methods of practice

Question 1

What are the methods of practice?

Answer 1

• part
• whole
• progressive part
• whole-part-whole

Question 2

What is part practice?

Answer 2

• broken into subroutines - skills can be practised separately
• low organisation
• e.g. arm action in layup for basketball and front crawl

Question 3

What are the advantages of part practice?

Answer 3

• good for low organisation skills
• good for complex skills to break down to make it easier to understand→reduces information being processed
• good for fine tuning skills and getting the real detail
• decreases risk of injury
• suits complex skills which have elements of danger
• performer feels confident with every part of skill→motivating

Question 4

What are the disadvantages of part practice?

Answer 4

• no kinaesthetic sense
• may lack understanding - due to going really in depth detail
• time consuming - work on every skill to get right
• far transfer - not practising in competition or real life
• once the skill is put back together, it can appear disjointed + lack fluency

Question 5

What is whole practice?

Answer 5

• learned in its whole form + practised until it can be performed to a high standard - not broken into subroutines
• quick + efficient
• used for high organisation skills + low complexity skills
• e.g. dive in swimming, golf drive

Question 6

What are advantages of whole practice?

Answer 6

• allows performer to develop kinesthesis for their skill
• skill flows + is smooth, improves fluency
• good method for learning ballistic skills
• relatively fast practice method - not too time consuming + can learn skill quickly
• good for high organisation skills that can’t be broken down into subroutines
• near transfer - more similar to event the person partakes in
• good for discrete skills

Question 7

What are disadvantages of whole practice?

Answer 7

• very hard for cognitive learners + novice learners
• not effective for young performers→could burn out
• hard to isolate errors
• not suitable for complex or dangerous skills
• lots to learn - may slow down the practice and ability to learn the skill
• more likely to make mistakes if you’ve never performed the skill before

Question 8

What is progressive part practice?

Answer 8

• a part of skill is isolated then practised, a second part is isolated then practised. These two parts are then practised together forming bigger parts of the skill until fully combined.
• e.g. gymnastics routine, triple jump

Question 9

What are advantages of progressive part practice?

Answer 9

• really effective for serial skills
• important for grasping routines
• builds relationship between components and elements, especially for aesthetic sports - gymnastics
• allows each part of skill to be practised at a high standard
• reduces the information load

Question 10

What are disadvantages for progressive part practice?

Answer 10

• time consuming
• no overall kinesthetic sense until the very end of the process
• can’t use for discrete, continuous and high organisation skills
• can cause the skill to lack fluency

Question 11

What is whole-part-whole practice?

Answer 11

practised as a whole, errors are detected then isolated - practised separately and further practised again, ensuring there are little to no errors - repeated.

Question 12

What are advantages of whole-part-whole practice?

Answer 12

• Really good for error detection
• Detailed understanding of parts - especially kinesthetic qualities
• Good for autonomous based learners
• Only the parts the learner struggles with needs to be rehearsed
• Quicker than having to practise all the subroutines
• Learner gets a feel for the skill and is fluent

Question 13

What are disadvantages of whole-part-whole practice?

Answer 13

• Not appropriate for groups
• Time consumers
• Not practical for beginners
• Not suitable for high organisation skill
• Can’t be used for skills that are dangerous - have to practise the whole skill first