The specificity versus generality of ball-handling skills - Empirical evidence for a general ball-handling ability

Pär Rylander; Magnus Karlsteen; Konstantin Kougioumtzis; Jan-Eric Gustafsson

doi:10.1016/j.humov.2019.05.024

The specificity versus generality of ball-handling skills - Empirical evidence for a general ball-handling ability

Hum Mov Sci. 2019 Aug:66:477-486. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2019.05.024. Epub 2019 Jun 6.

Authors

Pär Rylander¹, Magnus Karlsteen², Konstantin Kougioumtzis³, Jan-Eric Gustafsson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food, Nutrition, and Sport Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Electronic address: par.rylander@gu.se.
² Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
³ Department of Food, Nutrition, and Sport Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. Electronic address: konstantin.kougioumtzis@gu.se.
⁴ Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

PMID: 31176883
DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2019.05.024

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate if ball-handling skills are specific and uncorrelated (i.e., motor specificity), or if they share an underlying ball-handling ability (i.e., motor generality). To empirically investigate this question, we had a sample of 201 adolescents perform 12 novel ball-handling tasks. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we showed that a model based on the assumptions of the generality perspective was superior to a model based on assumptions of specificity. The general ball-handling factor did significantly influence the performance on all 12 tasks, with factor loadings ranging between 0.39 and 0.79. The results and it's practical implications are discussed in relation to development of sport specific skills.

Keywords: Abilities; Ball-handling; Generality; Skills; Specificity.