PDFE #10

On November 1, 2010, we performed a lab that dealt with constant and varied practice schedules and which one was more effective. A varied practice is a practice where the participants complete more than one variation of a task. By doing this type of practice a person learns the relationship between parameter settings and resulting environmental outcomes for example, a person throwing a bean bag from a line 4 meters, 5 meters and 6 meters away from the hoola hoop. Another example would be a basketball player practicing a jump shot on the post position, the free throw line, and the three point line. A constant practice schedule is a practice in which the parameters and/or settings do not change in practice for example, throwing a bean bag at the hoola-hoop from 5 meters away without out moving to another distance like in the varied practice. Another example of this would be a basketball player that just practiced shooting from the post position and nowhere else.
In the lab there were three pieces of tape on the floor one 4 meters away from the target, one 5 meters away from the target and the last one 6 meters away from the target. The target was a hoola hoop with a mat acting as the bulls eye in the hoop. If the bean bag landed inside the hoop when thrown then we received one point for that throw. If the bean bag landed on the mat inside the hoop when thrown then we received two points for that throw. One person performed the constant practice and the other performed the varied practice. Bethani performed the constant practice which meant that she would throw the bean bag from the 5 meter line each time to the hoop. I performed the varied practice which meant that I would throw the bean bag from the 4 meter line, the 5 meter line and the 6 meter line to the hoop, every time I would throw I would move to a different line. When we performed the skills test at the end of the lab I scored two points and Bethani scored three points. This would indicate that the constant practice would be the more preferred practice because of the results, but as we understand through the readings varied practice is the actual preferred practice. The reading states that varied practice is the best at developing skills that allow for us to succeed, however our lab results were skewed due to distractions, other groups being very close, injury, fatigue, and talking. The lab was a fun lab to perform and we can apply this knowledge to coaching, physical therapy or teaching physical education classes.