Manual skills can also be classified in terms of how much initiative people are able
to draw upon when undertaking tasks in different situations. In particular, people can
be routine experts or they can be adaptive experts (Lin et al., 2007). Adaptive experts
are able to discern the specific, and often subtle, features that differentiate one situation
from another. Further, they have the ability to modify or invent skills according to
the requirements of that situation. Moreover, adaptive experts avoid the unproductive
application of previously useful prior learning in new situations. This can be very important because the nature of the situation determines the nature of the successful
pattern of movement for a particular motor skill (Gentile, 1977). In other words,
adaptive experts are able to draw upon initiative to deal with a wide variety of different
situations. However, there are many situations where adaptive expertise is not needed,
and routine expertise is sufficient. For example, typing is a skill with extremely stable
manual skill requirements. Accordingly, the instruction of such manual skills should
aim to make sure that people develop good initial habits, so they can become
increasingly efficient without ever having to undo their prior learning
(Schwartz et al., 2009).