Ultimate Block In Practice Map
Rosella Bowlan
The way you practice has a great deal of influence on how well you will perform on the golf course. You want to be efficient and productive with the limited time that you have. In this article, I'll explore one of the foundational concepts of productive practice - blocked vs. random.
In my opinion, most golfers have spent way too much time on blocked (repetitive) practice. While repetition has its merits, I want to explore why introducing variation to your training can help take you to the next level in your game.
Most of you are very familiar with blocked practice; it's what the majority of golfers are doing. A simple definition would be practicing the same skill over and over again, repetitively. An example would be if you were at the range and hitting your 7-iron to the same target without making any changes.
Random practice introduces some changes in each shot. Let's say you had a lob wedge in your hands, and you hit to targets that were 75 yards, 25 yards, 50 yards, and then 40 yards. Each time you had a new goal, and it would force your mind and body to go through a calibration process. Another example would be changing the club on each shot - you could hit a sand wedge, 7-iron, and driver.
Over the last several decades, there has been plenty of research emerging in sports and plenty of other disciplines that call into question the efficacy of blocked practice. One of the main arguments is that repetitive practice might lead to better results during training sessions, but fails to transfer long-term skills that can be used in "game situations." Many of you likely know the frustration of hitting great shots at the driving range and then being wholly demoralized when you can't recreate that success on the golf course. I believe a lot of that has to do with the way you practice.
Additionally, blocked practice can work against many golfers because they are merely ingraining bad technical habits. If you are struggling with a slice, and keep hitting balls over and over again without making any changes, how can you ever expect to fix it?
When you hit a driver 30 times in a row, likely, you are not paying too much attention. It requires a lot of mental discipline to concentrate while you do something repetitively. However, if you had to change your club and target each time, your mind will have to readjust and adapt to the new challenge. Many believe that variation is training your brain to perform better under pressure.
It's impossible to know precisely the right amount of blocked practice and randomized practice that will lead to your best results. I believe both have their merits when it comes to improving your golf game.
No matter what you are doing, engagement and concentration is the most critical factor in my estimation. If you have a plan for each shot and focus throughout the process, you are giving yourself a better chance of improving your skills. I believe that introducing random practice to your routine can help with that process. But that doesn't mean you should throw repetitive practice out the window!
Those are just a few examples, and there are probably hundreds of different ways you could come up with to give meaning to a blocked practice session. I don't want to inundate you with too many ideas, because focusing on one thing at a time will likely work best for you. For many golfers, merely concentrating on the target and taking note of where the ball ended up could enhance their performance.
Overall, repetitive practice does have its merits if you are correctly engaged. My number one hope for you is to prevent those "zombie range sessions" where you mindlessly hit balls without giving much thought to what you are doing. You are lowering your chances of increasing your skills.
I don't want to give the impression that random practice is the solution to all of your golfing woes. Because it isn't. Even if you changed your target every time you hit a golf ball during practice, there is still going to be a chance that your mind and body are not adequately engaged in the process. However, I believe variation gives you a much better chance of simulating the conditions you will see on the golf course, and preparing you more effectively.
After all, golf is a random game. How often do you get the same shot on the course over and over again? Every round you play, you are always faced with randomness. You'll get different lies in the rough, uneven stances, the wind will keep shifting, or perhaps a tree will be in your way, and you need to find a way around it. Your preparation should take that into account and introduce some variability.
The best part about all of these methods is that they are usually more fun for golfers. If you try some of them out, you'll likely start looking forward to the practice range, rather than feeling like it's some obligation.
Blocked practice (practicing the same skill under the same conditions) leads to more rapid gains in performance but limited transfer when variability is introduced. Random practice (adding variability and interleaving practice types) slows learning but improves retention and transfer.
This is known as the contextual interference effect. Low contextual interference is associated with blocked, low variable practice situations. Rapid skill improvement occurs but learning is poor. Lower levels of GABA (the inhibitory neurotransmitter) were produced with random practice, while higher levels were produced with blocked practice.
Motor learning scientists describe two types of practice, block and random. If you attend a practice at any level of basketball you are likely to see both types of practice in action. Block practice is the more traditional approach to practice that involves getting a high number of repetitions that repeat the exact same movement over and over again. An example of block practice would be shooting ten lay-ups in a row dribbling in from the right wing. Random practice requires a player to read, react and make decisions on every rep. The player will never do the exact same thing twice. An example of random practice would be driving ten times to the basket against a defensive player.
Random practice does not look as organized or structured as block practice. Players will make lots of mistakes. Many coaches are averse to random practice for these very reasons, but mistakes lead players to adapt, adjust, and ultimately improve. It is also more difficult to assess progress because the transfer will not show up until later when the player uses the newly learned skill in a game. However, it has been found that the variability of the practice leads to the player being able to better transfer the skill to a game.
In short, both block and random practice have their place when it comes to player development. Using each type of practice in the proper context will lead to optimal learning and transfer to game performance for players.
Random practice can be quite deceiving. In practice, you will have more mistakes and it will be messier and more chaotic when compared to traditional training. However, random practice can lead to accelerated learning and better game performance.
Random practice can also lead to...
- Better shooting during games.
- Fewer mistakes when handling the basketball - better passing and dribbling.
- Quicker and better recognition of game situations - better offense, defense, and rebounding.
- Quickly adapt to new situations - there is no shock value that can lead to more turnovers and missed shots.
Were also going to discuss how block practice, which is more of a traditional training, can actually be fools gold and trick you into thinking its providing more improvement than it actually is.
On a side note, if you dont understand variable and constant practice, you should check out Shoot worse in practice to shoot better in games. The article will help you understand everything here.)
It's constant because you dribble to the same spot, you pass from the same spot, and you make the same slide and shoot from the same spot. It's the same sequence and version each time. There is no variability.
A practice schedule in which various discrete or serial skills that are required for performance in the sport are practised in random order, and where the learner does notpractise the same task on two consecutive attempts.(Source)
Basically, Shea and Morgan had a group of people practice a series of rapid movements with their hand and arm. Based on the light stimulus, they would do a different series of movements.
- Stimulus A - Reaction A
- Stimulus B - Reaction B
- Stimulus C - Reaction C
There was an immediate improvement in performance in the first session. They averaged 1.5 seconds in the first session. By the third session, they maxed out at 1.2 seconds. This stayed fairly consistent through the final and sixth session.
As you might expect, the first session was quite sloppy and much worse than block practice. They averaged 2.6 seconds. By the final sixth session, they closed the gap. The random practice group averaged slightly above 1.2 seconds.
The block practice group performed much worse in the more random, game-like environment (B-R). Even 10 minutes later, their times scored skyrocketed from 1.2 seconds to 2.1 seconds. After 10 days later, it went a tad higher to 2.2 seconds.
So even though you wont do as well at first in practice performance, you probably should add some random practice to your practice schedule and workouts.If you're a coach that strictly uses block practice, this could certainly help your team improve performance during games. Now, by what percentage? Who knows.
Now, think about the study above. At first, you see that youre doing noticeably worse with random practice compared to the more traditional training of block practice. There are more mistakes. It appears messy and chaotic.
1 - Well, for beginner basketball players, you obviously want to include constant and block practice for learning and acquiring a technical skill. Research has shown that to be effective. However, it would probably be a good idea to add some variable, serial, and random practice as well. It can help make the learning more permanent.
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