ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the general approaches used in the past, and to propose a taxonomy of sport skill classification that could aid researchers in this area. On the one hand, sport performers at the high, low ends of the skill continuum are easy to identify by virtue of the accomplishments, in the case of experts, or their complete lack of capability or knowledge in the case of naivetes. A novice is someone newly initiated with limited knowledge of the domain. Although this level of skill is one of the most common in expertise research due to the seemingly ubiquitous expert-novice paradigm, the term “novice,” at least as used in many previous investigations, has been vague, includes participants ranging from club players to totally inexperienced. The total number of hours will vary depending on a range of factors, but the regularity of training is a key element distinguishing athletes in the more advanced levels of skill from those at early stages.
