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How do abilities contribute to the production of Sport Skills?

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How do abilities contribute to the production of Sport Skills?

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Ability and skills go hand in hand and having an increased ability in a sport would lead to an increase and better skill level. An example in padel could be someone could have a better physical ability and be a more aggressive player, e.g. using things like dropshots and smashes, whereas a player could have a more technical ability and be better at things like shots that go onto the back wall, keeping rallies etc, but when it comes to skills they could both still be even, therefore proving ability can somewhat contribute to the production of sports skills.

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Alejandro Galan is ranked as one of the best padel players in the world. He is recognised to be known for his power and precision inside the court. He has been playing professionally since 2016. At just 27 he is informally known as the worlds number one in padel. The skill level of Galan is one of the best globally. His most recent partner to date is Federico Chingotto. With 9 years experience in the sport it makes Galan a very hard opponent to come up against. The Spaniard currently has 12,910 points in the FIP rankings. With a decorated career he is currently maintaining his high ranking status as he winds down his career.

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For types of skills, there a three types of ones that are important in sport. These are cognitive, perceptual and motor. Firstly, cognitive skills are ones that are made through split decisions that can differ and alter games. An example of this in padel, is deciding the type of shot you are going to respond to when receiving a shot, this could be changed depending on the power or height on the shot. Next is perceptual skills, these are skills in which the performer gathers information from an external environment and responds upon that. Skill level will hugely affect how different things are interpretated within sport. Finally motor skills are the contractions of certain muscles to perform sporting movements, this closely links into fine skills as both require the contraction of muscles to help influence the movement in a performance.

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Fluency is required in padel and a lot of sports especially for those who are elite performers, however it is also important that the casual and more grassroot players learn the importance of things like fluency early on into their padel careers. Its ensuring movements like serving and certain shots are performed smoothly and not in an awkward manner. We can see in the above video that the performer Jake Lovatt is using fluency in his play. In this video Jake is demonstrating his level of fluency by comfortably returning a serve with the correct form and technique with no imbalance or incorrect positioning. I think its important elite and non elite performers are able to have a good level of fluency in their game as well as the coaches coaching it because without the right technique then they are unable to complete the move correctly.

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Psychomotor abilities are linked into movements with fine motor skills. Some examples include reaction time and coordination. For our elite and normal performers psychomotor skills such as these are important in their game. Having good reaction time is necessary because it allows the performer to react quickly to a shot or if they’ve misjudged the power in which a shot is coming to them to then react to that as effectively as possible. Coordination is also vital in these sets of skills as it allows the performer to not only coordinate for themselves but to help there partner too and effectively communicate and game manage efficiently. It can also be useful for moving certain muscles and joints too during a game. An example of this for an elite performer such as Alejandro Galan is they have a higher level of psychomotor ability in comparison to those of an amateur level.

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Juan Lebron is currently ranked sixth in the FIP world rankings and has 8120 points as a result of this. An experienced player who has won 117 of his 148 matches puts him up there with some of the best players globally. Lebron was the first Spanish player to reach world number 1 in 2019 alongside partner Paquito Navarro. Lebron is known for his speed and intensity, at 29 he looks to retain a top 10 ranking position.

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The environmental effect involves two sets of skills, open and closed. Open skills are skills in which the performer is constantly changing and adapting to the environment around them, this can be used in team and individual sport. An example for a performer in padel is a return shot as they're unaware where the shot is going to end up and are then going to make a reaction to that by using open skills. The other type of skill which effects the environment is closed skills. Closed skills are skills or patterns of play in which the performer has to use little to no recollection of it to it being purely just muscle memory, without affecting the environment too. An example in padel is a serve, this is because the environment isn't necessarily affecting the serve and every performer elite or amateur will now how to serve with ease.

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Gross motor movements are associated with large body actions these are things like running. Things that are important to take into consideration with things like these are, flexibility, strength and speed. For our performers in padel it’s important that they use gross motor movements frequently to help their game, having already talked about psychomotor movements they go hand in hand with gross motor ones too, an example of this is if an opponent has played a shot just shortly over the net and isn’t going to land where you expected it too it’s your job as the performer to use reaction time and speed to ensure you can keep the ball in play therefore linking in the movements together. Things like strength would also be useful in a movement such as that when considering the force that is needed to be created when performing a movement such as running and flexibility too, needing to hit the ball back over if it’s about to hit the floor.

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My first non elite performer is Lucas Brogan who is relatively new to the sport and has only 3 weeks experience in comparison to those elite performers who have years within the sport. I would say his skill level is not too bad considering how new to the sport he is I think his level is still quite far away in comparison to an elite performer however for a casual/ competitive one he demonstrated some skills that were perfected really well. For example in the above picture we can see he is going to return a serve, he gets his left arm with the racket is behind the ball and is then able to complete a return with good ability.

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The skills that are used for movement and classification are fine and gross. Fine skills involve the smaller movements in a performers game. This includes specific body parts too, a padel example would be a drop shot. This is because you will use your forearm to perform the shot by lightly hitting it over the net ensuring your opponent isn't able to get a corresponding shot. The next type of skills are gross skills, these involve large body movements, this would coordinate more than one muscle group. An example in padel is a smash shot this is because you need to jump up and use your arm to hit the ball, therfore using multiple muscle groups.

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What is the difference between Abilities & Skills?

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What is the difference between Abilities & Skills?

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Skills are there to be learned and developed and cannot be naturally there upon starting a sport. Performers in padel aren't naturally born with a backhand shot or a drop shot etc, they are considered complex and to be developed. It can be said various ability is needed for skills and they are two different things. Ability is something that can be there from the start and differs from skills, ability can be developed but people can also have different levels to it. Many abilities can be learned and developed during younger ages whereas skills are things that have have to be practiced time and time again. In padel things like agility and accuracy of shots can be things likeability whereas skills may be the technique in which the player has shot.

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The final bit of movements that are necessary for our performers is perceptual. This involves using the bodies senses to interpret information. In padel and for our performers elite and non elite interpretation things like opposition shots, serves and even communication with your teammate are all things that need to be interpreted subconsciously as a performer and it’s important some of these movements happen like that to enable the performers to perform to the best of their ability. A good example is an amateur padel player playing non competitively with his friend won’t have to factor in things like crowd noise whereas an elite performer would have to concentrate on blocking that out whereas a normal performer wouldn’t have to. Other things that affect perceptual movement are things like decision making which is similar to that of reaction time, this could be deciding to go close to the net when your teammate is serving to attempt a shot to catch the opponent out or hitting the ball against the back wall in hopes of keeping it in play, all performers have to have a good level of all movements discussed to perform to a good ability.

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With the above video of my performer Lucas Brogan it shows his level of control when performing a shot in padel. He is calm and composed upon receiving the ball and is able to demonstrate a lovely shot in response. Control is important in a sport such as padel where each shot is required to be calm and controlled, things that help and improve control is practice and repetition. Repeating the same shot or move multiple times can eventually help an individual improve their technique and execution of the skill which when learning the basics of a sport can be useful at amateur and professional level.

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In the above video from one of my performers, he has used the economy of efficiency of movement excellently. He is in the correct position to receive the shot and is conscious in his effort to play the shot straight back over the net to where it needs to go which is an excellent bit of play. The reason this is necessary and useful in a sport like padel is because it’s a sport all on speed and technique and if you’re able to get yourself near the net whilst your teammate can cover the behind area shots like this are able to be done to catch the opposition out and is a great demonstration of performing a shot quickly and with no error.

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For my next non elite performer is Jake Lovatt. Jake is similar to that of Lucas who has only 3 weeks experience in the sport. I would say for a casual/ competitive player he is quite good and shares similarities with Lucas. In the above picture it shows Jake returning a serve but being more technical he is using his backhand which arguably more skill than a standard forehand return in comparison to Lucas's shot. His positioning in the picture shows he is proactive and attacking the shot straight on.

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For the beginning, and end of movements there are three types of skills. The first one being continuous skills. These skills are ones that are done with no necessary start or finish and can happen for any amount of time. An example for this is running and this can be linked into padel, if a shot goes over your head you can run back to return the shot or play to against the back wall. The next type of skill is a discrete skill, this is a skill in which has a clear start and finish unlike that of a continuous skill. An example of this is, a serve in padel because it has a clear beginning and an end to the move. The final type of skill for this is a serial skill. This skill is a continuation of discrete skills put together to make a structured movement. The order in which the movements are performed is key and each require certain development. An example of this skill is a smash shot in padel because it's a series of smaller movement to then instigate a bigger movement. Certain performers would struggle with particular movements due to a lack of experience whereas the more advanced and elite the performer the easier and less complex the skill becomes.

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Consistency of outcome is an important part to any sport performers game whether it be at the top level professionally or even an amateur who plays for fun, it’s the ability and consistency of always getting the moves, techniques and skills right as much as possible and with padel it’s vital. Performing things like drop shots or even just simple returns need to be perfected right each time because it can cost you and your teammate points if not and lead to losses and mistakes. It’s important a performer trains his game regularly whether that’s solo, with a coach or in a group to ensure they are always on top of their game and can allow moves to be repeated to a high standard consistently.

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There are two elements to the timing and packing of skills. These are self paced and externally paced. Self paced is self explanatory, this aspect is where the performer chooses the pace, execution and time it takes to perform a skill, an example of this in padel is a serve. This is because the performer who is taking the serve can determine how long they're going to take serving the ball, the execution in which they hit the ball and the time it takes to react following the shot. The next pace is externally paced are where external factors can influence the pace, execution and time of a skill in general. An example of an externally paced skill is receiving a shot from an opponent, this is because you have to use pace, time and execution to react and respond through external factors of the shot.

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Energy Expenditure Meeting the Demands of the Task

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Energy Expenditure Meeting the Demands of the Task

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Preserving energy in sport is so important especially when endurance is needed to sustain performance levels for long periods of time so to be able to perform moves and skills that require little to no energy is useful especially when we link this in to our performers and padel. It can be set fitness and intensity levels differ depending on skill level and performance levels too, for example an amateur padel game with some friends compared to a competitive professional match will not have the same speed and intensity level but the need to preserve energy and have endurance will remain the same and it’s important that certain moves and shots are done without injuring or using too much energy a good example is from one of our performers in the video above with very little body movement he perfects the shot and doesn’t have to move a great deal either.

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What are the qualities of a skill performance?

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What are the qualities of a skill performance?

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The qualities of a skill performance include things like fluency, efficiency and adaptability. In regards to padel, these are all necessary to make up a good performance. From the elite performers to the standard of the normal players they all need aspects of these.

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I would describe this clip as psychomotor as my performer is using a smash hit whilst using his psychomotor abilities such as reaction time to react to the shot that has been played to him and it can catch the opponent out especially if performed correctly, these type of shots are used by pros frequently and Lucas has done well here to demonstrate this.

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The below clip is an example of gross motor. This is because the performer on the right, serves the ball correctly diagonally then moves up his side of the court showing initiative that he is ready to attack the following shock and the teammate on the left hand side is sitting off to ensure any shots that go behind the right performer will be able to be sent back to the opponent. Things like agility and little runs back and fourth help ensure those tactics can be performed correctly

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A.G in the above picture is returning a serve and using the backhand technique to make an attempt at a shot. His feet are positioned with his strong foot first to get the most power out of the shot.

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Lebron returning a serve in the above picture. 

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J.L is using a forearm return in the picture example above. He is using his back foot to generate the most power to be able to get the ball across the court.