JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCE & MEDICINE |
Research article |
PRACTICING FIELD HOCKEY SKILLS ALONG THE CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE CONTINUUM: A COMPARISON OF FIVE PRACTICE SCHEDULES | |||||||||
Jadeera Phaik Geok Cheong1,3, Brendan Lay1, J. Robert Grove1, Nikola Medic2 and Rizal Razman3 | |||||||||
1School of Sport Science, Exercise & Health, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia; 2School of Exercise, Biomedical & Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia; 3Sports Centre, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. | |||||||||
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© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2012) 11, 304 - 311 | |||||||||
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ABSTRACT | |||||||||||||
To overcome the weakness of the contextual interference (CI) effect within applied settings, Brady, 2008 recommended that the amount of interference be manipulated. This study investigated the effect of five practice schedules on the learning of three field hockey skills. Fifty-five pre-university students performed a total of 90 trials for each skill under blocked, mixed or random practice orders. Results showed a significant time effect with all five practice conditions leading to improvements in acquisition and learning of the skills. No significant differences were found between the groups. The findings of the present study did not support the CI effect and suggest that either blocked, mixed, or random practice schedules can be used effectively when structuring practice for beginners. Key words: Skill acquisition, blocked practice, random practice. |
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INTRODUCTION | |||||||||||||
Over the years, an extensive amount of research has been directed toward finding the best practice structure to maximize learning. The two most common practice schedules that have been investigated and compared are blocked and random practice. These practice regimes represent low and high interference practice schedules, respectively. The first study comparing the effectiveness of both schedules in the motor learning domain was conducted by Shea and Morgan, 1979 using a variety of laboratory tasks. The results revealed that there were immediate improvements in practice performance for blocked practice. However, when subjects were tested for retention on the same skills, the random practice group (who had performed worse during acquisition) subsequently performed better during retention. The term contextual interference (CI) was used to explain this effect. |
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METHODS | |||||||||||||
Participants Tasks and measures Besides ball control, accuracy and speed, movement form was also assessed. A field hockey coach referred to a field hockey skills movement checklist which comprised of two phases. For Indian dribble, the two phases comprised of the preliminary position and ball control phases, with the scores ranging from 1 to 3 points for both phases. For the push pass and the hit, the two phases comprised of the preliminary position and ball contact/follow-through phases and the scores for both phases ranged from 1 to 4 points. Only the third trial for each participant was viewed and provided with a rating score. Another field hockey coach randomly viewed 20 trials of each skill and inter-tester reliability was calculated using intraclass correlation (ICC). For Indian dribble, ICC was .74 for preliminary position and .71 for ball control. For push pass, ICC was .73 and .81 for preliminary position and ball contact phases, respectively. As for the hit, ICC was .73 for the preliminary position and .71 for the ball contact phase. By convention, values above 0.70 are considered as substantial and acceptable inter-rater reliability (Garson, 2010). Experimental practice groups Procedures Statistical analyses |
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RESULTS | |||||||||||||
Means and standard deviations for the Indian dribble, push pass and hit across all groups are presented in Tables 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Pre-test Acquisition and retention |
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DISCUSSION | |||||||||||||
The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of practice schedules with a range of CI on the acquisition and learning of three basic field hockey skills (i.e., Indian dribble, push pass, and hit) among pre-university students with no prior background in the sport. The results showed that there was a significant practice effect for ball control and speed performance outcome measures as well as for all movement form measures. Accuracy of the hit and push pass did not improve. Independent of practice conditions, a significant improvement was found when scores from the final acquisition and retention tests were compared with the pre-test, with a medium to large practical significance across time revealed. This means that the amount of practice were adequate for all five practice conditions to show improvements in the three skills in acquisition and learning of field hockey skills. |
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AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY | |
Jadeera Phaik Geok CHEONG Employment: Sports Centre, University of MalayaSchool of Sports Science, Exercise and Health, The University of Western Australia Degrees: MSc and PhD Candidate Research interest: Motor learning and skill acquisition E-mail: jadeera@um.edu.my | |
Brendan LAY Employment: Ass. Prof., School of Sports Science, Exercise and Health, The University of Western Australia Degree: PhD Research interests: Motor control and development E-mail: blay@cyllene.uwa.edu.au | |
J. Robert GROVE Employment: WinthropProf., School of Sports Science, Exercise and Health, The University of Western Australia Degree: PhD Research interests: Exercise, health and sport psychology E-mail: bob.grove@uwa.edu.au | |
Nikola MEDIC Employment: School of Exercise and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Degree: PhD Research interests: Facilitation of intrinsic motivation and self-determination, relative age effects in sport, development and maintenance of sport expertise, psychology of aging and physical activity, masters athletes and lifetime commitment to sport, mental training for optimal performance and well-being in sport E-mail: n.medic@ecu.edu.au | |
Rizal RAZMAN Employment: Sports Centre, University of Malaya Degrees: MSc and PhD Candidate Research interests: Sports Biomechanics and Anthropometry E-mail: rizal@um.edu.my |