Specific Practice
Is just doing something better than doing nothing in the practice room?
I recently read a 2010 study of 43 adolescent basketball free-throwers where the researchers attempted to find what the differences were between the practice habits of 'experts, non-experts, and novices'. Their practice goals, strategies, and self-reflection on their performance was monitored by requesting the participants to voice aloud their thoughts as they practiced taking free-throws.
In the study the participants worked to the following cycle of:
Forethought --> Performance --> Self-reflection
What is interesting about this study are the two main factors that seemed to set the proficient throwers (>70% accuracy) from the not-so-proficient (<55% accuracy), and there was a rather significant difference.
It could be noted that perhaps knowledge and previous experience of fundamentals of basketball technique could play a part in the success of the experts vs the novices, as experts clearly would have better understanding of terminology and technique, but the researchers ascertained that the level of technical understanding "did not predict attribution or strategy verbalisation patterns in the present study". They discovered there was significant difference in level of shooting knowledge between novices and non-experts but no differences between their expression and reflection of personal practice strategy. Also, despite the absence of differences in knowledge between experts and non-experts, the differences between their expression of personal reflection and practice strategy.
So what was it that the researchers found that set the best throwers apart from the worst?
"Among the significant results, experts set more specific goals, selected more technique-oriented strategies, made more strategy attributions, and displayed higher levels of self-efficacy than non-experts and novices."
1. They set smaller and more specific process and outcome goals.
Before each throw attempt the experts stated the specific element of their practice they were going to focus on: i.e. as process-goals "bend your knees" or "keep your eye on the rim of the basket" or outcome-goals: "I'm going for 10 out of 10".
The non-experts had process and outcome goals that were much more generic: "concentrate more" or "try harder to practice my shooting form" as process-goals; and, "make baskets" or "improve my rhythm".
2. Reflections and corrections on failure were specific
When the experts missed (as even experts do!) they would be very specific in their self-evaluatory feedback and thereby be able to create simpler goals for the next attempt. Examples such as: "I didn't bend my knees", this specific and thoughtful reflection easily leads to the specific goal 'bend my knees' in the following throw.
In contrast, the worst performers were more likely to attribute failure to non-specific factors, like “My rhythm was off” or “I wasn’t focused” which doesn’t do much to inform the next practice attempt.
Non-experts and novices also tended to self-berate on failure and experts appeared to accept the failure, diagnose the issue and plan their follow-up attempt, choosing more specific, technique-oriented processes than non-experts or novices.
So what is the take-away here?
- Make your practice goals small and specific to each attempt or rendition: i.e: 'This time I'll play this scale and keep my hand relaxed'
- When something doesn't work as you expected, diagnose, use this as the goal for the subsequent attempt. Pay attention to what you say to yourself!
I hope this idea is of use, do let me know if you have found this interesting and/or useful!
See you in the practice room!
References
- Cleary, T. J., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2001). Self-Regulation Differences during Athletic Practice by Experts, Non-Experts, and Novices. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 13(2), 185–206.
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232907923_Self-Regulation_Differences_during_Athletic_Practice_by_Experts_Non-Experts_and_Novices
Posted In: Reflections on Practice
Tagged: Goals, Practice, Reflection
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