5.
Principles of Effective Practice
When planning my skill development programme, it was important to consider the principles of effective practice.
My programme was specific to my skill level and development needs.
I ensured the practices I included allow me to perform a high number of drop shots during the session. It is important that the programme is specific to my current ability level and the stage of learning I am at.
It is important to gradually increase the demands of your programme by increasing the difficulty as the programme progresses and performance improves. This means that as I move through the stages of learning, I can keep the programme specific to my level of ability.
In weeks 1 & 2 of my programme my session had lots of repetition drills and shadow practices, but by weeks 7 & 8 I was mostly working on pressure drills and combination rallies. These practices were more difficult and more game like and had more decision making aspects to them which meant I was practising under more pressure.
Throughout your programme it is vital to set short and long term goals. These goals act as a motivator and also helped provide feedback on your progression. It was important these goals are challenging but achievable, relative to the ability of the performer. My long term goal long term goal was to increase the % of effective drop shots in the game. My short term goals included targets I set within my training schedule.
For example, in week 1 I aimed for 50% accuracy target practice drills. During target practice drills I aimed to hit a predefined target % of my shots into the tramline area. By the end of week 8, when I had reached the autonomous stage, I was aiming for 80% success rate.
This helped motivate me during the session as it gave me a realistic, challenging, but achievable goal to aim for.
Other elements of the session designed to motivate me were the conditioned and full court games where I was focused on trying to win the game against my training partner. The desire to win helped me concentrate and gave me determination to train at a high intensity.
One of the most important factors to consider was my work to rest ratio, both in terms of the weekly programme and in the structure of each individual session.
I had to practice with enough regularity that the programme would be beneficial and bring improvement to my technique but also ensure that I had rest days to give me a physical and mental break from the training session to avoid burnout.
I therefore trained 3 times per week, on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday to give me a rest day in between each session. This helped ensure my body was physically recovered from the strains of the previous session, allowing me to maintain a high level of intensity during each session.
It also ensured I did not burn out mentally and meant I could maintain my concentration and motivation in every session.
During the sessions I tried to work to a 2:1 work to rest ratio and ensured there was variety in the practices I did.
I tried to keep the repetition drills fairly short (10-20 repetitions) which usually took between 1-2 minutes, therefore my rest was 30s-1min. My conditioned games to 11 usually lasted about 7-10mins so I had a 4 minute rest after them.
Planning the duration of each session and each individual drill was important. I practiced for long enough to get enough repetition that I learned the movements required for the overhead clear through muscle memory but kept the practices short enough with rest breaks to avoid fatigue or boredom becoming a factor.
It was important boredom and fatigue did not become a factor in my training as this would cause the quality of my training to drop.
6.
The programme of work I used to improve my performance was an 8 week programme wher I gradually made the practices more difficult, more game like and which involved greater decision making under pressure.
In weeks 1&2 I mainly used shadow practice and self feed repetition drills.
A shadow practice is is a good method for learning the basic movements or subroutines of a skill or technique.
It involves shadowing the movements of the skill or technique without the involvement of any objects.
It is most useful for performers at the cognitive stage of learning as it reduces the pressure and decision making aspects of the shot.
Performers at the associative or automatic stage may use this type of practice as a game related warm up but would move quickly onto more demanding and game-like practices, whereas a beginner may use this as a larger part of their session
A self-feed repetition drill involves repeating the action of a skill or technique over and over to learn the skill by muscle memory. As we perform a skill more and more our muscles become used to the timing and co-ordination required to perform the skill with fluency.
As it is unopposed there are still relatively few decision making aspects so we can practice the skill under relatively little pressure to allow us still to concentrate on grooving the technique and putting the subroutines into the correct order.
This type of practice would be used mainly by performers at the cognitive stage of learning as we are practising in a closed context.
In weeks 3&4 I moved onto using partner feed repetition drills and target practice drills.
Partner feed repetition drills also involvs repeating the skill over and over to learn by muscle memory but there is slightly more pressure involved and more decision making aspects to the performance.
In badminton, our partner would now serve so we are now practising in a more open context as every shot we play will be different. We no longer have the decision when to play the shot or from which position on the court because our partner now decides when and where to serve the shuttle.
We have to react and move to play the shuttle a little differently each time. This type of practice would normally be used by a performer at the associative stage of learning to try to develop better, timing, co-ordination, fluency and economy of effort when playing the shot.
Target Practice are essentially repetition and pressure drills done by setting a specific area of the court where we want the shuttle to land. We can set ourselves a percentage target of how many shots we aim to land in this area.
This can act as a good motivator and help keep the performer focused as it gives them a challenging but achievable goal to aim for.
In weeks 5&6, I mainly used pressure drills and sequence drills.
A Pressure Drill is similar to a repetition drill as you are repeating the skill over and over but there is an added element of pressure.
For example, when performing an overhead clear in badminton my partner will serve a shuttle every 6 seconds whether I am ready or not. I must play an overhead clear, move to the net, shadow a net shot then return to base ready for the next shot.
This makes the practice more gamelike as there is more movement involved, I am not always moving to the back court and I may not always be in my base position to start my preparation phase for the overhead clear.
This practice would be used by performers at the associative or autonomous stage to refine their technique whilst practising under pressure.
A Sequence Drill or Combination Rally is a practice that allows us to practise a number of shots in a more game-like scenario.
It may be we are still focusing on improving one particular shot, but through a combination rally we are trying to develop our ability to perform the shot automatically.
This is because we are less able to focus entirely on the technique of one particular shot as we are also playing different types of shot within the rally.
This practice would be used by a performer at the autonomous stage of learning to refine their technique and practice under a high level of pressure.
In weeks 7&8, my decision making under pressure and skill were at a high level so I used conditioned and fuul court games to practice the skill in a high pressure situation.
Conditioned Games are useful for prasticing a skill or technique in a game or game-like scenario helps motivate and focus the performer as they have a target to aim for, i.e. beating their opponent.
There could be a condition on the game that encourages you to use the shot you are trying to develop, e.g. you score 2 points for a winning shot with that shot.
This allows you to practise the skill under high levels of pressure and perform in an open context as every shot played will be different dependant on height and speed of the shuttles flightpath and our own and opponent’s position on court.
This is more suited for performers at the associative or autonomous stage of learning but can also be used by cognitive learners to build up game experience and avoid boredom of constant drill practices in a session.
Full Court Games, like conditioned games, allows the performer to practise in an open, game-like, high pressure setting and creates a similar scenario to that of a competitive match.
Again this is more suited for performers at the associative or autonomous stage of learning but like conditioned games, can also be used by cognitive learners to build up game experience and avoid boredom of constant drill practices in a session.
