Part Practice

• Part Practice Definition: a complex skill is broken into distinct parts that are practised seprately
• Part Practice Example: breaking down the attack into its component parts of approach and arm-swing
• Part Practice is most effective for or when:

  • the skills involve some risk in the early stage of learning
  • the parts are performed relatively independently of each other in the real skill
  • serial tasks of long duration where errors in one part do not affect the actions in the parts that follow
  • slow serial tasks where parts do not affect each other
• Part Practice is not recommended for or when:

  • interaction between each part is high
  • an error made or a change happening in one part affects the actions in the part that follows
  • discrete skills that are short, are performed fast or involve balls or objects on a trajectory
  • coordination of different parts of the body is important (hand and foot motion)
  • continuous skills