Cognitive Stage– During this initial stage of motor learning, the goal is to develop an overall understanding of the skill. The learner must determine what the objective of the skill is and begin to process environmental factors that will affect their ability to produce the skill. The teacher must do their best to provide an optimal environment for learning, which may mean removing large distractors. During this stage, the learner mostly relies on visual input and trial and error to guide learning.

Associative Stage – During this stage, the learner begins to demonstrate a more refined movement through practice. Now that the learner has had some practice and has identified various stimuli that may occur, they can focus on “how to do” moving on from the “what to do” in the first stage. Here, visual cues become less important and proprioceptive cues become very important. Proprioceptive cues refer to the learner focusing more on how their body is moving in space and what input is being felt from their joints and muscles. The more practice, the more proprioceptive input the learner receives to aide learning. Therefore, the more practice the better!

Autonomous Stage – During this final stage of learning, the motor skill becomes mostly automatic. Progression to this level of learning allows the learner to perform the skill in any environment with very little cognitive involvement compared to the first stage.

-Use some of your planning time to research the following types of practice.

Fixed practice

Distributed practice

Mass practice

Open/ closed practice

Variable practice

Use your practical sessions to attempt each of these drills to gain experience and understanding of each of these types of practice. You will be required to utilise some of these in an attempt to improve your performance whilst applying biomechanical understadning to your chosen skill.