Question

Chapter 7 discusses research on skilled actions like somersaulting. Another example from sports is how baseball players catch fly balls. Think of another sport that uses a skilled actions and then explain.

Answer 1

If we go through the research that how body orientation is controlled during somersaulting was investigated in 2 experiments that analyzed the kinematics of backward standing somersaults. In Experiment 1, open-loop, initial-condition (flight duration), and prospective (time to contact, or TC1) control strategies were tested as candidates for the regulation of body moment of inertia during the jump. Decreasing between-trials variability of body orientation over time as well as a negative correlation between body angular velocity and TC1 suggested that the moment of inertia was regulated prospectively. In Experiment 2, the visual basis for this regulation was examined by asking experts and novices to execute somersaults either with eyes closed or open. Results showed that the prospective regulation observed in the vision condition disappeared in the no-vision condition with the experts, arguing in favor of a visual control during the jump. Such a coupling was absent with the novices, thus illustrating the role played by the perception-action cycle in the learning process.

The tracking and prediction mechanism seemed to require movement of the player. Years ago, physicist Seville Chapman proposed a model to explain how players manage the path of a fly ball so that they arrive to intercept it at just the right time. His theory, called Optical Acceleration Cancellation (OAC), used the acceleration of the ball through the vision field as a guide for player movement.

Simple motor skills that require very little intricate body movement and are similar in most sports. Examples are running, jumping, throwing, catching and hitting. Complex motor skills that require intricate body movements with finer control of many body parts. An example of this is the lay-up shot in basketball.