Take A Different Look – Skill & Athleticism

In order to effectively train athletes for a sport or to rehab them from an injury demands a thorough and complete understanding of the demands of the sport. Each sport demands a certain amount of athleticism and a certain degree of skill. Athleticism is defined as the ability to perform athletic movements (run, jump, throw, push, pull, bend, extend etc.) with precision style and grace at optimum speed in the context of the sport. Skill is the ability to execute the movements of the sport with a high degree of proficiency. As we look at sports and the various positions and events in the sports require different degrees of athleticism and skill.

In order to further classify and hone in on the sport and position demands I have come up with a rating on a continuum. I call it the SA Rating. The continuum is a 1 – 10 scale for athleticism and skill on two different parallel lines. 1 on the left of the continuum indicates a low level of either athleticism or skill and 10 the highest rating.

S ₁  S ₂ S ₃   S ₄  S ₅  S ₆  S ₇  S ₈  S ₉  S ₁₀            S = Skill

A ₁  A ₂  A ₃  A ₄  A ₅  A ₆  A ₇  A ₈  A ₉  A ₁₀           A = Athleticism

Use American football as an example, overall the game rates around a 6 – 7 for athleticism and about the same for skill. (My opinion based on my analysis, but subject to debate) Then break it down by position to get a clearer picture of what the sport is about. As an example lets look at the positions in American football. For example a quarterback is a high skill demand position so he would rate a 10 in skill demand and a 7 in athleticism. So for a quarterback the SA Rating is S₁₀ – A₇. An offensive lineman on the other hand would rate  a 5 – 6 on skill and possibly a 6-7 on athleticism for an overall SA Rating of S₅ – A₆. Eventually it would be valuable to have a Skill/Athleticism (SA) rating for each position or event in each sport. The athleticism rating should correlate to the physical performance indicator testing battery that is used. The Skill rating should be determined by the commonly accepted parameters of good skill for the respective position or event.

This is not just an exercise in intellectual gymnastics, the SA Rating  will help to determine the direction and emphasis in training. It has profound implications for test selection and skill evaluation. This should be part of the overall athletic development process to determine training direction and purpose.