Practices

Presentation of Skills in Sport and Exercise

One of the key decisions faced by a coach is how they present the practice to the performer. The goal is to present the practice in such a way that the performer can improve at the fastest rate possible yet remain free from excessive fatigue, and prevent injury. An expert coach is able to present skills so participants acquire skills quickly and different skills require different methods of presentation. Before the practice method can be chosen there are some key factors that need to be considered. These factors include:

• The age of learner,
• The motivation of learner,
• The fitness of learner and the physical demand of activity,
• The nature or type of skill,
• The classification of the skill such as the complexity and organisation of the skill,
• Whether the skill is open or closed,
• The level of experience of the learner or the stage of learning,
• The time constraints on learning.

Whole Practice

If a skill is practised in its entirety or as a complete action, this is said to be whole practice. Skills that are highly organised, or are ballistic skills (open loop control) are usually practised in this way. To improve or modify a skill it is always carried out fully, but movement patterns are shaped as they perform this whole action. For example a golf swing, which is a ballistic and a highly organised skill that is difficult to break down into its sub-routines for practice. Most skills that only have only a few sub-routines are also practised as a whole, for example a basketball or netball shot. Coaches may find the whole practice method efficient when time is limited. This type of practice allows the performer to develop a kinaesthetic awareness or feel of the skill. It enables the learner to gain an understanding of the relationship between difficult subroutines and gain an insight of whole skill. Practising a skill using the whole method allows the performer to experience the timing needed to execute the skill so the movement becomes fluent. The performer gains an appreciation of the end product and sees the entire skill, this helps the learner to develop their own schema and it makes it easier to transfer the skill in to a game situation.

The whole method does, however, present the learner with large amounts of information to process so is more suitable for performers in the autonomous stage of learning. This method stretches a beginner beyond their capabilities.

Part Practice

When a skill is broken down into one or more of the sub-routines so they can be worked on, then this is parts practice. After working on the individual parts they are reassembled to make the whole skill. Part practice is usually used when a skill has low organisation and can be easily broken down into its sub-routines. For example when developing an effective back stroke or front crawl (in swimming), the leg action and the arm action can be practised separately using a float for assistance. This means these aspects of the skill can be refined, before they are then combined together. Part practice is good for beginners because they are not given too much information at once and can concentrate on improving one aspect of the skill at a time. Part practice can prevent an overload of information. For example, most of you will have worked on the javelin throw from a standing position before a run-up is added.

Practising the skill in parts could also prevent a learner becoming too fatigued. For example a 400m hurdler may work on their hurdling technique over shorter distances. Additionally part practice allows specific aspects of a technique to be focussed on so that as these sub-routines are mastered the performer develops confidence. This can be motivational and sometimes speed up learning. If there is a risk of danger when performing a skill then this method can reduce the risk of injury, for example if a high diver wanted to develop a dive including a double or triple somersault they will practise on a trampoline using a harness and will not perform the dive into the water until they have perfected these rotations out of it.

A disadvantage of part practice is that the performer may struggle to appreciate the kinaesthetic feel resulting in a loss of fluidity of the movement. The transfer from part to whole may also be ineffective so this method does not suit skills that are highly organised or ballistic. It can be a time consuming process that the learner may find tedious.

Whole-part-whole

Whole-part-whole is very often used by teachers and coaches when taking a new group. For example in a swimming lesson a coach may watch all the learners swim using the full action (e.g. back stroke). They will then break the skill down for some learners so they work on their weakness. For example, some may work on their arm action, whereas others may work on their leg action. All learners will then combine the sub-routines so they practise the whole skill again.

Types of Practice

Having decided how to present a practice a coach or teacher needs to decide how the skill should be practised. You will have no doubt read or heard about some performers practising for many hours at a time. However, not all performers can do this and a key factor is avoiding boredom and preventing fatigue; physical and mental. If a performer practises when fatigued, learning may not occur, or the performer learns incorrectly which defeats the purpose of the practice.

Massed practice involves repeating the skill or action on numerous occasions with few or no rest periods. This practice is suited to the repetition of discrete, simple and fine skills; especially those with short movement times. For example, snooker players, golfers and darts players probably amass the most practice in a week and this is due to skills in their sport being classified as all of these on their respective continua. A darts player can practice for many hours without a great deal of fatigue to the muscles involved. For this reason some skills can only be developed using massed practice by fitter and older participants (but not too old). Massed practice is similar to fixed practice and will allow skills to become habitual and ‘over learned’ with a strong development of motor programmes. Disadvantages of massed practice are that is does not always allow time for feedback and if carried out with tiring skills the increase in fatigue could lead boredom or injury. There is also a risk that the skill is unlearnt. For example a fatigued performer may change their technique slightly (maybe to relieve the stress on a sore muscle) and this new movement pattern replaces the previous correct one.

Distributed practice involves practice of a skill with a recovery and rest periods between each attempt. Distributed practice is similar to interval training and is best suited with novice performers, who have a lack of fitness and low motivation. Situations that suit distributed practice include dangerous environments and skills that are continuous, gross and complex. Research suggests that distributed practice is more effective than massed and performers find it less tiring. This is because due to the rest periods they avoid overload. Each practice session can be varied and this prevents tedium and maintains motivation and concentration of the learner. Coaches utilise mental practice and rehearsal during the breaks between practice and feedback can be made at each session preventing mistakes being compounded.

Fixed practice involves the repetition of a skill in a constant unchanging environment. This method suits closed skills where a movement is performed in an environment that does not change. Gymnasts and divers use fixed practice repeating skills many times until they become autonomous. The advantages of fixed practice are that the movement becomes ‘over learned’ and little conscious attention needs to be paid to the execution of the skill. This means that the skill can then be reproduced consistently. A cricket batter using a bowling machine will use fixed practice to develop one shot to give confidence and for shots like the hook or pull shot it can be safer if the learner has a clearer idea of how the ball is going to travel. A disadvantage of fixed practice is the lack of variability and challenge can become boring for the performer. In addition the repeated movement can lead to increased fatigue and poor habits may develop in these circumstances.

Varied practice involves changing the practice conditions to incorporate as many different situations as possible, in a range of different contexts which replicate the various situations found in competition. For example a football or hockey player may have to strike balls that are rolled in from the side or from behind to replicate the different types of shot they would need to hit in a game. This enables the performer to learn the skill and apply it to different situations. Typically, invasion games that involve open skills are best suited to varied practice. Performers rehearse scenarios set by the coach, and each time a scenario is repeated something different happens. This method extends the learners schema by changing the practice conditions and allows the development of the motor programmes in the long term memory through different practice conditions.