considering three levels of intentions for impact as anchor points. These levels were the macro( strategic sociopolitical goals), the meso( sequencing of activities over time) and the micro( session by session) each ideally nested coherently within the overall. Acknowledging that change is often non-linear and unpredictable, intentions for impact representing a flexible rationale for athlete or contextual outcomes( Martindale and Collins 2005). A practical challenge being a reliance on observed changes to performance guiding micro level intentions. To counter this practical problem, this paper presents a research-informed framework: the‘ explore-execute taxonomy’, for the coach to consider desirable interactions between athlete and activity.
Errors in learning
Despite some strong claims, the skill acquisition literature itself is highly inconclusive in many areas( for example, McKay et al. 2024). Furthermore, there has been remarkably little research considering long-term skill learning, especially in realworld conditions( Choo et al. 2024). Nonetheless, there is a long standing general agreement that errors are fundamental to learning( for example, Schmidt 1975). One conceptual framework used to understand this is challenge point( Guadagnoli and Lee 2004), which suggests that an individually-referenced level of difficulty optimises learning. Too much or too little difficulty will prevent learning based on the demands of a task, relative to an athlete’ s capability. In the broader literature, other efforts have been made to identify optimal error rates for learning, some suggestions being a success rate of 85 %( Wilson et al. 2019). However, outside of the laboratory, we need to consider what constitutes as error. Some are obvious( for example, dropping the ball in rugby, or not landing a trick in skateboarding), others will depend on the level of performance and be more subtle( for example, catching the ball with your palm in rugby, or landing a trick with an imbalanced weight distribution in skateboarding). In this sense, errors are considered a mismatch between a desired goal and the capacities of an individual. It is these mismatches that initiate skill learning( Lövdén et al. 2020).
To support a shift from shortterm fluency toward longerterm skill adaptation, two recent frameworks have been proposed: the‘ Skill Acquisition Periodisation framework’( Farrow and Robertson 2017) and the‘ Periodisation of Skill Training framework’( Otte et
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