{"id":34768,"date":"2026-04-29T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=34768"},"modified":"2026-05-13T10:59:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:59:06","slug":"skill-acquisition-tension-challenges-and-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/skill-acquisition-tension-challenges-and-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Skill Acquisition: Tension, Challenges and Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 29 Apr 2026 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Skill Acquisition: Tension, Challenges and Opportunities<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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At a recent virtual roundtable, skill acquisition specialists Damian Farrow and Lyndell Bruce led a conversation into one of sport\u2019s most misunderstood disciplines.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
Performance gains, as Dr Damian Farrow explained, tend to be rooted in movement, coordination and skill refinement.<\/h6>\n

\u201cIn general, the most positive experiences I\u2019m sure anyone on the call has had are where a group of people come together and they just keep chipping away and asking questions,\u201d said the AFL\u2019s Football Innovation Manager, while co-hosting a recent Leaders Virtual Roundtable, the first of two to explore the theme of skill acquisition.<\/p>\n

Farrow, also a renowned Emeritus Professor of Skill Acquisition at Victoria University, enjoys such conversations with coaches, who bring their own set of experiences to the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magic happens when you\u2019re leaning on both sides of that equation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The \u2018magic\u2019, as Farrow put it, was nicely captured by his co-host Dr Lyndell Bruce, the Director of Sport at Deakin University, who spoke of the sense of pride she feels when a training tweak pays off.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWhether the athletes pick things up quicker or that they just all of a sudden get it or we change something slightly and it just clicks, whether it\u2019s for the individual or the group, we can then see the impact in what we\u2019re all striving to do with our athlete cohorts.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, despite the centrality of skill acquisition to performance, it is often hampered by a range of systemic issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes considerable time to improve skill,\u201d said Farrow. \u201cI think sometimes we just keep going around in this cycle going \u2018oh, did that really work? I don\u2019t know.\u2019 But we probably, a lot of the time, didn\u2019t give it sufficient time; we didn\u2019t periodise it like we might do a strength training programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of this first session, Farrow and Bruce led a cohort of Leaders Performance Institute members in a discussion about the challenges, tensions and opportunities in skill acquisition.<\/p>\n

Beyond the time it takes to acquire a skill, the table noted several other challenges and tensions:<\/strong><\/p>\n