INSTRUCTION 101
VARIABLE-PRACTICE INSTRUCTION: THE MERITS OF MIXING IT UP
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t’s the peak of Christmas week and you’ve been assigned a client who wants to progress from long-radius, open-parallel turns to medium- and possibly even short-radius turns. What if you could consult two seasoned coaches and use two different
approaches to help the student develop a centered stance and turning skills? Would the student benefit more from certain tasks practiced repeatedly on the same terrain… or from mixing things up?
COACH A IS KEEN ON REPETITION OF TASKS
Let’s say Coach A suggests choosing a moderate blue trail, with plenty of width, good snow conditions, and low traffic. He covers a few key components of stance and turning the skis, and recommends that the student stick to that one trail and work on familiar terrain to hone a balanced stance and incrementally reduce the radius of those long-radius turns. For the duration of the lesson, the client
performs balance and turn drills repeatedly, skiing on the same trail. Upon growing more comfortable with the terrain and techniques involved, she starts to adjust her turn shape. As the lesson concludes, the student can now successfully negotiate the terrain of that trail and is very pleased to have “mastered” turning with a shorter radius.
COACH B VOTES FOR VARIABLE PRACTICE
Now let's examine the advice of Coach B – who also suggests choosing a moderate blue trail, with plenty of width, groomed snow
84 | 32 DEGREES • WINTER 2017
conditions, and low traffic. And, yes, the coach emphasizes that you should cover key components of stance and turning the skis. Tat, however, is where the similarities end. Coach B suggests that, after the first run, you maintain the same instructional focus but
work on a series of varied terrain options: QFirst, by negotiating terrain of similar steepness but less-than-ideal grooming
Q Ten, taking a run with better grooming but a steeper pitch
Coach B says the student may struggle a bit with either or both of these changes, but not to worry. He even suggests next selecting a trail well-groomed and no steeper than the first run, but that’s much narrower (again, warning that the student will struggle a bit). Finally, Coach B encourages you to return to the first trail to allow the student to “ski it out” and finish with some mileage. You put Coach B’s advice to work, and at the end of the lesson the student is beaming, happy to have “mastered” turning with a shorter radius.
WHAT’S THE BETTER PLAN OF ATTACK?
Which of these coaches gave the best advice for a successful lesson? You may be tempted to answer with the rationale that numerous repetitions of a task, as suggested by Coach
Repetition of tasks on smooth terrain (left); variable practice on variable terrain (right)
A, will engrain the movement and lead to superior skiing.
While this strategy works well with beginners trying to get the hang of how to perform the movement initially, research has shown that the repetitive-task approach does not result in optimal learning for intermediate and advanced clients. Instead, research indicates that varying the task and the context in which the task is performed will lead to more successful long-term outcomes. If you’ve used the repetition-until-
mastery approach, you’re probably a little perplexed by this claim. After all, you’ve probably noticed that your clients do appear to be more competent at that task by the end of the lesson. Studies
have shown, however, that
although the rote repetition of a task does improve performance during practice, those performance changes are only temporary. In other words, it’s unlikely that students will be able to perform at the same level later in the day when they decide to go off to another part of the mountain with friends or family or the following weekend. When clients are asked to practice the same task repeatedly, they tend to settle into a groove and go into autopilot. Contrary to popular belief, this does not improve muscle memory. Te truth is, muscles don’t remember anything. Te brain does, however, and it needs to be stimulated to promote long-term performance improvements. When clients settle into a groove, they no longer actively process information at the level needed for this stimulation to occur.
PHOTOS BY SHERRI HARKIN
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