Enhance Your Skills by Making Practice Easier...
- Dr Karl Stevenson
- Sep 26, 2019
- 3 min read
Usually, when someone offers you something that's too good to be true, you turn around and walk the other way... As humans, we have been programmed to believe that in order to get better at something, you have to work hard, blood sweat & tears hard, and then repeat the process over and over again in order to improve.
But what if we have been doing it wrong all this time? What if the weight of expectation has misled us to use practice methods that are so deliberate and focused that they become unachievable and as a result ineffective? Well, based on their research most recently published in the International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, researchers Ziv, Lindor, & Lavie would have to agree.
Ziv & colleagues have been studying the effect of expectancies in golf putting, and the outcome of their research will have you wondering, "Why have I been breaking my back to make 8/10 of my putt's before I can leave the putting green?"
The Research:
Using three different learning conditions, the researchers changed the difficulty of a putting task by increasing the size of the target area by placing a small or large sized circle around the hole. The learning conditions are as follows:
1) Large circle around a standard sized hole,
2) Small circle around a standard sized hole, &
3) Standard hole on its own.
Each participant made 50 putts from a distance of 2m (6.5 ft), with the aim of landing the ball inside the groups corresponding circle or the hole it self. It may sound like a relatively easy task... However, PGA Statistics show that the most successful player on tour will hole this length of put 76.3% of the time vs. the least successful at 39.7% of the time. These statistics show the difficulty of the task at hand, and the variability of success between the 188 pro's competing on the PGA tour.
After two days rest, the researchers carried out a retention test of 12 putts (basically the same test conditions as the practice), and a transfer test (a different test to see if the skills learned transfer to different conditions e.g. longer distances) of 12 putts from 2.5m (8 ft).
Ziv & colleagues findings are amazing, showing that the large circle group recorded a lower absolute error in their 50 practice puts, as well as lower absolute error and increased number of holed putts in the transfer test. Basically, by making the practice task easier, the quality of performance improved DURING practice, and was retained AFTER practice as well.
My Thoughts?
Instantly, my mind is drawn to the most interesting finding that the large circle group performed better during practice than any other group. Why? I have to speculate that the participants were more engaged during their practice due to the relative ease of their task and were motivated by the success that they were seeing during practice? Alternatively, were they gaining confidence in their primary task (large circle) and shifting their attention indirectly to the the hole itself? Some form of dual tasking that has enhanced the overall performance of the task? Future studies will have to identify the exact mechanisms responsible, but the implications for applying these findings to real world tasks would benefit greatly from the answers.
So, instead of this research sitting on a shelf in a library, how can we use it to enhance sporting performance, not only in golf, but across sporting domains?
In my mind, I would apply this research to influence the training conditions / environments that we create for children. How many times have you seen a child give up, or tell themselves that they are not good enough because they missed a shot in practice? Especially considering the PGA statistics presented earlier... But, what if we made those practice conditions conducive to learning by making the task slightly easier, and not focus solely on tasks that emphasise outcome of performance? Ultimately, this research has shown us that performance and learning will benefit. But I am certain that the success of this method is underpinned by the decreased expectation, overall enjoyment and affirmations of success that are felt during practice.
As an athlete, coach, practitioner etc... please share in the comments section, how would you directly apply the findings in this research to enhance your practice environment?
Reference:
Ziv, G., Lidor, R., & Lavie, M., (2019). Enhanced expectancies in golf putting - a replication study with increased ecological validity. International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology.
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