Contextual Interference- Performance versus Learning

[doctorhl]

I suppose this topic has been thoroughly discussed in earlier threads, but I am trying to learn a new racket sport and may take a different approach as a senior tournament player than I did for tennis as a junior. I approached tennis with a mechanistic, massed practice approach in my early years, but observed that many of my successful cohorts( at the tournament club level at least) tended to have a much higher volume of match play to volume of practice, even as juniors. Many of the better players also seemed to be much more instinctual and could not verbalize much about their skill performance journey, but plenty about finding ways to win. Finding ways to win is obviously developed by high volume match play. The tennis coaching and teaching professions are faced with blending these two approaches. This article touches on the contextual inference issue and I would appreciate any thoughts . I figured advice on learning a new racket sport for a senior might generate some discussion about the performance versus learning issue in tennis.

https://hughclarke.substack.com?utm_...utm_medium=web

[stotty]

I am currently digesting parts of the article and have thoughts on it for sure.

One thing that is interesting to try with good players before big matches (big matches being a relative term to one's level) is to rally with them in the singles courts and then at a given point ask them to both overhit and hit balls wide for a short spell before once again rallying in the singles court. Why? Because players then get a sense of what it 'feels' like technically to get things wrong as well as right...a comparison. I know it sounds a bit bonkers but it's a practice that can work well for players because in a way they correcting errors before they start. I got this concept from an olympic marksman who routinely practiced shooting wide of the target as well as at the target. He did this because he felt it was vital to feel what it was like to gets things wrong as well as right just before starting to compete.

More on this thread over the next few days...

[stotty]

I think blocked practice followed by random practice followed by game-based practice is the best way to go. The trick is knowing when to move on from blocked practice, and I believe that to be sooner than many would think. More recently there have been theories about practicing just one shot only for long periods of time (weeks on end) and I assume this involves some random practice of that particular stroke, eg short forehand, high forehand, low forehand, etc.

I recently tried paddle tennis which I found quite challenging. Played to a level, paddle it is a different game to tennis and there comes a point where you have to stop transferring your tennis skills and start accepting paddle has a different skill set and you need to start learning afresh. To do that I had to study the technique of good players and start soaking it up.

[doctorhl]

Thanks for the response. I agree on the skill transfer. I am involved in pickleball and tennis transfer is great in early stages, then works against you. The paddle is short and has no strings and the ball is hard plastic, so your brain has to be retrained for forward acceleration on the swing at a much later contact point time after the bounce than in tennis, especially since the nature of the game involves so many dropshots. The ball simply will not grab the paddle and paddle angle deviation becomes a big deal. Since paddle tennis (padel tennis?platform tennis?) has holes in the paddle and uses a fibered ball similar to tennis, I would assume a needed brain retrain for forward acceleration somewhere between tennis and pickleball because you will get some paddle grab. The difference in the timing of the acceleration for contact between tennis and pickleball feels similar to hitting a regular tennis ball versus hitting those oversize tennis balls made for 10 and under kids. I used those kid tennis balls in practice warmup to adjust to the slight delay in timing of my forward swing acceleration for clay tennis after six months on hard courts.