Overview

Success in sport depends upon an athlete’s ability to develop and perfect a specific, and often unique, set of perceptual motor skills. The so-called 10, 000 hr rule suggests it takes 10,000 hours to attain these skills and reach an expert level. In this course, we will navigate the critical role of the practice environment on the learning of skills so we can understand how to coach adults and children towards expertise efficiently and effectively in sport and related domains (e.g., education, medicine, military, physiotherapy, S&C). We will address contemporary coaching approaches to delivering effective instruction, demonstrations, and feedback to ensure practice environments are representative of performance. We will also learn how to 'periodise' (plan) skill acquisition appropriately for different stages of a sporting pathway.

The course is divided into three parts: (1) appropriate use of instructions and demonstrations; (2) delivering effective feedback; and (3) representative practice design. We will begin by critiquing contemporary approaches to coaching and how these might be applied to enhance practice across a range of environments, from sport to education and healthcare. We will then move on to address specific issues related to effective instruction and demonstrations, before discussing considerations for optimising feedback e.g., timing, frequency, and precision. In the final section, we will address practice structure with regards to variability, challenge, pressure, and multiple skill learning. Considerations regarding how skill acquisition related factors can be periodised (planned) appropriately depending on the stage of a sporting pathway will be a central theme to all three sections. Students will be encouraged throughout the module to reflect on their own practice and apply theoretical principles to enhance their teaching/coaching in environments relevant to them (e.g., education, sport, healthcare, S&C etc.).

Assessment Strategy

Excellent -(A) students should be able to present an outstanding in-depth critical discussion of the underlying theories and current research related to any 2 of the following; the delivery of instruction, structuring the practice environment and the delivery of feedback. They will be able to use their deep understanding to demonstrate how theories surrounding any 2 of these topics can inform good practice, in addition to clearly explaining how the issues/topics discussed are dependent on task factors and skill level, how they are inter-related, and how they can affect the learning environment.

Good -(B) students should be able to present an in-depth very good discussion of the underlying theories and current research related to any 2 of the following; the delivery of instruction, structuring the practice environment and the delivery of feedback. They will be able to use their understanding to demonstrate how any 2 of these factors can be effectively manipulated to inform good practice, whilst explaining how the issues/topics are inter-related and dependent on task factors and skill level.

Threshold -(D) students should be able to demonstrate an adequate or basic understanding of the underlying theories of any 2 of the following; the delivery of instruction, structuring the practice environment and the delivery of feedback whilst revealing how some of this might be used to inform practice. They will be able to demonstrate to an adequate level how at least one of the above factors can be manipulated to affect learning and show an understanding of how some of the issues/topics discussed are inter-related. There may also be occasional inaccuracies and irrelevant content.

Learning Outcomes

• Adapt writing style appropriately through consideration of terminology, structure, presentation, and content to suit a range of target audiences e.g., young people, applied practitioners, the academic community.

• In the position of a skill acquisition practitioner, identify appropriate contemporary coaching literature from ecological dynamics and / or information processing accounts of how we learn skills to explain and inform how particular coaching techniques can be used to optimise the learning environment

• Present written arguments that demonstrate critical analysis of the literature to account for how appropriate periodisation of skill acquisition can influence coaching decisions

• Tailor application of relevant scientific literature to authentic coaching/instructing environments based on independent interests and experiences