Closed Vs. Open Skills & Athletic Development
Closed Skills- environment is stable making it predictable
Open Skills- environment is constantly changing making it unpredictable
During closed skills, performers are able to plan out movement in advance due to the stable environment. In open skills, the entire movement cannot be completely planned out meaning that the performer must use anticipation to adapt the motor behavior to the changing environment. The planning and sequencing of complex movements happens in the prefrontal cortex & the supplementary motor area (SMA) of the motor cortex. The cerebellum controls coordinated movement and with practice aids in anticipating movements in sequence
There are two variables that need to be discussed to understand the training conditions related to closed vs open skills
Reaction Time- time from arrival of signal to beginning of response
Error- degree to which target was not achieved, decreased accuracy
Reaction time is increased when there are more choices to respond to. Error is increased and movement is less accurate when speed of reaction & movement is faster. This means open skills have an increased difficulty compared to closed skills. This is important because most team sports are played in an unstable environment meaning athletes need to develop open skills. However, it may be valuable to develop closed skills first in a stable environment that can be used to work into open skills.
A complete athletic development program should utilize both closed and open skills. Closed skills to develop capacities and general skills like strength, speed, COD, etc. Open skills are more related to what we see in sports and utilize more cognition to anticipate sport skills. For example, closed skills might include a strength & conditioning program where weightlifting and field drills are done in a stable environment. Open skills then relate to training those capacities to transfer to sport like a linebacker sacking a quarterback
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