RANDOM PRACTICE AND SPORT-MOTOR LEARNING

Abstract

Aixa Ruiz-Amengual, Luis Miguel Ruiz-Pérez

The effects of practice is a matter that has a long research tradition in the field of motor learning. In recent decades, interest has focused on analyzing if random practice has a more favorable learning effects than a more repetitive practice. This was the aim of this study in which forty-eight university students voluntarily participated . Twenty-four were male and twenty female. Three groups of practice were organized, a low contextual interference group, another with moderate interference and the third with a maximum contextual interference. The task was the golf putt, a precision hit to a labeled targets on the ground. Participants performed three phases: the acquisition phase and two transfer phases,one after finishing the acquisition phase and the other two days later. The results supported the contextual effect, and random practice showed better results in the transfer phases. Also gender differences in the different phases of the experience were found.