Transfer of learning

Transfer of learning

This is the process of where someone transfers a set of skills used in in one sport to another sport, this will help an athlete as some sports have similar aspects such as in football and rugby there is still both footwork, kicking the ball, throwing the ball, offsides and set plays. this will help, the transfer of learning is based on five different things, this is:

Positive transfer

this is what every athlete would want when transferring skills from one sport to another, this is when one skill from one sport is effective in another sport, such as on a small scale, catching the ball would be beneficial in basket ball and then if you transfers to rugby this skill would benefit you, on a larger scale in terms of complexity being able to take a free-kick in football could benefit you in rugby when you take a conversion.

Negative transfer

this is basically the opposite of the positive transfer of learning and this is when someone cannot transfer a skill from one sport to another as they find it hard and therefore when doing the skill isn't successful even though it is similar to the same skill in another sport, this could be moving from basketball to rugby, although your main skill is catching and having good hand co-ordination with the ball with your hands, the balls are different and could determine whether you are successful or not and if you needed to change your technique.

Zero transfer

this is where an athlete changes from one sport to another that has not relevant skills that they could use to help the change, such as if you moved from table tennis to swimming, there actions required in both sports don't over-link and therefore no skills learnt in one can be used in the other.

Intra - Task transfer

this is where an athlete can transfer one skill due to a situations in one sport to another because the situations, these situations help the athlete to then be able to do the same skill in another sport such as a pass in rugby league, will be the same in rugby union

Inter - tasking transfer

this is the same as intra-tasking however this is when you transfer more than one skill out of one situation in a sport and use it in another sport to develop a skill, such as an athlete that does the 100 meter sprint, going into the 110 meter hurdles, they would already had the running, the stride length and the speed, they would need to introduce the jumping and leg co-ordination into it

Bilateral

Having good bilateral skills is where you have the ability to use both sides of your body (left and right) this transfer of information is where you have the ability to do a skill with one side and then you can transfer it to doing it the other side, an example of this would be in football when passing with your dominant foot and you can make a successful pass nine times out of ten, and when you do it on your weaker side and do it successful three times out of ten then the transfer isn't very good, but if they was to do nine or ten out of ten for both sides they would have a good bilateral transfer of information.

The influence of transferring skills

the transfer of skills can have a positive and negative influence on an athletes performance:

Positive influences:

an athlete would have a positive transfer of skills when the skills that they are transferring have a positive affect on there performance, this could be the fact that the skills that they have brought across are exactly what is needed in that sports such as is you was playing netball and transferred into basketball then you would have the catching, the passing and the shooting, and with the shooting you would be more comfortable at scoring without it hitting the rim as you haven't had the backboard to help you score, also the skill that you could transfer could be more more beneficial than what other athletes have, such as if  you was a long distance runner, and you transferred into football, then you would more than likely have a better aerobic endurance than most of the player in the pitch and therefore have a increase in performance levels.

Negative influences:

an athlete would have negative influences when they have any transfer of skills, this is because the skill that you are transferring could actually hinder your ability to do a skill that is required for your new sport, such as in rugby when you take a conversion, you are aiming for hieght and accuracy at a target, but if you transfer to football and take freekicks, the fact that you have always aimed high, and leant back in your strike of the ball, means that you could transfer it into the freekick and kick it over.