This paper purports to concentrate on the complex-skill characteristic of translation and interpreting. When choosing this perspective, all of the extensive literature on the nature of complex skills, on how they are acquired and may best be trained, and on expertise becomes pertinent to the study of translation and interpreting. In this article a number of central themes in this vast research field are highlighted and an attempt is made to apply them to the study of translation and interpreting. The author only considers text-to-text translation and simultaneous interpreting, often referring to these specific forms of translation with the terms ‘translation’ and ‘interpreting’, respectively. The discussion focuses on a componential approach to training complex skills and on the relevance of acquiring fluency/automaticity in as many of the task components as possible.