Students will follow a nine week guided study programme and access support material via Blackboard. Students will be required to access additional support material independently.

This module will adopt a collaborative approach to learning where, via a series of on-line discussions (that will form part of the assessment process) students will demonstrate their developing understanding of often different and divergent approaches to the control and coordination of sport related skill.
Central to this approach will be a series of on-line debates or discussion issues that will arise out of the 'Activities' and accompanying 'Tasks' undertaken within the module. Students will be required to initially outline, defend and subsequently reflect on a position or viewpoint offered, that will be critically debated by fellow students.

Students will be required to complete 2 pieces of summative assessment.

1. A 2000 word position statement (worth 60% of the module grade) on a selected theme/topic within the module agreed in advance with the module leader examining LO1
2. A 1500 word reflective essay (worth 40% of the module grade) where students examine their involvement in, and contribution to, selected on-line discussion issues with their fellow students, examining LO?s 2 and 3. Note this assessment can only be undertaken if a stated minimal amount of module related discussion content is submitted to the VLE by each student. Specific details regards this will be given in assessment guidelines available from the outset of the module.

Course textbooks and learning materials as suggested above. Access to PC with word processing and PowerPoint programmes and internet. To access Blackboard you must have a PC running Windows NT4, 95, 98, 2000 or XP or a Macintosh. You must also have either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 4.0 or above. Remote access to library facilities.

Williams, A.M., Davids, K. & Williams, J.G. (1999). Visual perception & action in sport. London. E & F.N.Spon. ISBN: 0-419-18290-X

Williams, A.M. & Hodges, N.J. (2004). Skill Acquisition in Sport. London: Routledge.
ISBN: 0-415-27075-8

This module uses sporting actions to consider the emergence of skill via examination of the processes of movement co-ordination, perception and motor control. A historical overview of the field will be followed by a look at the paradigm that has dominated the field until recently, namely information processing. In particular, cognitive explanations of how the (a) scheduling of practice (b) instruction and (c) feedback are believed to support skill learning are critically examined.
In addition the `expertise' approach to skill is introduced and evaluated alongside developmental aspects of skill acquisition.
More recent approaches to the study of sport related skills are critically evaluated. Specifically, the principles behind the ecological/dynamical approach are examined - exemplars of interceptive actions (catching, hitting and jumping) in sport are used to highlight key areas of divergence between different theoretical approaches to the study of perception (direct versus indirect) and action in sport.