Skill in Sport

What is Skill? “Skill is the learned ability to bring about a pre-determined result with maximum certainty and efficiency.”

Other Meanings Used in two ways in sport: The sport itself or A particular movement or action. Some skills are common to most sports (running) and some are specific to one sport (front crawl).

Basic or Complex Skills Basic skills are running, jumping, floating on your back. Complex skills are that of the tennis serve, frontcrawl.

Open and Closed Skills Open skills are when your body movements vary, depending on what is going on around you (environment). Closed skills are when the movements are always exactly the same and do not depend on the environment.

Skill and Performance Each attempt at a skill is a performance. The more skilful you are, the better your performance is likely to be. It can be affected by external factors such as nerves, tiredness and the environment. As open skills depend on what is going on around you, they are more affected than closed skills.