1. Characteristics of the Learner Personality Heredity Ability Confidence Prior Experience Learner

2. Personality  Personality refers to an individual’s characteristic way of behaving.  Personality develops as a result of the individual’s infinite social interactions and learning experiences throughout life.  Coaches describe athletes in terms of observable traits such as consistency, reliability, level of motivation and ability to express feelings.

3. Heredity  Individuals are endowed with certain characteristics inherited from their parents. These are unchangeable and will limit the dimensions of their potential.  The relative percentage of fast-twitch to slow-twitch fibres  Somatotype  Gender  Height  Conceptual ability

4. Confidence  Confidence is a firm belief in one’s own ability  Self-confidence is critical not only to improvements in skill acquisition, but also to the performance of many tasks faced in everyday living.  Confidence develops from experiencing success in learning situations.

5. Prior experience  In a group situation, learners will be quite diverse in terms of background experience. If an individual earlier learned a movement that is similar to one being taught, they have the potential to accelerate the current learning process. This is referred to as the transfer of leaning.

6. Ability  Ability is seen in the way in which an individual is able to learn, process and implement new skills. Ability incorporates a range of factors such as sense acuity, perception, reaction, time and intelligence, which combine to allow the individual to do readily what is intended.