Skill Acquisition in Sport: Research, Theory and Practice - Paperback

by Nicola J. Hodges (Editor), A. Mark Williams (Editor)

Skill Acquisition in Sport gives academics, students, coaches and practitioners the broadest and most scientifically rigorous grounding in the principles and practice of the field. Fully revised, updated and restructured, the third edition integrates theory and practice, and provides more material on practical application than ever before.

Divided into four sections - providing instruction and feedback, organizing effective practice, training high-level skills, and the theories and mechanisms underpinning skill acquisition - the book covers a full range of key topics, including:

• the role of errors and rewards in motor learning
• instructions, demonstrations and feedback
• imagery in motor learning
• constraints-based and self-directed learning
• technique change, creativity training and visual gaze training
• practicing under pressure
• the neurophysiology of learning.

Based on the latest research, including chapters on emerging topics, and written by a global cast of world-leading experts, Skill Acquisition in Sport is an essential textbook for any kinesiology or sport science student taking skill acquisition, expertise development or motor learning classes.

Author Biography

Nicola J. Hodges is a Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada in the School of Kinesiology. Originally from the UK, she developed a passion for sport (namely soccer) and experimental psychology and has continued to live out these passions through the study of motor behaviour in Canada over the last 25 years. It is at UBC that Dr Hodges runs the Motor Skills Laboratory (http: //msl.kin.educ.ubc.ca), where she studies the mechanisms of motor skill learning. Her particular research focus is on processes involved in watching and learning from others (action-observation) and how practice should be best structured to bring about long-term enhancement of motor skills. Her research has been funded by the three tri-council agencies in Canada, she has been involved in sport-consulting and she has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters.

A. Mark Williams is Chair of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation at the University of Utah, USA. His research interests focus on the neural and psychological mechanisms underpinning the acquisition and development of expertise. He has published more than 200 journal articles in peer-reviewed outlets, written more than 80 book chapters and co-authored/edited 15 books. His research work has been supported by various funding agencies in the UK, USA and Australia. He is a Fellow of the European College of Sports Science, the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science, the National Academy of Kinesiology and the British Psychological Society. He is Editor-in-Chief of several academic journals.