Recommendations

Recommendations for future skill acquisition for a pass in football and a serve in tennis could be improved by:
Feedback
Reaction time

Feedback is essential to a sports person wanting to improve and to continually improve. Feedback needs to be specific to each sports performer and needs to be delivered at the right time. An example of this in a sporting situation is a long range pass in football. A pass is switched from one side of the pitch to another and it lands straight in a teammates path. The crowd is cheering, your teammates are appreciative of the pass and then the manager has a word with the player..."That was a fantastic pass!" As the manager has said that, it encourages the player to do the switch ball again and gives them confidence. The timing of the feedback was so crucial because if the crowd hadn't of cheered or the manager hadn't of said anything then they might not of thought any different about the pass and maybe might not have attempted the pass again! This example shows that how much feedback can play a part in building confidence and maybe winning a game. But it isn't just positive feedback. Negative feedback should also be used to discourage players from doing bad actions. The more feedback players get straight after producing a skill then the more knowledge and experience they will gain. They will now start to understand the game better.

Tennis and football can be very fast sports at the best of times so reacting to the environment quicker than anybody else (espescially in football) is an advantage to anyone. The game of football is a game of responses. Players respond to the whistle of the referee, respond to instructions from the manager and teammates. Tennis players also respond to umpires decisions and shouts from the crowd. The faster a player can interpret his/her environment then the more benefits he/she will receive. An example of this is when receiving a serve in tennis. A serve could be travelling at 100mph so the player has to react as fast as they can and try and get the ball back in play or even win the point on return. The players with the faster reaction times will obviously have a better chance of perceiving where the ball is going to go and get it back in play. This example shows how important a little thing like reaction times can change the course of games.
(Advanced P.E. for Edexcel 2000)