The development and control of behavior in sport and physical education. The process of becoming competent in physical performance must be divided into a large number of small steps with reinforcement being contingent upon the completion of each step. This does not imply teaching by the part method. It requires the development of systematic, empirically justified, successive approximations of the final skill as a program for teaching physical behaviors.
Small steps facilitate shaping because they place reinforcement within the reach of the individual.
The importance of step formulation cannot be over-emphasized. It offers the prospect of producing programs which eliminate or minimize errors and their contaminant negative qualities. Complex behaviors must be developed through programmed procedures. Typical procedures of instruction do not have a skillful program which moves through a series of progressive approximations to the final topography. Poorly developed programs and poor reinforcement techniques retard optimal skill development.