Developing motor skills in practice: A case of mastering ‘heelflips’

We present the case of JB who is a highly motivated, amateur skateboarder and our online interactions with JB over the course of a year. These interactions concerned a discussion of motor learning practice principles that would potentially help JB acquire difficult and risky motor skills involved in skateboarding tricks. We focused our discussions and eventual recommendations on the skill of heelflips and the initial stage of skill acquisition. Acquiring a new skill requires a rather nuanced appreciation and application of the motor learning literature, as a significant body of research is based on motor skill refinement. We offered advice with respect to demonstrations and feedback, practice organisation and task complexity and challenge. JB acquired the skill which was causing him difficulty, which we hope was in part a result of our consultations. He provides some reflections about his practice and we frame our discussions with respect to motor control and learning theory and concepts related to effective error-detection and correction.