The effects of blocked and random practice on the learning of three variations of the golf chip shot

ABSTRACT

The current study investigated the acquisition of three variations of a golf chipping task using either a blocked or random practice schedule. Twenty-four individuals performed a 5.5 m chipping task in which they practised from three different ground lies. Half were randomly assigned to a blocked practice condition in which they practised all trials of one task variation before moving on to the next variation. The other half were assigned to a random practice condition in which they practised the three tasks in a random order. Acquisition consisted of 54 total trials. Ten minutes following acquisition a six-trial blocked retention test was performed, followed by a six-trial random retention test. During acquisition, individuals significantly improved their chipping performance (p < .001) but no group differences emerged (p > .05). The random condition was significantly more accurate in chipping performance during the random retention test (p < .05) but no group differences emerged for the blocked retention test (p > .05). These results suggest that increased contextual interference during practice of a golf chip task facilitates learning. Practitioners should seek to implement increased levels of CI while instructing novice golfers.

KEYWORDS:

• Contextual interference
• motor learning
• skill acquisition
• golf chip shot

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.