Abstract
Unlike physical training, skill acquisition does not currently utilise periodisation to plan, monitor and evaluate programs. Development of a skill acquisition periodisation framework would allow for systematic investigation into the acute and longitudinal effectiveness of such interventions. Using the physical training literature as a reference point, a skill-training periodisation framework was developed for use in high-performance sport. Previous research undertaken in skill acquisition was used to provide support for the framework. The specificity, progression, overload, reversibility and tedium (SPORT) acronym was adopted. Each principle was then re-conceptualised so that it related to relevant skill acquisition principles. Methods for the measurement and analysis of each principle are provided and future directions for the longitudinal assessment of skill acquisition are discussed. The skill acquisition periodisation framework proposed in this study represents an opportunity for the principles relating to skill acquisition training to be measured in a systematic and holistic manner. This can also allow for a more sophisticated evaluation of the efficacy of longitudinal training programmes and interventions designed for sustained skill enhancement.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Wattie N, Schorer J, Baker J. The relative age effect in sport: a developmental systems model. Sports Med. 2015;45:83–94.
Baker J, Farrow D. The Routledge handbook of sports expertise. London: Routledge; 2015.
Davids KW, Button C, Bennett SJ. Dynamics of skill acquisition: a constraints-led approach. Champaign: Human Kinetics; 2008.
Abernethy B. Training the visual-perceptual skills of athletes: Insights from the study of motor expertise. Am J Sports Med. 1996;24:S89–92.
Williams AM, Ford PR. Promoting a skills-based agenda in Olympic sports: the role of skill-acquisition specialists. J Sports Sci. 2009;27:1381–92.
Wulf G, Shea CH. Principles derived from the study of simple skills do not generalize to complex skill learning. Psychon B Rev. 2002;9:185–211.
Fleck SJ. Periodized strength training: a critical review. J Strength Cond Res. 1999;13:82–9.
Plisk SS, Stone MH. Periodization strategies. Strength Cond J. 2003;25:19–37.
Kiely J. Periodization paradigms in the 21st century: evidence-led or tradition-driven. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2012;7:242–50.
Gamble P. Periodization of training for team sports athletes. Strength Cond J. 2006;28:56–66.
Corcoran G, Bird S. Preseason strength training for rugby union: the general and specific preparatory phases. Strength Cond J. 2009;31:66–74.
Ebben WP, Blackard DO. Developing a strength-power program for amateur boxing. Strength Cond J. 1997;19:42–51.
Hodges N, Williams MA. Skill acquisition in sport: research, theory and practice. London: Routledge; 2012.
Gabbett TJ. GPS analysis of elite women’s field hockey training and competition. J Strength Cond Res. 2010;24:1321–4.
Impellizzeri FM, Rampinini E, Coutts AJ, et al. Use of RPE-based training load in soccer. Med Sci Sport Exerc. 2004;36:1042–7.
Grout H, Long G. Improving teaching and learning in physical education. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education; 2009.
American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription. Baltimore: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; 2013.
Reimer DJ. Physical Fitness Training. In: US-Army. Field Manual No 21–20, Volume 2. Washington DC: Headquarters Department of the Army; 1998. p. 241.
Guadagnoli MA, Lee TD. Challenge point: a framework for conceptualizing the effects of various practice conditions in motor learning. J Motor Behav. 2004;36:212–24.
Carson HJ, Collins D. Refining and regaining skills in fixation/diversification stage performers: the Five-A Model. Int Rev Sport Exerc Psychol. 2011;4:146–67.
Vickers JN, Livingston LF, Umeris-Bohnert S, et al. Decision training: the effects of complex instruction, variable practice and reduced delayed feedback on the acquisition and transfer of a motor skill. J Sports Sci. 1999;17:357–67.
Stagno KM, Thatcher R, Van Someren KA. A modified TRIMP to quantify the in-season training load of team sport players. J Sports Sci. 2007;25:629–34.
Phillips E, Farrow D, Ball K, et al. Harnessing and understanding feedback technology in applied settings. Sports Med. 2013;43:919–25.
Abernethy B, Thomas KT, Thomas JT. Strategies for improving understanding of motor expertise (or mistakes we have made and things we have learned!!) In: Starkes JL, Allard F, editors. Cognitive issues in motor expertise. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishers; 1993. p. 317–56.
Henry FM. Specificity vs. generality in learning motor skill. In: Brown Jr, RC, Kenyon GS, editors. Classical studies in physical activity. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall; 1968. p. 328–31.
Proteau L. On the specificity of learning and the role of visual information for movement control. In: Proteau L, Elliott D, editors. Vision and motor control. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science; 1992. p. 67–102.
Proteau L, Marteniuk RG, Lévesque L. A sensorimotor basis for motor learning: evidence indicating specificity of practice. Q J Exp Psychol. 1992;44:557–75.
Tremblay L. Visual information in the acquisition of goal-directed action. In: Elliott D, Khan M, editors. Vision and goal-directed movement neurobehavioral perspectives. Champaign: Human Kinetics; 2010. p. 281–91.
Pinder RA, Davids KW, Renshaw I, et al. Representative learning design and functionality of research and practice in sport. J Sport Exercise Psychol. 2011;33:146–55.
Brunswik E. Perception and the representative design of psychological experiments. Los Angeles: University of California Press; 1956.
Davids K, Araújo D, Vilar L, et al. An ecological dynamics approach to skill acquisition: implications for development of talent in sport. Talent Dev Excell. 2013;5(1):21–34.
Newell KM. Constraints on the development of coordination. In: Wade MG, Whiting HTA, editors. Motor development in children: aspects of coordination and control. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff; 1986. p. 341–60.
Davids K, Araújo D, Hristovski R, et al. Ecological dynamics and motor learning design in sport. In: Hodges NJ, Williams AM, editors. Skill acquisition in sport: research, theory & practice. London: Routledge; 2012. p. 112–30.
Barris S, Farrow D, Davids K. Representative learning design in springboard diving: is dry-land training representative of a pool dive? Eur J Sport Sci. 2013;13(6):638–45.
Casamichana D, Castellano J. Time–motion, heart rate, perceptual and motor behaviour demands in small-sides soccer games: effects of pitch size. J Sports Sci. 2010;28:1615–23.
Farrow D, Pyne D, Gabbett T. Skill and physiological demands of open and closed training drills in Australian football. Int J Sports Sci Coach. 2008;3:489–99.
Pijpers JR, Oudejans RR, Bakker FC, et al. The role of anxiety in perceiving and realizing affordances. Ecol Psychol. 2006;18:131–61.
Ericsson KA, Krampe RT, Tesch-Römer C. The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychol Rev. 1993;100:363.
Hambrick DZ, Oswald FL, Altmann EM, et al. Deliberate practice: is that all it takes to become an expert? Intelligence. 2014;45:34–45.
Pollock CL, Boyd LA, Hunt MA, et al. Use of the challenge point framework to guide motor learning of stepping reactions for improved balance control in people with stroke: a case series. Phys Ther. 2014;94:562–70.
Coutts AJ, Reaburn PR, Murphy AJ, et al. Validity of the session-RPE method for determining training load in team sport athletes. J Sci Med Sport. 2003;6:525.
Foster C, Florhaug JA, Franklin J, et al. A new approach to monitoring exercise training. J Strength Cond Res. 2001;15:109–15.
Lambert MI, Borresen J. Measuring training load in sports. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2010;5:406–11.
Lee TD, Swinnen SP, Serrien DJ. Cognitive effort and motor learning. Quest. 1994;46:328–44.
Marcora SM, Staiano W, Manning V. Mental fatigue impairs physical performance in humans. J Appl Phys. 2009;106:857–64.
Nederhof E, Lemmink KA, Visscher C, et al. Psychomotor speed. Sports Med. 2006;36:817–28.
Magill RA, Hall KG. A review of the contextual interference effect in motor skill acquisition. Hum Mov Sci. 1990;9:241–89.
Brady F. A theoretical and empirical review of the contextual interference effect and the learning of motor skills. Quest. 1998;50:266–93.
Barreiros J, Figueiredo T, Godinho M. The contextual interference effect in applied settings. Eur Phys Educ Rev. 2007;13:195–208.
Bryan WL, Harter N. Studies in the physiology and psychology of the telegraphic language. Psychol Rev. 1897;4:27–53. doi:10.1037/h0073806.
Welford AT. Fundamentals of skill. London: Methuen; 1968.
Baker J, Young B. 20 years later: deliberate practice and the development of expertise in sport. Int Rev Sport Exerc Psychol. 2014;7:135–57.
Kraemer WJ, Ratamess NA. Fundamentals of resistance training: progression and exercise prescription. Med Sci Sport Exerc. 2004;36:674–88.
Magill R. Motor learning: concepts and applications, 8th ed. New York: McGraw Hill; 2006.
Doyon J, Korman M, Morin A, et al. Contribution of night and day sleep vs. simple passage of time to the consolidation of motor sequence and visuomotor adaptation learning. Exp Brain Res. 2009;195:15–26.
Walker MP, Brakefield T, Seidman J, et al. Sleep and the time course of motor skill learning. Learn Memory. 2003;10:275–84.
Brawn TP, Fenn KM, Nusbaum HC, et al. Consolidating the effects of waking and sleep on motor-sequence learning. J Neurosci. 2010;30:13977–82.
Stone MH, O’Bryant H, Garhammer J. A hypothetical model for strength training. J Sport Med Phys Fit. 1981;21:342.
Bernstein N. The co-ordination and regulations of movements. Oxford: Pergamon Press; 1967.
Reed ES, Bril B. The primacy of action in development. In: Latash ML, Turvey MJ, editors. Dexterity and its development. Mahwah: Erlbaum; 1996. p. 431–51.
Glazier PS. Augmenting golf practice through the manipulation of physical and informational constraints. In: Renshaw I, Davids K, Savelsbergh G, editors. Motor learning in practice: a constraints-led approach. London: Routledge; 2010. p. 187.
Schmidt RA. A schema theory of discrete motor skill learning. Psychol Rev. 1975;82:225.
Schollhorn WI, Beckmann H, Michelbrink M, et al. Does noise provide a basis for the unification of motor learning theories? Int J Sport Psychol. 2006;37:186.
Savelsbergh GJ, Kamper WJ, Rabius J, et al. A new method to learn to start in speed skating: a differential learning approach. Int J Sport Psychol. 2010;41:415.
Sanli EA, Patterson JT, Bray SR, et al. Understanding self-controlled motor learning protocols through self-determination theory. Front Psychol. 2013;3:611. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00611.
Deci EL, Ryan RM. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum; 1985.
Gabbett TJ, Domrow N. Relationships between training load, injury, and fitness in sub-elite collision sport athletes. J Sports Sci. 2007;25:1507–19.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Funding
No funding sources were used to assist in the preparation of this article.
Conflict of interest
Damian Farrow and Sam Robertson declare that they have no conflict of interest relevant to the content of this review.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Farrow, D., Robertson, S. Development of a Skill Acquisition Periodisation Framework for High-Performance Sport. Sports Med 47, 1043–1054 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0646-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0646-2