The Peak Performance Pyramid for Motor Skills: A Conceptual Framework for Helping Learners Reach Their Potential

Abstract

Elite motor skill performance is a highly-variable, complex phenomenon that is regularly observed and examined globally in various contexts such as sporting events like the Olympic games or professional contests, concert halls featuring accomplished musicians and singers, or sold-out venues that feature comedians or motivational speakers. Many professional groups have a vested interest in developing, maintaining, or understanding high levels of motor performance, including coaches, physical educators, exercise scientists, performance psychologists, and elite performers themselves, to name a few. While skill acquisition is a natural part of the human experience, the attainment of peak performance, which may be defined as optimal functioning or full use of potential, in a given domain is significantly more elusive and difficult to obtain. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present a utilitarian, efficient framework for considering and understanding peak performance and offer a discussion of the critical variables that are involved, based on the interdisciplinary nature of its study and evidence from previous research in underlying areas. This framework, entitled the Peak Performance Pyramid for Motor Skills, is designed to provide practitioners from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds with a resource for identifying potential strengths and areas of improvement in diverse learners.

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Notes on contributors

Kevin M. Fisher

Kevin M. Fisher ([email protected]) is an associate professor in the Department of Physical Education and Sport, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI.