HOUSTON TEXANS STRENGTH & CONDITIONING PROGRAM ...

accuracy with the regular ball has been negatively affected. You must now reestablish the
specific neuromuscular pattern used to shoot a regular ball.
Adding any resistance to a skill makes it a new skill. Add enough resistance to a skill
(a heavy medicine ball instead of a basketball) and it becomes exercise. Drowatzky
states, “No support was found for the practice of using added weight during practice to
facilitate improved performance in motor skills.”
Strengthen the muscles used to perform a skill in the weight room. Do not confuse
skill with exercise.
In his text, Introduction to Motor Behavior: A Neuropsychological Approach, author
George Sage states, “Practice of nonspecific “coordination” or “quickening” tasks will
not produce transfer to specific sport skills.”
Motor learning experts classify skills as “open” or “closed.” Closed skills require the
same movement pattern in an unchanging environment. Examples include a foul shot in
basketball, shot put, golf, diving, and performing a power clean.
Open skills are performed under varying environmental conditions each time they are
executed and require a flexibility of movement response. Open skills include activities
similar to fielding and throwing a baseball, throwing a football on the run, tackling an
opponent or blocking a defensive lineman.
Skill transfer from task-to-task does not occur according to the motor-learning
experts. A closed skill like the power clean will not transfer to the many open skills used
to play the game of football. Motor skill transfer studies have been conducted to
determine the transfer of one skill to another. This is called task-to-task transfer.
Sage states, “Studies of motor skill transfer from one task to another are not numerous
but they do consistently support the notion that there is little transfer from one task to
another. In summarizing data on task-to-task transfer with motor tasks it appears that
there is typically little transfer of any kind.”
Intra-task transfer is a term used by motor learning experts to describe several tasks
performed in sequence to complete a skill. Transfer does take place with intra-task
transfer if the exact tasks are practiced separately and then practiced together in sequence
to complete the entire skill.
Intra-task transfer can be observed when the offensive lineman practices his footwork
coming out of his stance and his hand placement. From his stance the offensive lineman
practices his first step over and over. He will then practice his hand placement, and
finally the footwork used to complete the entire skill of pass protection.
Each task is practiced individually and eventually put together and practiced from
beginning to end at full speed. Each of these individual tasks when practiced
independently will transfer to the whole task at hand.
How do you best develop the skills used to play the game of football The answer is
easy. Improve the skills used to play football by practicing those skills. Practice those
skills under game conditions whenever possible. Quarterbacks should throw in shoulder
pads whenever possible. Long snappers should practice snapping in pads, with a helmet
on. Linebackers should practice covering running backs, and so on.
The Motor Learning Community agrees that Skill Development is very specific.
Athletes must practice the exact skills they use to play the game to refine those specific
skills. It’s impossible to duplicate any of those skills in the weight room unless we clear
an area and have players put on pads and scrimmage at full speed. Skills are specific. We
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