More with Motor Skills

(Open vs Closed Skills and Skill Assessment)

Open vs Closed Skills

Sports skills can be put into two different categories, closed skills and opened skills.

Closed Skills are skills that take place under fixed, unchanging environmental conditions. They are predictable and have clearly defined beginning and ending points. Examples of closed skills are shooting a free throw, serving a tennis ball, or throwing a dart.

Open Skills are usually take place under the conditions of a temporarily changing environment. Decisions and adjustments must be made “on the run.” An example of an open skill would be a quarterback adjusting who he’s throwing to based on the location of defensive players.

Skill Assessment

A rubric is used as a means of assessment by taking a skill and breaking it down into its parts and evaluating each of the parts. For example, below is an example of a rubric for shooting a basketball.

Shooting a Basketball	Good	OK	Needs Work
Dominant Hand (Bowl)
Guide Hand on Side of Ball
Elbow In Towards Body
Knees Bent
Backspin on Ball
Follow through (Swan)
Comments:

* The evaluator is to put a check mark in the appropriate category for each skill part

Assignment: You will need the information from this Fitness Focus and the Skill vs Ability Fitness Focus to complete this assignment.

1. Pick a closed skill in which you are in the associative stage of skill development. Make sure you know the difference between associative and autonomous.

2. Describe the skill you will be using and explain why you are in the associative stage of learning for your skill.

3. Use the sample rubric above to create a rubric for your skill. This means you will have to break down your skill into parts. You may not copy the rubric above and use it as your own.

Remember, you must complete your Fitness Focus assignments on a separate piece of paper and use complete sentences.