Blocked, Varied & Random Practise:

Blocked, Varied & Random Practise:

 

During one of the practical sessions, we were instructed in groups of two’s, to coach a 10/15 minute session that followed the following protocol:

Starting off with:

Blocked practise

Then on to:

Varied practise

Before finally onto:

Random practise

For the session I was doing basketball shooting and started off with the participant simply shooting at the basket from behind the cone, as blocked practise is as stated by Galligan, F. et al. (2000), ` Blocked practise involves the participants in repeated rehearsals of the same task` which can be tedious but I believe can help novice athletes gain an insight into the skills and techniques needed in order to perform the task, whilst the repetitive element will help the information soak into the brain.

I then moved onto varied practise w Blocked practise involves the participants in repeated rehearsals of the same task here the participant was able to shoot from four separate  cones in different positions alternatively in order to make the shots more varied and progress the session, one of the participants was struggling to make the shot, and when they did not very accurately so I got the participants going and I pulled the participant who was struggling out and provided a demonstration and provided some advice regarding aiming for the black square on the back-board. Varied practise seemed much more enjoyable for the participants as they had more movement and challenges to concentrate on.

I then moved onto random practise where, the participants used the techniques they had been learning in a small sided 3 on two games in favour of the attackers to ensure more emphasis was on shooting then we swapped over so the other team received the same opportunity. Random practice may broaden the learning workspace, there-by allowing more opportunity for players to engage in discovery learning to find different solutions to each movement problem presented (Handford et al., 1997). This seemed very enjoyable for the participants as it allowed the participants to make their own decisions and be creative, yet it was made easier as it followed the other two styles as they had already learned the skills and techniques and thus these where transferred to the final drill.

Research findings typically show that, in simple motor tasks, acquisition performance is enhanced with repetitive, blocked task practice (low contextual interference), while retention and transfer benefit from random practice scheduling (high contextual interference; Shea & Morgan, 1979).

References:

Gallagan, F. et al. (2000) Acquiring Skill In: GALLIGAN, F. et al., Advanced PE for Edexcel. 1st ed. Bath: Bath Press, p. 102-108

Handford, C., Davids, K., Bennett, S., & Button, C. (1997). Skill acquisition in sport: Some applications of an evolving practice ecology. Journal of Sports Sciences, 15, 621 – 640.

Shea & Morgan, 1979), Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory Pg. 5, 179-187.