Investigating Skill Acquisition :: Papers

Investigating Skill Acquisition The majority of sports require constant decision making. Once the brain as received information, made sense of it and organised the information a decision can be made. This decision will start a plan of action, and it is then vital that we make this decision as quickly as possible. the space between a stimulus being presented and the performers response to it is called reaction time. Reaction time is often overlooked and usually underestimated in the preparation process for athletes. What we usually refer to as ‘explosiveness’ is often actually great reaction time. In just about all sports you will find a constant series of reactions to auditory and visual cues. A players ability to respond quickly, properly and precisely to the information being sent is very important in determining their success in the sport. â€Å"Reaction time - the time between the first presentation of a stimulus and the performers reaction† Movement time - the time between the first reaction to the stimulus and the completion of movement Response time - the time from the presentation of the stimulus to the completion of the movement† (J Stafford-Brown, et al, 2003) Therefore Response Time = reaction time + movement time In order to be a skilled performer the ability to combine quick reactions with quick movements is vital in order to be able to respond to stimuli effectively. For example in 100m sprinting the most successful sprinter is going to be the one who exerts pressure onto the blocks by his feet after hearing the stimuli (starting gun) first and then moving his feet off the blocks first. this is because his quick combination of reaction and movement time has given him the quickest response time, from the moment he heard the starting gun to the moment both feet left the blocks. he is then going to have an advantage over his components because he will already be getting into his running stride while the rest of them are still responding.