Coordination is often the difference between a good musician or dancer and a poor one. The ability to move limbs independently of one another in time influences a person's musical ability. A basic test of this skill is to simultaneously pat your head and rub your stomach, as your competency in this skill is linked to your level of coordination. A person who is incapable of performing this basic rhythmic skill is less likely to be able operate machinery, especially machinery incorporating a wheel and crank.
The ability to identify a rhythm, in any format, is a rhythmic skill. Professor Jenny Thomson of the Harvard Graduate School of Education believes that a limited ability to identify the rhythm in a written word can cause a person to struggle to read or learn a new language. She believes this is due to the subject failing to identify a rhythmic syllabic pattern, which causes difficulty reproducing in sound what he sees on paper.
Timing is an essential skill for musicians. In a professional context, a musician with poor timing will typically take longer to record a piece of music at a satisfactory level. This means that they spend longer in the recording studio until they get it right; if the recording studio charges by the hour, their poor timing will cost money. This is why drummers possessing only basic musical skills but who have excellent timing can prove invaluable. U2 drummer Larry Mullen impressed record producer Brian Eno with his "incredible" timing. Mullen claimed that the digital click track to which the band was recording was out of time; since digital click tracks are designed to stop musicians from playing out of time, Eno assumed it was Mullen who was wrong. Eno later discovered that he'd set the click track 6 milliseconds too slow.
Composition of a rhythm requires a combination of creativity and pragmatism. The capacity to judge what kind of rhythm works best for a particular song is a creative skill. The capacity to construct a coherent rhythm in a particular time signature is a practical, mathematical skill.
Memorization and repetition are basic rhythmic skills. The "clapping game" is a convenient way for percussion teachers to identify the more skilled among their pupils. By clapping a simple rhythm to a child and having her attempt clap it back accurately, a teacher is able to measure her rhythmic skill.