Practice

A characteristic feature of sport tasks is that associated movements are too intricate to be realized ad hoc. On the one hand, these intricacies may be due to the movement itself as in, for example, a double somersault with a twist in springboard diving. On the other hand, it may be rooted in particulars of the task, for example, when a windsurf jibe is performed in choppy water under gusty wind conditions or when a football attacker runs into free space to open up for his teammate’s deadly pass. In all these cases, no one will manage to produce an appropriate movement on the very first trial, which implies that success in sports is fundamentally based on practice. This chapter aims to provide the reader with an overview on the role of practice for developing motor skills. To this end, a short review on the state of the art of motor-control theory will be presented to obtain a framework for the subsequent discussion of different aspects of skill-related practice. These aspects will regard cognitive, preparatory, specific, variable, whole, part and complex practice as well as its respective amount.      «

A characteristic feature of sport tasks is that associated movements are too intricate to be realized ad hoc. On the one hand, these intricacies may be due to the movement itself as in, for example, a double somersault with a twist in springboard diving. On the other hand, it may be rooted in particulars of the task, for example, when a windsurf jibe is performed in choppy water under gusty wind conditions or when a football attacker runs into free space to open up for his teammate’s deadly pass...     »