Lesson
Practice - How To
– Considered the single most important factor in the control of learning
– Should be EFFORTFUL and under OPTIMAL TRAINING CONDITIONS
– OPTIMAL = well defined task; of appropriate difficulty for athlete; with information
feedback; and sufficient opportunities for repetition and correction of errors
– Such practice has been termed DELIBERATE PRACTICE
– Such practice must be undertaken with the intent to improve, not merely a case of
“going through the motions” physically
– Most sports require a variety of skills to be learned, often many skills must be taught
per session. How to manage? Using either BLOCKED or RANDOM PRACTICE
– In BLOCKED practice, all repetitions of given task are completed before moving on.
It is said to produce better acquisition performance; poorer long-term learning as
measured by delayed retention and transfer
– In RANDOM practice no two trials practice the same task. There is a CONTEXTUAL
INTERFERENCE effect and better learning although acquisition is depressed
More elaborate processes have to be used when working memory has several tasks
– REPEATED BLOCKED PRACTICE requires several strokes of one type repeated a few times,
followed by other strokes, in rotation