When you go about learning a new skill, the first step is just to get a concept in your mind of what it is all about. You may have already done this by seeing experienced players on tv or by a coach’s demonstration.

The next step is to have a go yourself, because no amount of watching or thinking about it will help you learn a skill in the first place.

This first stage is very interesting. Say you’re learning archery, initially you’d just pull back the bow strong without an arrow in place to get a feel for the strength and motion needed. Next, you’d put an arrow in place, pull back the bow string, and try to line up the arrow with the target.

Let’s say you let fly and somehow the arrow hits the bullseye (this actually happened to me when I was 8!). Of course you (and I) got lucky.

The key indicator of someone’s proficiency in a skill is not the outcome of the performance per se but their ability to accurately repeat the action. To get to this stage, hundreds or even thousands of repetitions are needed to burn the movement pattern in the mind.

To be an exceptional athlete, you must also learn when and how to adjust your performance slightly and correctly for the conditions (eg, wind). In some sports this can take years, especially if your learning of the skill included learning a glitch.

For example, once young tennis players have the basics of a serve learnt they should immediately start getting used to serving fast. This is because your muscles’ memory for skills is speed-specific. That is, proficiency at a very slow-speed serve does not translate well to a high speed serve. So kids should whack the ball over the net and once the whacking is going well, emphasis should be placed on accuracy.

For more take a look at Visualization Skills (MP3), Skill Acquisition in Sport: Research, Theory and Practice (book) and/or Acquisition and Performance of Sports Skills (book).

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