Transcript No Slide Title

SIMON WELLS
Discuss the ways in
which transfer of
learning can be used
effectively when
developing skills +
tactics in a chosen
sport
The Role of Transfer Of
Learning In Sport
The purpose of physical and sporting education /
transfer of learning standards is to improve the quality
of physical education through the learning process in
sport.
Some performers learn more through natural ability.
People who have good natural ability are often skilled
performers within a range of sports.
Good players / performers can often be seen to transfer
the skills they have learnt in one situation, into another.
What Ways Can The Transfer Of
Learning Take Place ?
There are three main ways for this process:
Developed in one situation, and used in another.
The influence is known as PRO-ACTIVE.
Many examples occur in sports that are similar, especially various
racket sports.
The Effects Of Transfer:
Skills that are developed in a similar situation are usually
beneficial to ones in another situation.
Personally, I have found that developing a skill in one racket sport
has a positive effect when playing another.
However, it seems that larger, more gross movements are the only
skills that prove to make a positive transfer.
The more specific the practice or training drills can be to
the sport [competitive settings and demands], the more
effective they will be in enhancing competitive
performances.
If transfer of learning from the practice session to the
game or competitive situations is to be maximised, the
demands of the practice session should relate closely to
the demands of the sport itself.
In general, motor skills are highly specific and transfer
of learning between different motor skills is quite
small.
Maximising the similarity between the practice and
competition will produce the best results in terms of
competition play. This is also true for different sports.
Fine movements require very specific practice and are not usually
learnt or transferred into another sport. Examples include:
Grip positioning on the racket.
Ball contact on the racket.
Pressure on the racket and grip.
Negative transfer refers to a situation where generally, the skills may
be similar between the sport, but in reality the techniques are very
different.
What Ways Can The Transfer Of
Learning Take Place ?
Training to a point where players become autonomous is essential at
the highest level of performance.
The more specific the practice or training drills can be to the sport
[competitive settings and demands], the more effective they will be
in enhancing competitive performances.
If transfer of learning from the practice session to the game or
competitive situations is to be maximised, the demands of the practice
session should relate closely to the demands of the sport itself.
Tactics
Theoretical Concepts
When teaching new skills or altering established
and skills already learnt, it is common practice to
break skills into component parts and "build" the
movement patterns in stages. This "part" approach
is most effective when the skill to be learned is
complex and has clearly defined natural breaks or
components (e.g., a gymnastics routine). Such an
approach to learning [or modification] however,
may be of little to no value when the skill is
essentially continuous with no natural breaks (such
as in running, swimming).
Mental practice, when interspersed with physical
practice, under some circumstances assists in both
immediate and long-term sports performance
improvements. Athletes in sprinting events often
exhibit various mental practices before a race,
some of which I too have adopted in order to
prepare myself for a race.
This is a good example of how a mental transfer of
learning can focus the mind on the task.
Massed practices that lead to high levels of fatigue and performance
deterioration, in the long-run, seem to be just as effective for developing
skills as well-spaced practice sessions which allow recovery and the
maintenance of good practice standards. However, too much excessively
massed practice can be detrimental to learning and other factors associated
with performance. It would be advised to use the spaced practice and
recovery opportunities rather than excessive overloading.
Sprint starts in training are a good example
of a skill that is best learnt in spaced
practises. Merged within other training skills
and sprinting related events, I find starts are
best learned in spells along with the other
parts of the sprint to break each component
down within the run and work separately
with every aspect. Once each component has
been learnt, putting the whole sequence
together is made much easier for the student
and once the transfer is broken down.
Skills that are taken directly from one situation, and applied to
another.
A practice whereby a skill is transferred form one side of the body to
the other.
The ability of using both feet is a great advantage in a sporting
situation.
The use of Bilateral transfer is common in all methods of learning,
although it usually occurs in smaller less significant movements.
Many players tend to have a dominant side of their body which
they prefer to use during sport (e.g. left handed tennis players).
It seems that the best players within their sport have adapted this
transfer to a point where they have almost become Automonous in
their movements.
Players like Zinadine Zedane are a good example of people that
have developed the Bilateral learning to become one of the most
efficient players in the world. His ability to perform a skill with
maximum certainty and minimum outlay of effort is evident in
his play.
This type of transfer does not always prove to be positive. The
influence of one sporting skill sometimes lowers the ability to
perform another.
A transfer where the process hinders the performance of a player is
known as unequal.
Within my own sport, this is also true to say. Athletics is a very
specific sport to learn in techniques and styles. I have learnt that it
is of no benefit to my athletics style to participate in nearly all the
other sports. I helps in some aspects like stamina, but the varying
techniques in sprinting between the sports contradict the outer.
With different goals, the styles of both contradict the other.
The development of adaptability and response flexibility should
not go outside of the activity itself. It would be wrong to
assume that improvements in cycling will somehow transfer to
kayaking speed. Even within a sport, it would be incorrect to
assume that movement patterns which would never arise in a
competitive performance, such as those developed by "drills,"
contribute to performance improvements.