.

So skill is learned, ability is inherited from our parents.

Now, Alex is saying that he is able to jump high, but he does remember a family member, his auntie, saying that his mum was able to jump high too.

Now, that's interesting for us to hear this because as we've just learned, abilities are inherited from our parents or they're innate.

They are in us, and that is existing from our birth.

The other thing we need to learn about abilities is they're often referred to as traits and they remain fairly stable.

So that means that once we have them, they stay and can be then developed or acquired into a skill.

Now, a good way of considering certain abilities is to group them under our A, B, C.

Now, these are terms that you will be familiar with from your paper one learning, the term of agility, balance, and coordination.

But we're not really talking about them now as a fitness component.

We're just talking about these are referred to as basic abilities that you can have from birth and then through those abilities, you can acquire and then develop and learn a skill.

So they are those traits that you're born with and they provide that foundation, that starting point to then go on and learn a skill.

So our first checkpoint here, out of our four choices there, A to D, which of those following terms are associated with ability? Are they learned? Are they inherited? Are they unstable? Are they a trait? Five seconds to decide.

Well done if you notice that both B and C are correct.

We know that our abilities are inherited from our parents and those traits tend to be stable, not unstable, and are certainly not learned.

So Alex, having that ability to jump when he was younger could be learned and developed into which skills.

So just maybe pause the recording for some chance to reflect there.

If he can just simply be able to jump off the floor and land again, what skill could that develop into? Now I suspect you gave an array of responses or maybe even wrote a different one down to what you've seen on the slide there, but that's just an example of Alex being born and inherited that ability to jump, but then over time, he can learn how to turn that jump into a skill simply as being able to get off the floor and make a diving save in football.

So let's consider some of the movements we do when we've learned to walk.

Now, you probably can't take yourself back there, but I'm sure you may have seen whether it's through video footage or listened to your own parents and guardians about some of the movements you did once you could start to toddle as we often refer to it when you walk.

And there's a real selection there of all those kind of basic movements, being able to twist, being able to hop, being able to push something along the floor, maybe being able to stand on one leg, being able to pick up an object.

It could be just simply a toy or your spoon when you're learning to eat.

Can you throw it? I know that's quite a common thing a toddler to do when they're first learning to eat solid foods.

Can you bounce? Can you roll? Are you able to stop yourself? So these are all movements that we then do pick up as we've learned to toddle and walk.

Now, where would we fit these through agility, balance, and coordination, our A, B, C? You might wanna pause the recording now and think how you would group those, just those examples there, how you would group them, whether they're a movement that involves being agile, being able to balance, or being able to coordinate your body and your body parts.

Now, here's my grouping.

You see I've put it into a table format and I've put the two there that links with agility, ones that I think learn link to balance and then ones that link to that coordination, being able to move maybe multiple body parts at the same time.

Now Alex is saying his list looks a bit different to this, having done that same activity.

And that's okay.

Now, this is not a set exactly a right and wrong answer 'cause most of those movements do go over maybe at least two if not all of those abilities.

But what our A, B, C method does is just remind us that a lot of those abilities we do have from birth and that are innate do fit into that agility, balance, and coordination.

So we keep using this term innate.

We've got a true or false question here.

It's a term to describe a movement that you would develop over time.

Do we think that's true or false? Well done if you identified that's false.

Why? Remember that innate is that word we've associated with ability, and it's a term that describes that you've got that characteristic, that movement, and it exists from your birth.

So Alex's ability to jump which we've been discussing is innate and inherited from his parents, which moves us on nicely onto our first task.

Simply, I'd like you to define ability.

And then when you've done that, give an example of an ability, and describe how this can be developed into a skill.

Pause the recording and come back to me when you've finished.

Welcome back.

How did you do? Now, that first part of the task is a real key part of our lesson in that we need to be able to feel confident with those words that make up our definition of ability.

So we're reminded there some of those key words or those key points are that there is inherited, there is stable.

And as a result of that, it will determine an individual's potential to maybe go on and learn or acquire a skill.

Now for the second part, that could have really depended on the ability that you chose to give an example of.

We have an example here of running, being that real simple ability.

We know this is innate and it's inherited from your parents, often something that happens eventually after you learn to walk in those early stages of childhood.

And quite simply there, that can develop into all kinds of skills.

The example I've given there is one from netball where you have to kind of run, move into space to be able to catch the ball.

So now we understand our definition and our description of ability.

We're gonna follow a similar format but now looks specifically at skill.

So I was considering some of many skills that you might be familiar with or that you're used to doing, and I've decided to look at a basketball set shot.

So if someone said to you to make a description of how a basketball set shot looks, how would you describe it? Now, you might simply just talk through the starting point where the ball has to go to before it's released, the fact that you're trying to release it by moving up onto your toes.

And it's very common to be really encouraged to use a follow through.

So you almost wave at the shot as it goes to get that nice high trajectory and aim for the basket.

I wasn't fully meaning that in terms of a description though.

Now let's look at those images again as we break down our set shot, how could we talk about them collectively? What do we see in terms of a description there of that skill being done from start to finish? Now, potentially you could have made some descriptions such as we can see lots of body parts being used.

We definitely know it's got that outcome.

As I mentioned, it's kinda aiming for the basket.

We did see in terms of those body parts that the knees were bent at the start.

That individual is looking at the basket.

You might have spoke about needing that balance and that power certainly in the legs to be able to shoot that basketball.

And as we saw in those images, the arms and legs are working together in kind of at the same time and are coordinated to allow that ball to leave the hands and score.

Now I'm gonna use this to help us with our definition of the skill that we need to be able to say and write down.

So those use of those multiple body parts, that action definitely has been learned.

That has been taken from some of those basic movements and those abilities that we learned about in part one of the lesson and developed into a skill such as a set shot.

It definitely had that outcome.

Now that means that there is intent and that skill is going to bring about a predetermined result.

So the outcome or the result is that that ball, if it's going to be successful, will go into the net and score a basket.

The part of the description around the knees being bent and the use of those that power, we could link that to the fact that that skill requires energy.

And that looking at the basket, that means that there is a time element to be able to complete that set shot.

And by looking at the basket, you know where that time will then end up in terms of that result.

So just look at the bits on the right there in terms of some of the key words.

It's been learned, pre-determined result, needing of energy, needing time to complete.

And in terms of a bit of a ta-da moment, our skill definition that we need to know is this.

A learned action or behaviour with the intention of bringing about predetermined results with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of time and energy.

Now, that's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it? But it is one that we need to learn as our key vocabulary when we're looking at skill.

Let's just remind ourselves though that the basketball athlete would've used some of those abilities from agility, balance, and coordination to learn this action.

So in the first instance, it's just reminding them that a skill is learned and comes from some of those abilities we've already looked at.

So given that our definition has just been shared with us, which of the following is not associated with skill? Is it A, B, C, or D? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Well done if you notice that it said minimum certainty whereas the definition we've just looked at is where there's that maximum certainty.

So let's look at those key sections of our definition again.

We know that it's a learned action and behaviour.

Look at our skateboarder there.

that's clearly learned and then mastered through practise.

So as well as learning it, over time, you then continue to practise it, and that learned action almost has an element of consistency about it.

And we often hear people saying about how that they made that skill look easy, and that's because they're using that correct technique that came from that learned action, and it is being practised in a way that makes it look easy.

And a real simple skateboarder, looking at those number of tricks that they do when they compete, is a really good example of that.

Remember we looked at that predetermined result.

There's always gonna be a planned outcome.

There's always going to be something that's decided in advance or is predictable to the outcome of the skill.

So really simply, we spoke about our goalkeeper earlier, that shot in football that that goalkeeper is trying to save does have that predetermined result.

That outcome is to try and score a goal.

Obviously, in this instance, that goalkeeper is jumping to try and mean that predetermined result does not happen.

Now, often when we're given a definition of skill, we're reframing how that skill looks in a good way.

So remember that kind of backend of the definition where it talks about maximum certainty.

Look at that diver at the minute in terms of the position she's in.

There's definitely a certain grace and beauty about her performing that somersault in that tight position.

And that position is all about making that dive look good, but also to make the rotation as efficient as possible so that they can enter the water well.

So we definitely see maximum certainty in terms of the execution of that dive and then often skillful movement will have that time and energy but will be done in a minimum amount.

So we get that maximum certainty in terms of outcome but done with that minimum energy and time used.

And we could have talked about lots of examples there, but over time skills can be executed without wasting time, energy, or effort.

And swimming is a really good example of that, particularly the butterfly stroke.

That over time they learn not only do they have that maximum certainty, they won't look like they're exhausted, and they'll definitely look like they're well-grooved and the technique is allowing them to move through the water.

That would be quite the opposite if you were just learning butterfly for the first time.

So at that point, there would be a lot of time and energy that goes into it.

Through practise, that will become that minimum outlay of time and energy.

So quick check.

we have three of our characters here, and they're all doing a description of some kind.

Which of them is describing a skill? Is it Laura, saying that she can now catch a ball? Is that something she's learned? Sam is telling us that they can balance on one leg And Andeep as a squash player is saying that he can hit the ball with power to try and win a point.

Five seconds for you to decide.

Well done if you identified that it's actually Laura and Andeep.

Both of those skills will be learned actions and behaviour, the one with Andeep in terms of that power.

Remember we've got in our definition the need for that energy to be able to produce that skill.

So having gone through that for our final task of the lesson, like before in the first task, I'd like you to start by defining skill, 'cause the more we write that down, the more we remember those key elements to that definition.

Once you've written that, I'd like you to select either a cross in football as we can see in that first image or a smash as we can see in that second image from badminton, and use that definition to describe the execution of that skill.

So pick out some of those key points that we did with our images to help you understand those key components of the definition.

And finally, once you've done that, choose a skill in a sport of your choice and provide a second example.

So in doing so in this task, not only do we have our accurate definition, we have two sporting examples where we've unpicked the key parts of that definition.

Pause the recording and come back to me when you are ready.

Welcome back.

So how did you guys do? Did you get your definition down as on the slide there? That learned action, that intent of bringing about predetermined results, and then that final bit, that definition around maximum certainty, minimum outlay, time and energy.

Now you then have the option of the cross in football or the smash in badminton.

You can see there I've just tried to demonstrate those four key elements to the definition in a table format.

So you can see on the left there you've got learned action, what that predetermined result is, what maximum certainty will look like, and what we would expect in terms of that minimum time and energy as that skill developed.

So we know a cross in football there are many abilities there, ability to run, being able to kick, have that balance of going on one leg, being able to coordinate the leg and the upper body to be able to make that cross.

We know that intention, that predetermined result is about often being passed to another player so that they can maybe score a goal.

When we see that done well, it very much looks like it's got a finesse about it and it does reach the intended target.

And in terms of that minimum time and energy, you do see that effortlessness, that non-kicking foot is always put in the right place and that everything seems to be done at the rate that it needs to definitely to outwit the opponent.

In contrast, we've got that smash in badminton.

You can pause the recording at this point and see how, if this was the one you did, see how that also works with our four key elements.

And then which skill did you go for? I've got an example here from tennis.

I'm sure there are lots of different sports now captured in terms of how you answered this.

But you can see there in terms of those bullet points, they follow the similar format to the table in terms of that first bit saying potentially where it's been learned from, very much coordination in those arms, having to move at the same time as the racket and the ball, and being in that balanced position.

We know that predetermined result of a service to kinda land in the opposite service box and not land out but land in so they return it, or even better still, they don't return it to try and score a point.

If it is at that maximum certainty, exactly, that is accurate, and the opponent finds it difficult to return.

In terms of that efficiency, you often see that energy and power behind the ball, particularly when the racket and the ball have hit at that really good time.

So a good example there from tennis and one that you can use to kinda compare to your own example for this final task.

So in summary, we needed to look at our key skills of skill and ability and hopefully as we've gone through the lesson, you've realised that they are not interchangeable.

They are very separate.

That ability is innate and something that you inherit from your parents, remember SLAP, the A and the P was ability from parents.

They are stable.

But as a result of that stable trait, you can then, through practise, learn a skill or you have that potential to learn a skill.

Skill then is that learned action, has that intention of bringing about that predetermined result.

And then when that skill is ex executed well, we see maximum certainty and minimum outlay of time and energy.

Thank you for joining me on this short lesson, but in doing so, you now are equipped with that ability to define skill and ability and also be clear in your description about why they aren't interchangeable.

It's been really great working with you, and I look forward to seeing you on the next lesson.