Practice: The Road to Learning (Part 1)

Learning requires deliberate and focused practice. This is particularly true of sports and physical activity skills. Students must engage in activities that are appropriate for their skill and motivation levels. Appropriate practice of a great many correctly performed repetitions of the skill is the only road to competence and mastery. There is no substitute for practice in the learning equation.

TIME ON TASK

One important dimension of practice is time on task, the amount of time someone spends practicing a skill. Research has shown that the more time someone engages in a skill, the higher the rate of learning. The critical variable in practice time is repetition rather than the actual number of minutes or hours devoted to practice. However, it normally takes about 10,000 practice hours to develop true mastery of a skill.

When organizing practice time, teachers must control two practice killers: Waiting and fatigue. In classes with multiple students, selecting and organizing practice activities that minimize students' waiting will increase the number of chances to perform the skill. Long lines in which one or two students perform the skill while six or more wait for their turns is a common practice killer. If lines are necessary, use more lines with fewer students. Better yet, strive to eliminate any wait time by using no lines. When practicing skills such as soccer or basketball dribbling; rolling, throwing, striking, or catching balls; or most any other skill, a clever teacher devises ways so that all students practice the activity at the same time. To the untrained eye, so much activity at one time may look chaotic, but there's a great deal of learning taking place in a room full of people practicing purposeful skills. Safety, however, needs to be considered. Having 25 students simultaneously practicing their javelin throws will provide the wrong kind of excitement in a class.

Student fatigue should be monitored closely because if often leads to poor form. It's better to rest and come back to the task refreshed than to accumulate hours of poorly performed practice. Boredom can also lead to ineffective practice, with the learner simply "going through the motions". And if, as the saying goes, "you will play like you practice", ineffective practice will result in ineffective performances.

To combat this negative practice pest, students should practice frequently for short time periods, keeping both the challenge and the success high. Shorter, more frequent practice sessions are more effective for promoting learning than fewer longer sessions. Making practice fun, stimulating, and successful not only offers a more enjoyable experience for the learner, but also allows her to practice with a maximum positive effect on performance.

A single lesson seldom provides ample practice opportunity for any skill or activity. Students must practice the newly learned skills outside of class and independent of the teacher if significant progress is going to be made in the quality of performance. It is therefore imperative that the teacher supply the students with adequate practice activities that can be completed at home or at a practice facility available to the learner. This is a common situation for PE teachers. Given the limited amount of in-class time available for physical education students, devising and offering practice opportunities outside of class is a valuable way to extend the students' learning beyond the class time.

Some teachers find that journals or practice diaries let students log their practice time, identify practice goals, and monitor their progress in learning. When suggesting drills and practice activities, select activities that

- Can be done with the equipment and space available outside class;

- Can be correctly completed with little supervision or teacher-directed feedback;

- Specifically work on the concepts and ideas from the lesson, and;

- Are fun and challenging so that the motivation level remains high.

PRACTICE CORRECTLY WITH PURPOSE

Another practice fundamental is performing the skill correctly. As basketball legend Larry Bird put it, "When i was younger, i never wanted to leave the court until i got things exactly correct. I wanted to be a pro." Spending hours practicing a skill incorrectly will ingrain poor habits and ineffective technique. Therefore, monitor practice performances carefully to ensure that the skill is being performed correctly.

Simply repeating a skill performance time and again does not guarantee that the performance will improve. For example, most people spend years handwriting, but their writing doesn't get better. In many cases, it even deteriorates. The point is this: To merely repeat a performance is not practice. To perfect a skill performance, the student must practice with a purpose, or goal, with an eye toward improvement.

The teacher must identify the skill to be improved, as well as the specific components that need refining, and then structure the practice time to meet the goal. If this is a new skill or series of skills, the teacher can determine the important components to be practiced. If the student performs the skill regularly, it's best to analyze the performance to determine which skills or skill components need to be practiced. This is an essential principle for competitive coaches. For example, a basketball coach can chart the shots taken in a game to determine which shots need the most practice. If the intention of practice is to improve game performance, practice and performance must be linked in meaningful ways. Too often, practices are structured based on traditions or the coach's beliefs of what athletes need rather than actual data from game performances. But according to legendary football coach George Halas, "Don't do anything in practice that you wouldn't do in the game."

Finally, establish ways to chech whether the skill is indeed improving. Videotape pre- and post- practice sessions, set realistic practice goals to signal the successful end of a practice session (e.g., hit the target 4 out of 5 attempts and then stop), provide a task sheet for students to complete that identifies performance goals (e.g., make 5, 8, or 10 out of 10 and then move on to the next skill), tie practice achievement with a physical education grade, or monitor the skill performance quality during a performance or game. Without this feedback, students can't be sure they are actually improving, and they begin practicing as a matter of routine rather than with a purpose.

From the book: Teaching Sport and Physical Activity (Paul G. Schempp)

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