Skill Acquisition and Technical Instruction
This domain tests motor learning and instruction: how you choose a task, cue it, and give feedback so skill survives competition. Expect items that contrast two coaching choices and ask which produces better retention and transfer.
Stages and task design
Fitts and Posner's stages - cognitive, associative, autonomous - predict how much instruction an athlete can absorb. Early learners need simple, whole-task practice; experts need variability. Gentile's taxonomy separates body-orientation and object-manipulation demands, helping you decide whether to practice closed (stable environment) or open (moving opponents).
Practice structure
Blocked practice improves immediate performance; random and variable practice improve retention and transfer through contextual interference. Practice specificity matters: train the distances, speeds, and decision demands of competition. Part–whole methods suit serial skills; whole methods suit fast, integrated skills.
Instruction and feedback
Use short, external-focus cues ("push the ground away") rather than long internal descriptions. Separate knowledge of performance (technique) from knowledge of results (outcome); reduce feedback frequency over time, use bandwidth feedback, and let athletes self-assess. Demonstrations work best when the model is skilled and the cue is limited.
Worked example
Teaching a jump shot: begin with whole-task repetitions from a close, stable position using one external cue; add variability (distance, angle, closing defender) as accuracy stabilizes; withhold feedback when the outcome is obvious and ask the athlete what they felt. Reasoning: this preserves decision-making, builds transfer, and avoids dependency.
Traps
Talking too much; giving feedback every trial; mistaking good practice performance for learning; using drills that do not resemble the game.