Do you want to take your coaching up a gear? Explore the fascinating field of motor learning in this series, combining the science of neurology, physiology and psychology to improve your understanding of how your clients learn new skills. Discover how movement becomes autonomous (or subconscious) so your athletes/clients can perform optimally without even thinking about it. Ultimately, this course is going to take your overall coaching practice to the next level.
Motor learning is the process of learning a new skill or ‘skill acquisition’. It occurs at a psychological and physiological level and is vital within athletic development and sports performance. The process of learning a new skill is of great interest to cognitive psychologists, as it involves the processing of information.
Suggested Pre-requisite:
None
Aims and objectives:
- Be able to describe the science of motor learning and the motor learning process.
- Understand how, physiologically, the performance of a skill involves a synergist collaboration between the neuro-muscular-skeletal bodily systems, with movement quality improving as the synchronisation of motor unit recruitment, rate coding and muscle contraction timing becomes more efficient.
- Know how attention of focus can affect the motor learning process.
- Be able to describe the associated neurological changes associated within motor learning, including neural plasticity and synaptic adaptations.
- Understand how the type and timing of feedback can affect the motor learning process, including the motivational effects.
- Understand how effective observation strategies can enhance the motor learning process, including model considerations, and the different functions observation models serve.
- Understand the concepts of motor imagery and visualisation within motor learning.
- Learn the PETTLEP motor imagery method and how it can be implemented to improve the motor learning process.
- Learn the concept of Dynamic Systems Theory within motor learning.
- Learn the constraints-led approach of motor learning and how it can be implemented to improve skill acquisition.
Author Bio
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Thomas Stringwell
Thomas Stringwell is the founder of Your Gym Sports Performance Ltd, an education provider that specialises within the fields of strength and conditioning and sports science. He’s an accredited strength and conditioning coach with the UKSCA and currently provides performance consultancy services across a range of sports including rugby union, rugby league, soccer, handball, boxing, mixed martial arts, BMX supercross, strength sports and Youth Athletic Development.
He holds an MSc in Sports Biomechanics (Loughborough University), a 1st class honours degree in Sport and Exercise Science (Manchester Metropolitan University) and a Certificate in Education teaching degree (Huddersfield University), with future ambitions of completing a PhD within the field of motor learning, constraints-based learning and non-linear pedagogy.
He has a real passion for education and coach development, having both coached and taught within the fields of strength and conditioning and health and fitness for over a decade. He’s a lifelong strength sport enthusiast, having competed both in Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting at a national level, with a genuine drive to support and educate coaches throughout our industry.
