The Student Room Group

technical and tactical skills in sport

could anyone please explain the difference of these two terms?

what is a technical skill?

and what is a tactical skill?

thank you in advance!!
Reply 1
technical = technique, how well a skill is performed in football this might be how well a player can dribble with the ball or control it. how accurate a tennis player can serve. in athletics, it's to do with how efficiently the movement is carried out.

tactics = shot selection, anticipation and perception, peripheral vision, choosing when to do what, what players to play in certain positions and what mentality the team should adopt.
Reply 2
In rugby technique(technical) is e.g. the accuracy of the pass, tactical (tactics) is to whom and when will the ball be passed.
Reply 3
thank you! does anybody know what they would be in dance as a sport?
Reply 4
How would you do this in netball?
don no mate.....................................................................
Reply 6
what would they be in swimming??
Original post by tony!!
what would they be in swimming??
Technical- breathing, arm actions and kicks to make up a whole stroke. Tactical- In meddling relay, the team arrangement to put each swimmer to take part in their best stroke
I'll use Table Tennis and Cricket as examples to explain this.

Technical: It is how close to perfection you are at the sport. For example, in Table Tennis, an aggressive player should be able to consistently loop with the correct stroke on both sides. How much "brushing off the ball" they are able to do or how they are able to react to each shot perfectly. In Cricket, a spin bowler will be more "technical" if they are able to spin both ways heavily and able to aim at the right areas. A batsman will usually try to hit the ball from the middle of the bat. Both sports require extremely good footwork (in my experience Table Tennis requires VERY quick, agile footwork).

Tactical: It is how "smart" you play your sport, sometimes a more technically perfect player may lose to a smarter player (has happened to me before). In Table Tennis, it is usually the variation of shot placement, eg when you see a player stepping around the table you can hit the ball down the line and that usually ends the point. The amount of spin is also a good way to confuse oppositions. I've played against a fair amount of pimpled players that usually like to twiddle to vary their spin more easily. A normal aggressive player (like myself) will vary spin by "brushing heavily" on one ball then hitting it more flat and over the top the next and will usually do this consistently. Serving is a HUGE part of tactical Table Tennis too. In Cricket, a spin bowler will try to cause a mistake from the opposite batsman. If you've ever watched leg spinners, like Yuzvendra Chahal, they will usually bowl HEAVY leg breaks that forces the batsman out of the crease. The ball then turns away from the batsman and the wicketkeepers takes the ball and stumps the player out. A batsman will use their field of vision to hit the ball in spaces and where there are no fielders to hit boundaries.

These two are the sports I've played to a good competitive level so I can really use examples on these.

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