Whole Versus Part Practice The whole method of practice is obvious: The whole technique is practiced intact. The part method is actually the whole-part-whole method. You teach the whole method as just outlined, practice it in parts, and then recombine the parts back into the whole via practice. What s the best method to use? When possible, it s best to practice the whole technique; this avoids spending time combining the parts back into the whole and helps your athletes learn how to use the technique in the context of a contest. However, if the technique is so complex that athletes can t develop a good mental plan (the first stage of learning), then you should break the technique into parts. When to Break Techniques Into Parts To decide whether to break a technical skill into parts, you need to evaluate the task on two dimensions: its complexity and the interdependence of the parts. Two questions will help you determine task complexity, or how difficult it may be for athletes to develop a good mental plan: 1. How many parts are there to the task? 2. How mentally demanding is the task? Next you need to evaluate how interdependent or independent the parts of the task are. That is, how closely is one part of the technique related to the next? For example, in the tennis serve, you can fairly easily separate the ball toss from the swing of the racket, but you really can t separate the racket swing and contact with the ball from the follow-through. When the task is low in complexity and high in interdependence, have your athletes practice the whole technique. By contrast, part practice is better when the task is high in complexity and low in interdependence. I ve illustrated this in figure 10.3, indicating how I would apply these rules for certain sport skills. You will notice that I ve listed only one technique in the part method category. This is because few technical skills are low in interdependence. However, a great many technical skills can be taught by using a combination of the part and whole methods. Where to Break Techniques Into Parts Now you have some guidance as to when to break a technique into parts, but how do you know where to make the breaks in the sequence of movements? This is another judgment you must learn to make, perhaps with help from more experienced coaches. In general, the more interdependent the movement, the more it should be left intact. When you analyze a technique, look for points in the movement at which there is less interdependence, or where there is a transition from one type of movement to another. Most technical skills have a preparation phase, an action phase, and a follow-through phase. Often you can break between the preparation and action phases; it s usually not easy to break between the action and follow-through phases. Interdependence of task parts High Low Whole method Weightlifting Archery Shooting Heading a soccer ball Cycling Whole and part methods combined Tennis serve Floor exercise routine Swimming strokes Golf swing Pitching a baseball Basketball layup Part method Dance sequences Low High Complexity of tasks Figure 10.3 Complexity and interdependence determine whether skills should be taught in parts or as a whole. 170
In teaching the tennis serve, you might break the technique into two parts: (1) the ball toss, and (2) the racket swing with contact with the ball and follow-through. Integrating Parts Back Into the Whole You can teach technical skills many different ways. Just because you are breaking a technique into parts, for example, doesn t mean that you must teach each part independently. If an athlete has mastered a few parts of a technique but still needs work on others, or if an athlete needs work on putting parts together, you might select the progressive-part method. Start by having an athlete practice the first part of a technique. Then move on to the next part by having the athlete practice it together with the first part. Continue by progressing through each part of the technique until the athlete is finally practicing the entire technique. Attention focus is an approach that involves practicing the entire technique but concentrating on only one aspect of the technique. You might instruct discus throwers, for example, to practice the entire throw but to focus only on keeping the discus as far as possible from the body as they pull. This method tends to work best with higher-skilled athletes. Athletes who are still trying to learn the fundamentals of a technique may have difficulty focusing on only one aspect. Once the athlete has learned the separate parts, the athlete can practice the entire technique. 171
172 successful Coaching Seven Principles for Technical Skill Practice 1. Have athletes practice the right technique. 2. Have athletes practice the technique in gamelike conditions as soon as they can. 3. Keep practices short and frequent when teaching new techniques. 4. Use practice time efficiently. 5. Make optimal use of facilities and equipment. 6. Make sure athletes experience a reasonable amount of success at each practice. 7. Make practice fun. Remember too that formal practice often doesn t provide enough time to master technical skills thoroughly. Teach your athletes to practice the techniques on their own if they can do so safely. Now let s look at each of these principles in greater depth. Better Practice Principles Once you have decided whether you will practice using the whole or the whole-part-whole method, you re ready to plan your practice. Use the list of seven principles above for better technical skill practice based on the games approach: Principle 1: Have Athletes Practice the Right Technique Suppose you saw me practicing a volleyball serve and said, Hi there. What are you doing? Have you ever seen blocking sleds used in an actual game? So why use sleds in practice? and suppose I replied, Why, I m learning how to play tennis. Now that would make you wonder about my sanity. Suppose I then said, You know, I ve been working hard at this, but my tennis just isn t getting any better. Got any suggestions? Your reply would be obvious: If you want to learn how to play tennis, you need to practice tennis! Of course you would be right. I use this example to overstate the principle. As noted in chapter 9, one of the most common mistakes in designing practice experiences is having athletes perform drills that do not help them learn the techniques required to play the sport. A drill often teaches only the skill unique to that drill. What does running through a series of tires or ropes teach a football player? My answer is, how to run through tires and ropes but I ve never seen tires or ropes on the playing field during a football game. Many coaches use drills merely because their own coaches used them in the past. Carefully analyze the drills you use. Select only those that you are confident will help your athletes learn the techniques needed to play the sport or else design your own. Otherwise you may spend time helping your athletes get better at the wrong things. Practice like you play, and your athletes are more likely to play like they practice.
Chapter 10 Teaching Technical Skills 173 Principle 2: Have Athletes Practice the Technique in Gamelike Conditions This principle is closely related to principle one. The purpose of many drills is to limit the variety of choices to be made and responses to be performed. That s useful when athletes are initially learning complex techniques, but when such drills are overused and competitive simulations are few, athletes are not prepared to make choices and responses in the rapidly changing conditions of a game. Thus, as you learned from principle one, have your athletes practice what is relevant and pertinent when actually playing the sport. To apply principle two, athletes should also practice the technique at the speed it is to be performed in competition, provided it can be executed safely and with a reasonable degree of accuracy. This produces more rapid and effective learning than does emphasizing slow, accurate movements and gradually increasing the speed. On the other hand, if the technique requires both speed and accuracy, practice should give equal emphasis to both. When you adopt the games approach to coaching, you ll be much more likely to apply principles one and two practicing the right techniques in gamelike conditions. Principle 3: Keep Practices Short and Frequent When Teaching New Techniques When first learning a technique, athletes are likely to make many mistakes and tire quickly. Simulate game conditions during practice sessions. Therefore, they should practice the technique frequently, but not for too long. In other words, when athletes must use considerable mental and physical effort to perform a technique, practice should be interspersed with either rest intervals or practice of another technique that uses different muscle groups and demands less effort. Principle 4: Use Practice Time Efficiently Table 10.1 lists some big practice time wasters and suggestions for improving your use of time. Identify the time wasters in your practices and find ways to make your practices more efficient. Table 10.1 Making Practices More Efficient Time wasters Drills in which most of the athletes time is spent waiting The coach talks too much Moving between activities in the practice schedule Practicing things that don t help athletes play the sport better; selecting useless drills Dealing with athletes misbehavior Insufficient or ill-prepared facilities or equipment Time savers Reorganize drills so athletes are more active. Keep demonstrations, explanations, and feedback concise. Be sure you have a practice plan so you know what you ll do next, and develop routines for athletes to follow when changing activities. Don t spend too much time on techniques athletes already know well; work on those that need the most improvement. Separate the misbehaving athlete from the team, have the team continue practicing, and then speak with the misbehaving athlete. Be sufficiently organized to make the best use of the facilities and equipment available.
174 successful Coaching Principle 5: Make Optimal Use of Facilities and Equipment Design practice activities to make efficient use of your facilities, equipment, and assistant coaches. Consider not only maximum use but also best use. Principle 6: Make Sure Athletes Experience a Reasonable Amount of Success at Each Practice If you have set realistic instructional goals and have helped your athletes set realistic personal goals, as discussed in chapter 7, they will be no strangers to success. An important way to build success into every practice is to select the right progressions for learning technical skills. If you make the steps too difficult, few athletes can experience success. If athletes are having difficulty performing a technique correctly, you may want to give them a break or have them practice some other aspect of the sport. You may even want to back off from a new technique entirely and approach it afresh another day. Forcing the learning process is likely to produce failure and frustration. A good teacher is like a candle; it consumes itself to light the way for others. Anonymous Principle 7: Make Practice Fun You can avoid boring practice sessions by using a lot of variations on a specific technical theme in practice. Practice games, challenges, and gimmicks to add interest are helpful. Changing your practice schedule occasionally, being enthusiastic, and letting the team help plan practices also are useful ways to make practices more fun. Step 4: Correct Errors Practice alone is not enough to learn a technique correctly. For practice to be productive, you must provide your athletes with two types of information to correct errors: How the completed performance compared with the desired performance How to change an incorrect performance to more closely approximate the desired performance Both types of information are called feedback. Observe and Evaluate Performance The process of helping your athletes correct errors begins with you observing and evaluating their performances to determine the cause of the errors. Did they not learn the technical skill well, or do they need further development of tactical, physical, mental, or communication skills? This is one of the big challenges in coaching identifying the correct cause of inadequate performances. If athletes consistently demonstrate good technique in practice, but not in games, then they probably need help with their mental skills. If they demonstrate good technique in practice but display poor judgment in using those skills in games, then you will want to emphasize tactical skill training. You can observe a lot just by watching. Yogi Berra Making practices fun is key to keeping young athletes in sport. There is no substitute for knowledge and experience in correcting technical errors. The better you understand a technical skill not only how it is done correctly but what causes players to err the more helpful you will be in correcting mistakes. Experience is the most common way to learn to correct errors, but you can expedite the slow process of learning by experience through the study of sport biomechanics and the technical skills in your sport. The use of video to observe your athletes more carefully can also be of great help.