The effect of practice arrangement on acquisition and retention of generalized motor program of throwing skills in decathlon (shot-put, discus and javelin throwing)

The purpose of the present research was to examine the effect of practice arrangement on retention and acquisition of generalized motor program of throwing skills in decathlon (shot-put, discus and javelin throwing).

40 right-hand and novice male student (age: 19-23 years) voluntarily selected and randomly assigned in two groups of random and blocked practice. Subjects, after performing one block in the pre-test, exercised two blocks for nine sessions in acquisition phase, performed one block in acquisition test, and after 72 hours performed one block with randomize blocks, for retention test. Each block included 9 trials.

The analysis of mixed ANOVA with repeated measures for factor of sessions of practice in acquisition phase showed that two groups progressed during acquisition phase and blocked group was better then random group in all of practice sessions. Also, independent t-test showed that blocked group is significantly better than random group in acquisition test, but random group significantly better than blocked group in retention test (p<0.05).

These results show that contextual interference has positive effect on skills controlled with different generalized motor program. Therefore, findings of this research support from Magill and Hall (1990) hypothesis and action plan reconstruction hypothesis of Lee and Magill (1985).