Practice types/ methods

Question 1

What are the four practice type?

Answer 1

• Part
• Whole
• Progressive part
• Whole-part-whole

Question 2

What is part practice?

Answer 2

Practicing low-organisation skills that can be split up into sub-routines

Question 3

What are some advantages of part practice?

Answer 3

• Low organisation skills
• Performing complex skills
• Performaing dangerous skills
• Performing serial skills
• Practicing problem areas of a skill
• Allow the performer to make sense of the skill and to achieve initial success before progressing to the more complex movement
• The performer can gain confidence by learning each element of the skill seperately and then bring all the parts together to be more successful

Question 4

What is whole practice?

Answer 4

A skill is taught without breaking it down into sub-routines or parts

Question 5

What are some advantages of whole practice?

Answer 5

• The performer experiences the kinaesthetic sense for the skill and transfer from the practice to the real situation is likely to be positive
• The performer is likely to execute the skill fluently
• Useful for rapid/ ballistic task
• No breaking down needed
• Ahould be used very frequently
• Performing continuous skills

Question 6

What is whole-part-whole practice?

Answer 6

This practice involves the performer firstly attempting the whole skill, then practising the skill in parts or sub-routines and then putting them together again to practise as a whole

Question 7

What are some advantages of whole-part-whole practice?

Answer 7

Suitable to serial skills or those with low organisation whne sub-routines have distinct features
Coaches often employ this method to recognise the strengths and weaknesses in the performance
Kinaesthesis is required

Question 8

What is progressive-part practice?

Answer 8

• This is often referred to as chaining
• A serial skill is broken down into its sub-routines that can be seen as links of a chain
• The performer learns one link at a time and then a second link.
• The two links are then practiced together and then a third link helping the performer to remember the links between sub-routines of skills

Question 9

What are some advantages of progressice-part practice?

Answer 9

• Performing a serial skill broken down into sub-routines
• Performer needs to remember links between sub-routiens of a skill

Question 10

What are four methods of practice?

Answer 10

• Mass
• Distrubuted
• Fixed
• Varied

Question 11

What is massed practice?

Answer 11

Practice that involves very short or no rest intervals within the practice session. It is a continuous practice session

Question 12

Give an example of massed practice

Answer 12

A footballer continuously practicing free kicks until they tire

Question 13

What are some disadvantages of massed practice?

Answer 13

Can lead to poor performance and hinder learning because of fatigue and demotivation

Question 14

What are some advantages of massed practice?
Who is suitable for massed practice?

Answer 14

• Develop/ needs high fitness
• Time efficient
• Only suitable for elite performers/ autonomous learners
• Suitable for simple skills

Question 15

What is distrubuted practice?

Answer 15

• Distrubuted practice involves relatively long rests between trials
• The rest intervals could involve tasks that are unrelated to the main practice activity

Question 16

What are some advantages for distrubuted practice?

Answer 16

• The performers can use the intervals between activities to practice mental rehearsal
• Ensure that physical and mental fatigue does not negatively affect performance
• Allows for feedback
• Suitable for beginners/ cognitive learners
• Suitable for complex skills

Question 17

Give an example of distrubuted practice

Answer 17

10 volleyball serves. rest to review footage and identify areas that you need to work on

Question 18

What are some disadvantages of distributed practice?

Answer 18

Time consuming

Question 19

What is fixed practice?

Answer 19

This involves a stable and predictable practice environment, with practice conditions remaining unchanging or ‘fixed’

Question 20

What are advatages of fixed practice?

Answer 20

• Suitable for closed skills
• Enables habitual movements to be learned effectively with few other stimuli interfering with the performers skill production
• Promotes ‘over learning’ and mastery
• Suitable for beginners

Question 21

What are some disadvantages of fixed practice?

Answer 21

• Can be boring/ lose motivation
• Doesn’t develop decision making

Question 22

What is varied practice?

Answer 22

• Practice needs to be varied so that the performer has a range of experiences. relevant experiences are stored in long-term memory
• With closed skills, it is important that practice conditions closely resemble the ‘true life’ situation
• With open skills, each situation will be different from the last - the conditions, unlike those in closed skills, are not constant

Question 23

What are some advantages of varied practice?

Answer 23

• Practice involves many different situations so that the performer can draw from strategies in long-term memory
• Competition specific focus
• Mimics ‘real life’
• Allows for skill adaptation