This article considers human motor skills based on the concept of the hierarchical organisation of living systems. This concept considers apparently opposite phenomena (e.g. consistency-variability) as complementary and as contemplated in the same structure. The hierarchy in open systems is characterised by three main relativities: (a) whole and parts, (b) control and (c) variability. From a hierarchical standpoint, motor skills phenomena are structured under two levels: macro (responsible for the consistency and configuration of patterns) and micro (responsible for variability and, consequently, the flexibility of patterns). Study findings make it possible to understand how adaptations in the soccer, futsal, swimming, golf, coincident timing and graphic motor skills take place by altering the microstructure (parameterisation) or reorganising the macrostructure (self-organisation). The distinction between these two modes of adaptation allows us to consider the increase of complexity in the motor skills phenomena as a basic feature of living systems.
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