Skills competitions refer to special exhibition contests that take place during all-star games or other special events in professional sports. Generally, they are held the day before the all-star games.
These events seem to serve at least two purposes: the first is to establish bragging rights between athletes for possessing a particular skill needed to succeed in a sport, and the second is to increase ticket and television revenue for the leagues that sponsor the event. Skills contests are often the only events for which tickets are available during an all-star period, because tickets for the games themselves are sold out.