Classifying skills and choosing practice
Physical Education · GCSE · The School
Continua, not categories
Skills are placed on a line rather than sorted into boxes. OPEN skills happen in a changing environment and are externally paced — a pass in a game. CLOSED skills are in a predictable one and self-paced — a free throw, a gymnastic vault. Most skills sit somewhere between, and the mark is for justifying the position, not for naming an end.
Types of practice
MASSED: continuous, few breaks — suits simple, closed, discrete skills and fit performers. DISTRIBUTED: rest between attempts — suits beginners, complex or dangerous skills. VARIED: changing the conditions — suits open skills, because the game never repeats itself. FIXED: the same conditions each time — suits closed skills. Match the practice to where the skill sits on the continua.
Whole or part
WHOLE practice keeps the movement intact and preserves its timing — right for fast, continuous skills like a golf swing, where breaking it up destroys the flow. PART practice isolates a section — right for complex or dangerous skills, or for a specific weakness. PROGRESSIVE-PART chains the sections together one at a time, which suits a serial skill such as a triple jump.
SKILL: a netball chest pass. GROUP A does massed, fixed practice — fifty passes to a stationary partner at the same distance. GROUP B does varied practice — passes at changing distances, to a moving partner, under light pressure. AT THE END OF THE SESSION Group A looks better, because they have been doing the identical action fifty times and Group B has been continually readjusting. A WEEK LATER, tested in a game, Group B performs better and Group A struggles, because a game never gives you the same pass twice and Group A only ever practised one. This gap between performance in practice and learning that lasts is the whole point of the topic — and the exam asks you to justify the practice type for a NAMED skill and performer, so always say which skill, which performer, and why.