Transfer of Learning in Sports

• Transfer of learning involves the influence of past experiences or previously learned skills on acquiring or performing a new experience or skill.

Types of Transfer of Learning

• Physical Skills: Transfer is greater when there's similarity in physical skills between two sports; for example, serving in volleyball and throwing a cricket ball share similar techniques.
• Cognitive Skills: Skills that require a specific type of cognitive processing transfer to skills needing similar processing.
• An athlete in a fast decision-making game in confined spaces can transfer learning to a new sport requiring similar cognitive skills.
• Tactics and strategies also transfer among sports with similarities. Field sports like hockey and soccer share the same number of players, aims, and strategies.
• Skill to Skill: A previously developed skill in one sport affects learning or performance in another due to mechanics or techniques.
• Positive impact: previous skill eases learning and improves performance of a new skill.
• Negative impact: previous skill hinders learning a new skill.
• Proactive: one skill affects the current. For example, knowing how to throw a cricket/baseball helps learn to throw a javelin faster.
• Retroactive: learning a new skill affects one previously learned.
• A netball player with poor footwork improves her netball skills by doing fast-feet ladder drills in touch rugby during off-season.
• Negative retroactive transfer: a swimmer who takes up water polo during the off-season may find how the swimming in water polo, hinder in competitive swimming.
• Theory to practice involves shifting theoretical skills into practical scenarios. A coach reviewing plays on a whiteboard before the game and players performing the play.
• Training to competition means skills in training are transferred into competition.
• Coaches should devise training sessions that replicate game demands that specifically improves skills and energy systems and replicate game pressures to better in game performance.

Effects of Transfer of Learning

• Positive transfer: previous knowledge enhances a new skill or concept. Coaches facilitate this by highlighting similarities between skills and ensuring solid understanding of the initial skill.
• A tennis player using their knowledge of serving to learn overarm serve in volleyball.
• Negative transfer: previously learned skills hinder learning a new skill if actions are similar but techniques are different,.
• In squash, shot making involves wrist movement, but in tennis it does not. So a Squash player, if learning tennis may use their wrist action, negatively impacting performance.
• Zero transfer: previous learning has no impact on a new skill.
• Knowing golf swing doesn't affect learning how to take a mark in football because these skills are physically and cognitively unrelated.

Analyzing Movement Skills (Knudson & Morrison Model)

• Preparation, observation, evaluation, intervention, and re-observation are used to improve performance.
• Coaches use this information to gather and improve athlete strengths, weaknesses and progress.
• These include athlete-specific training to rectify faults and track progress.
• Knudson–Morrison Model of Qualitative Analysis: The complete process must be completed in order, with each stage having a specific goal.
• Preparation: Gather knowledge of key features/common errors. Establish prerequisite knowledge base about key aspects of particular skill.
  • Preparation should include the movements that prepare the athlete for the skill (grip, run up, stance, backswing.
• Execution: Occurs once the preparation ends
• Follow through: all movements after execution.
• Observation: Gathering info. about the skill. Coach plans observations based on technique deciding times, angles, video use, etc
• Checklist: Can be made to outline key technique points prior to analysis.
  • Determine best observation (front, behind, side, video, etc.) and the amount of necessary observations to improve results.
• Evaluation: Identify strengths and weaknesses of performance.
• Correct checklist: mark the performer to what they are doing correctly and do their weaknesses in order of priority.
  • If the weakness is critical due to injury, require immediate attention, otherwise, can be worked over for a period.
  • Large changes to technique need a longer time to rectify, whereas technical flaws that dont impact performance are fine to use as long as they are effective.
• Intervention: Provide feedback or change practice conditions to improve skill performance. Coaches explain errors and what drills to address problems.
• Re-observation: Coaching where skill should be re-evaluated, in similar context, to see if implemented changes improve skill performance.

Video and Checklist Analysis

• Video analysis provides visual feedback: compares performance to examples, replays footage, tracks progress, and use tools like zoom, slow motion / freeze frame, overlay or split screen allows performer to observe errors
• Checklist: record of performance compared to criteria and a written form of feedback that provides key aspects of ideal required performance. Allows information gathered through the checklist with strengths and weaknesses.
  • Athlete provided wth time to go through feedback and can complete or discuss with coach.
  • If coach or person is filling in the checklist, they may miss aspects of performance.
  • Disadvantages: checklists may be too simple and may be lost or misplaced
• Mentoring: Feedback from other players, respected teammates, or a coach.

Benefits and Advantages of Mentoring

• An athlete may relate better to feedback from peers, and can improve communication which can benefit athlete, coach team.
• There is improved psycology or well being as an athlete expresses themselves with their peer mentor, improves communication. and increases capacity of mentor
• Disadvantages: peers may no have appropriate knowledge and cant hurt athletes feelings.

Questionnaires

• Players can use questionnaires to gather information about other players, coaches and potential leaders that can identify strengths, and weaknesses.
• Feedback from the questionnaires can lead to changes and guidence as weak areas are assessed. They are also statistically easily analyzed.
  • Disadvantages: internal scales of each individual in questionnaire may be different and not completely honest.

Coaching/Training Activities

• Design coaching/training activities to improve performance (shaping, chaining, Static-Dynamic).
• Steps include introducing the skill, explaining the name of skill and demonstrating it to athletes to point out 2-3 points.
• The group must all understand by asking questions. Practicing the skill should be fun and motivating as sessions should be appropriate.
  • Provide feedback and correct errors.
  • Simple skill characteristics: basic, quick learnt and imitation.
  • Characteristics and complexity include limiting parts, decision making abilities, speed, and accuracy.
  • Complex skill: difficult to learn with many parts. Requires a lot more cognition to increase speed and accuracy.
• Coaching activities: improving athlete’s performance in complex skills (shaping, Chaining, Static - dynamic).

Shaping

• Simplifying a complex skill into simplified version. Suitable for complex with simultaneous events as performer practices version.
  • Steps: Perform simple version, Feedback provided, Add missing components, Increase speed/accuracy, Use skill in game.

Chaining

• Breaking skill into segments and sequentially learning each component part. Start by each part and building on previous.
  • Steps: Break down skill, Teach first part, add next. repeat until perfect.
    • Usually suitable for teaching parts that have sequential steps.
  • Parts: Run up taught, add hop if run up perfect, Step if all parts completed.
  • Practicing the last component and making upward steps.
  • How complex depends how you do each and is determined by what you do, accuracy and needed time.

Task Complexity

• Task Organization needs to see the number of required skills to complete from a previous task by both coaches.
  • Chaining which is high complexity and low organization are best for both gymnastics or triple jumps. Where as those high in organization but low complexity, Shaping.
  • Teaching Static: Skills to dynamic drills involve the start with drills involving no movement and progressing to involvement and steps.

Different Drills

• Where stationary, its beneficial for the inexperienced to use predictable limited cues. Where in dynamic settings, less predicable with more cues needed as it extends development.

3 Leadership Styles

• Different types of coaches and leadership to deliver message to players. Influenced by personality and motivation, styles, season phases, experience, and general environment.

  1. Authoritarian (Autocratic) is a style that is very strict so the coach believes that they need that knowledge to impart the players. This makes people intimidated as winning is the only result. Allows the coach to make the decisions as players may feel undervalued. Suited: In dangerous scenarios where guidance and rules can minimize accidents. Negative impact: The atmosphere and style does not work if players have strong inputs.
  2. Democratic: In shared making. Needs an open communication, and reinforces positive or negative feed back. So: Works well with experienced players and feel more valued if have input on decisions and direction.
  3. Laissez-faire (Casual) where limited. and creates casual enviroment. SO: Provides good leadership to show people by themsleves.

• Coaches change throught out year and for each individual athletes.