Individual Differences
April Stafford 20/6/2013
Introduction:
Skill levels vary between the unskilled beginner and the trained elite athlete.
These variations occur for a variety of reasons. – E.g. age, gender, hereditary, physical characteristics, maturation, fitness, effectiveness of the senses, motivation, concentration, previous experience & training etc…
In most junior sporting teams or physical education classes you will generally observe a wide variety of abilities and skill levels.
Aim: To investigate the variation in skill levels amongst a group and comment on the possible causes of these.
Procedure: Observe a junior physical education class and look at the variations in skill amongst the students.
Observe details about those students lacking skill and those who are the more skilled performers.
Look for differences in body shape, fitness, fatigue, physical maturation, motivations, concentration, etc...
Results: (see tables on worksheets)
Discussion:
1. The skill level among the students were all similar, as they all showcased the basic skills in the game of hockey, like trapping the ball, passing and shooting for goal
2. When students were observed motivation seemed to be the skill that impacted the skill performance as majority of the students showed great motivation towards the games where as a few others lacked motivation and enthusiasm.
3. Some of the participants showed some small signs of fatigue where as others varied. Most of the participants who fatigued much easily were the players who seemed to be unfit for the practical activity and also had a much lower level of fitness. As the session progressed those who had a much fitter body shape and fitness level didn’t show much fatigue as they play the correct way.
Fatigue makes an impact on skill levels as players become unable to concentrate properly or keep up in the game. This effects the way they play and how they can perform their skills throughout the game.
4. a couple of the participants look like they had previous exposure to coaching