I selected speed and accuracy as my topic because both abilities are critical in the majority of popular sports today and useful in many other movement-based skills. However, speed and accuracy often contradict each other, so it is hard to execute together. Most models and research papers consider those two abilities opposite and emphasizing one should result in trading off the other, and Fitts’ law explains that target size and movement distance are the factors responsible for that trade off.
Although there are apparent tradeoffs between speed and accuracy, a better understanding of both abilities and how they can be applied in motor skill learning should help coaches improve their athletes’ performance. Skills from various sports, such as hitting targets in martial arts or hitting the baseball with a bat, depend on including both speed and accuracy into the movement, and understanding the phenomenon of trade-offs between speed and accuracy can help us optimize various movements. If I decide to pursue a career in coaching or physical education, I will use my knowledge about speed and accuracy to create training sessions that will enable people to learn skills without sacrificing either one of those abilities.
Another benefit of learning about the relationship between speed and accuracy and applying that knowledge is its universal application in different areas of life. A person who understands the abilities that influence motor development and skill learning is able to translate this knowledge into any movement-based activity, such as learning to play an instrument, and master a skill faster than those who do not understand the relationship between speed and accuracy. I plan to use my knowledge of speed and accuracy whenever I need to learn a new motor skill or when I need to offer assistance to my friends, relatives, or acquaintances when they are learning new motor skills.
The Relationship between Speed and Accuracy
Speed and accuracy are motor abilities. Speed determines the ability to move between two points in space in a short amount of time while accuracy is the ability to strike a distant target. However, they are in a negative correlation, and that suggests a person cannot utilize both in the same movement effectively and must trade one in the favor of the other.
Fitts’ law is the most common model used to explain the negative correlation between speed and accuracy. Fitts found a logarithmic relation between the participant’s average movement repetitions and the ratio of target distance and their width influence (Meyer, Smith, & Wright, 1982). The law is general and simple, so it can be applied to all motor skills, despite the difference in their context.
Fitts’ law is still the fundamental model researchers use to build context-specific models that explain the speed and accuracy trade-off. Although Fitts’ law is correct, it is possible to bypass the trade off, so athletes do not have to sacrifice accuracy for speed or vice versa.
In order to maximize the development of both speed and accuracy in a motor skill, coaches should be familiar with the development of fundamental movement patterns and motor abilities as a part of natural development, so they can understand which aspects of motor learning they can control and how to control them at each stage.
Motor Learning Background
Motor learning is possible only if proper motor development takes place. The speed of motor development in the early stages of life cannot be influenced by external factors because genetics determine its pace. However, when children reach a stage of development when fundamental motor patterns are formed, they can continue learning new skills or improving their motor abilities. As a general rule, fundamental patterns are developed at the age of seven and used to learn and refine context-specific skills, but every individual has a unique pace of motor development (Haibach, Reid, & Collier, 2011).
Stages of Motor Learning and Their Implication in Training
Fitts and Posner developed a three-stage skill acquisition model that could apply to all people at any stage of development. Regardless of previous experiences, everybody has to move through each of these stages whenever learning a new skill. Even though fundamental skills, such as jumping or running, are mastered at an early age, using them in a different succession or context requires time and effort to master.
The cognitive stage, also known as the beginner stage, is when a person requires a lot of attention on movement and makes mistakes in executing fundamental movement patterns. The practitioner requires a lot of cognitive activity while making the movement, and because of that activity, the performer makes gross errors in repeating movements and lacks accuracy.
During the cognitive stage, the trainer has the role of teaching the performer a skill from scratch. The trainer can use verbal instructions, visual models, and communicate feedback to enhance the performer’s skill.
In the associated stage, also known as the intermediate stage, the performer is faced with a different goal. Once the basics are learned, the performer needs to refine the movement. Although performers at this stage do not require a lot of attention and correction, they still require feedback and assistance with refining their movements. When working with people at this stage, observation is the most critical component because athletes cannot objectively determine the quality of their performance.
At the autonomous stage, also known as the advanced stage, the performers have confidence in their skills and consistently perform their tasks well. However, according to Fitts and Posner, only few people become advanced at their specific motor skills because it usually takes years of practice. At this stage, the performer can make strategic decisions because their movements are automatic and consistent, and they do not need any cognitive activity to maintain their movements or performance results.
However, it would be a mistake to consider instructors obsolete at the advanced level of motor skill learning. Coaches in sports are essential at this stage because their role is to motivate athletes and help them maintain their peak performance. In addition, coaches could help athletes even with small gains in performance. Even though gains at the autonomous stage seem insignificant they eventually add up and are often the key difference between
There are several models that explain how people learn motor skills, but they all start from a learning stage when the performer depends on cognitive function for recalling the movement and end with the final stage when the movement becomes automated. For example, the three-stage skill acquisition model is similar to the motor program concept. According to that concept, the motor system operates on a series of commands that are not influenced by peripheral feedback (Keele, 1968).
However, it also states that the perceptive stage precedes the automation stage, and it also clarifies how performers repeat the movements accurately in different circumstances, so it is possible to use it for optimizing learning and helping people on different levels of skill acquisition improve their motor skills.
Implications of Speed and Accuracy in Training
Speed and accuracy are important motor skills for almost all athletes. While some athletes, such as sprinters, might be able to sacrifice accuracy in favor of speed without impacting their performance, others do not have the option of losing their advantage in a competition, so all athletes must work on their speed and accuracy.
It is not possible to rely on one universal approach for all athletes because the implication of speed and accuracy improvement in training depends on two factors. One factor is the personal stage of skill acquisition and the other factor includes all context-specific circumstances of a sport. Understanding those two factors can enable coaches to help their athletes develop both speed and accuracy without sacrificing one or the other.
For example, some studies found that accuracy in repeating and learning a movement depends on the time difference between the original movement and the repeated movement (Keele, 1968). When an athlete is learning a new skill, showing movements has the best effect if the athlete repeats them immediately, and that finding can be applied in any sport because of its generality and simplicity for athletes who are at the cognitive stage of skill learning.
In a context-specific setting, I would have to evaluate the learning stage of the athletes and evaluate their abilities. For example, as a basketball coach who is working with athletes at the beginning stage of skill learning, I would break down the movements from drills in fundamental patters to help athletes focus on fewer objectives before progressing into more complicated routines.
For example, dribbling the ball while running in place could precede dribbling the ball while running in a straight line. The next stage would be to dribble the ball around obstacles and shooting the ball at the basket. In the final stage, the athlete would learn how to dribble the ball and shoot while another player is blocking the shot. With a steady progress like that, the athlete could learn the movements required to play progressively, and that approach is critical for learning a skill because the performer does not experience cognitive overload with several different tasks at once. Instead, when one movement becomes a routine, the performer can learn another, and that approach helps athletes maintain both speed and accuracy in performance.
On the other hand, as a swimming coach, I would exclude any need to manipulate objects or pay attention to obstacles. Of course, breaking down the technique into several manageable pieces would encourage developing both speed and accuracy simultaneously. In the initial stage, I would break down the arm movements first, follow with the leg movements, and finally establish a breathing rhythm before synchronizing all aspects of proper technique together. That way, the athlete could learn how to swim without accurately without overloading with information during the cognitive stage. I would also place more emphasis on accurate technique performance rather than gaining speed because changing movement habits once they form is more difficult than increasing their speed once they become habits.
In some scenarios, fine tuning the speed and accuracy of athletes is also context-specific. For example, as a football coach, I would take heat in account because football players are exposed to heat more than other athletes. Besides playing games in the open and being exposed to the sun on hot days, their gear also increases their temperature. A study by Bandelow et al. (2010) found that player dehydration is not the main reason for loss in performance, but high plasma glucose levels were responsible for trading off speed for accuracy while increased core temperature can improve their accuracy and diminish speed. Because heat clearly impacts the cognitive functions of athletes and lowers their speed and accuracy, I would take it in account and develop methods for regulating core temperature and plasma glucose levels.
As a basketball coach, I would take in account the importance of endurance because it is a dynamic sport. Researchers found that novice basketball players lose their ability to perform accurate passes when fatigued (Lyons, Al-Nakeeb, & Nevill, 2006). Expert players also showed decrease in performance, but they can tolerate fatigue better. In most cases, the ball does not reach the target because the player looses strength and the ball does not gain enough speed from the throw. Because speed and accuracy decrease with fatigue, I would implement high intensity training and combine it with the team’s skills training.
If I were a hockey coach, I couldn’t afford to sacrifice speed for accuracy because the team would not be able to score any goals that way. Accuracy is important because the goalkeeper covers the small goal effectively, but trading speed for accuracy would not deliver a fast shot and would allow the goalkeeper to react on time. In that scenario, I would have to apply a different rule to bypass Fitts’ law.
When humans are already moving fast, speeding up can help with movement control and reaching the target. At some point during the intermediate stage of skill learning, the athletes are comfortable with executing movements and confident in their abilities. In that case, adding speed to the movement would not make them lose control and miss the target. In application, improving the accuracy should be the priority while speed gradually increases as the (Fairbrother, 2010).
As a hockey coach I would emphasize accuracy from the cognitive stage, but I would also emphasize it for intermediate athletes if I notice a lack of control. When an athlete misses a target too often, a proper verbal intervention would be to encourage the athlete to slow down when practicing their movement and focus on accuracy instead.
As a coach in any sport, I would also like to investigate mental imagery and its role in motor skill learning. According to researchers in the field of neurology, mental efforts activate various neural mechanisms and induce a cortical activation pattern specific to movement execution (Jeannerod, 1995). The mental efforts also follow similar adaptation patterns to repeating tasks for learning motor skills because the same neurophysiological substrate is the same in both cases.
Conclusion
Finally, it is evident that lifestyle factors impact motor skill learning. For example, it is evident that motor skill learning can encourage improvement in performance up to 24 hours after a training session. Walker, Brakefield, Morgan, Hobson, and Stickgold (2002) researched the effects of sleep on motor skill learning and found that nocturnal sleep increased motor speed by 20 percent without affecting accuracy.
In a broad context, sleeping can improve performance in any area of life, such as playing a musical instrument, drawing, or typing on the keyboard. Of course, it can only maximize performance of motor skills a person is practicing during daytime. Athletes and other performers can use that finding to adjust their lifestyle accordingly and achieve a functional and faster recovery after practice.
While various models and their implications are listed in studies and literature reviews, it is important to remember that the central activity that leads to performance improvement is practicing the basic movements required to execute the skill and improving related motor abilities that help in skill execution. Without the elementary practice, it is not possible to achieve or maintain a level of skill suitable for reaching the advanced stage of motor skill learning. Even when implementing the new strategies and findings in the area of speed and accuracy training, coaches should always remember to emphasize the basics consistently for maintaining their athletes’ optimal performance.
References
Bandelow, S., Maughan, R., Shirreffs, S., Ozgunen, K., Kurdak, S., Ersoz, G., Binnet, M., Dvorak, J. (2010). The effects of exercise, heat, cooling and rehydration strategies on cognitive function in football players. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 20(S3), 148-160. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01220.x
Fairbrother, J. (2010). Fundamentals of motor behavior. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Haibach, P. S., Reid, G., & Collier, D. H. (2011). Motor learning and development. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Jeannerod, M. (1995). Mental imagery in the motor context. Neuropsychologia, 33(11), 1419-1432.
Keele, S. W. (1968). Movement control in skilled motor performance. Psychological Bulletin, 70(6), 387-403.
Lyons, M., Al-Nakeeb, Y., & Nevill, A. (2006). The impact of moderate and high intensity total body fatigue on passing accuracy in expert and novice basketball players. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 5, 215-227.
Walker, M. P., Brakefield, T., Morgan, A., Hobson, J. A., & Stickgold, R. (2002). Practice with sleep makes perfect: Sleep-dependent motor skill learning. Neuron, 35, 205-211.
