The difference between open and closed sports skills

HostI was watching some kids at the park yesterday and it struck me how different their games were. Some were on the mats doing gymnastics, trying to get the same flip right over and over. Then there was this wild game of tag happening nearby where everyone was darting in different directions. It felt like they were using their brains in two completely different ways.

GuestThey really were. In the world of sports, we look at those as two big groups. We call them closed skills and open skills. The big thing that sets them apart is how much the world around you is changing while you try to do your move. With those kids doing flips, the mat isn't moving. The air isn't moving. It's just them and their own bodies. That's a closed skill. But the kids playing tag? The person they're chasing is dodging and weaving. That's an open skill because you have to change what you're doing based on what's happening outside of you.

HostSo it's about who's in charge of the timing?

GuestThat's a huge part of it. In a closed skill like bowling or a golf swing, you decide when to start. You can take a deep breath, settle your feet, and go when you're ready. The ball is just sitting there. You're trying to be a machine, doing the exact same motion every single time to get the same result. But in an open skill, like playing soccer or wrestling, the other person often picks the timing. You have to act fast because someone is kicking a ball at you or trying to grab your leg. You can't just follow a script.

HostI don't know, that makes it sound like closed skills are the easy ones. But I have seen Olympic divers. That looks incredibly hard. Are you saying it's easier because the pool doesn't move?

GuestNot easier, just a different kind of hard. It's the difference between being perfect and being fast. In a closed skill, the goal is to get rid of all the messy parts until only the perfect move is left. You want to be so consistent that you could do it in your sleep. The pressure comes from the fact that even a tiny mistake, like your pinky being out of place in a dive, ruins the whole thing. In an open skill, you almost never do the same move twice. You might have to kick a ball while you're falling down or running full speed. It's messy on purpose. You aren't trying to be a robot; you're trying to solve a puzzle that's changing every second.

HostSo if they're so different, why do I see soccer players practicing by kicking a ball against a wall or weaving through cones? Those cones aren't moving. Does that mean they're practicing it as a closed skill?

GuestYou caught onto something important there. We often take an open skill and break it down into closed pieces to learn the basics. If you can't kick the ball straight when it's sitting still, you have no chance of hitting it when it's rolling toward you at twenty miles an hour. But here is the trap. A lot of people spend all their time on those closed drills. They get really good at weaving through cones, but then they get into a real game and they freeze. It's because they learned the move, but they didn't learn how to read the world. They didn't learn the cues, like how a defender's hips move before they try to steal the ball.

HostThat makes sense. It's like learning to speak a language by only reading a book, but then failing when you actually have to talk to a person who talks back.

GuestExactly. And most sports aren't just one or the other. They live on a line between the two. Think about basketball. When you're taking a free throw, that's a closed skill. The clock is stopped, no one can touch you, and the hoop is always in the same spot. But the rest of the game is about as open as it gets. You're reacting to four teammates and five players on the other team. The best players are the ones who can switch their brains back and forth between those two modes without missing a beat.

HostWait, what about something like tennis? You're the one hitting the ball, but you're hitting it back to someone else. Is the serve a closed skill since you're the one who tosses the ball up?

GuestMost people would say yes. The serve is the one time in tennis where you have total control. You pick the spot, you pick the speed, and you start the clock. But the second that ball comes back over the net, the skill flips. Now it's open. You have to judge the height of the ball, the spin, and where your opponent is standing. If you try to swing the exact same way every time in a rally, you'll lose, because the ball is never in the exact same spot twice.

HostIt sounds like the brain has to work a lot harder during those open moments because it's constantly guessing.

GuestIt's doing a lot of math very fast. In an open skill, your brain is looking for patterns. It sees how a pitcher in baseball holds the ball and it starts to guess where that ball will go before it even leaves his hand. If you wait until you see the ball moving to decide what to do, you're already too late. In a closed skill, the brain is more like a library. It's just reaching back and pulling out the one perfect memory of how to swing a bat or throw a dart.

HostSo the real magic is in how we handle the things we can't see coming.

GuestThe real trick is that the better you get at an open skill, the more it starts to feel like a closed one because your brain gets so good at seeing what will happen next that nothing feels like a surprise anymore.

HostThose kids at the park might have been playing different games, but they were both just trying to get their bodies to do exactly what their minds saw a split second before.

GuestWhether you're perfecting a path or reacting to a wild one, it all comes down to how well you handle the world around you.

HostThe gymnastics mat stays still and the game of tag never stops moving, but both athletes are just looking for that one moment where everything clicks.