Learning and Practicing Skilled Performance TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION..........................................................1 Skilled Performance...........................................1 Categories of Skilled Performance.............................2 Presentation..................................................3 SOME PHYSIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND.........................................4 Motor Programs................................................4 Some of the Experimental Evidence for Motor Programs..........5 The Role of Feedback..........................................6 CNS Activity Prior to Movement Initiation.....................7 PROGRAMS, ROUTINES, AND PERFORMANCE LEARNING..........................9 Motor Programs and Motor Routines.............................9 The Use of Pauses in Creating New Programs...................10 Assembly of Concurrent Routines..............................11 PARAMETERS OF MOTOR PROGRAMS.........................................12 The Force Parameter..........................................12 The Force Parameter and Covert Routines......................13 Motor Programs Can Run Without Muscle Engagement.............14 Overt and Covert Routines....................................16 Covert Routines in Overt Performance.........................17 The Importance of Identifying and Teaching Covert Routines...19 The Speed Parameter..........................................20 Speed Changes and Phasing of Routines........................22 Practicing With Gradual Speed Changes........................23 Effort Flow as a Motor Program Parameter.....................24 Moment-To-Moment Parameter Changes...........................25 PERFORMANCE SHAPING..................................................25 Automatization of Routines...................................25 Reinforcement of Parameter Shifts in Performance Learning....27 Imaging In Performance.......................................28 Matching Internally Encoded Models...........................29 Creating the Internally Encoded Performance Models...........30 BASIC TECHNIQUES OF PERFORMANCE SHAPING..............................31 Creating Internally Encoded Models...........................31 The Importance of Critical Covert Components.................31 Changing the Internal Model..................................32 The Use of Metaphors in Coaching.............................34 Concept Formation............................................35 Programs That Manage Other Programs..........................36 Covert Practice Can Be Effective.............................37 PERFORMANCE ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY...................................39 Coordinative Linkages........................................39 Coordinative Structures for Movement.........................40 Degrees of Freedom...........................................40 Degrees of Freedom in Performance Learning...................41 Increasing Control Without Increasing the DFs................42 Coordinative Structures in Perception........................43 Coordinative Structures of Covert Programs...................44 Economy and Efficiency of Performance........................45 Conceptual Frameworks are Coordinative Structures............46 Practicing Sequences of Positions............................46 PERFORMANCE MISTAKES: INVALID COORDINATIONS..........................47 Valid and Invalid Routines...................................47 The Importance of Avoiding Mistakes..........................48 Performance Mistakes in Covert Routines......................49 Can One Learn From Mistakes?.................................50 Plateaus in Performance Learning.............................52 Avoiding Plateaus............................................52 Superstitious Routines.......................................53 Managing Superstitious Performance Routines..................54 Ways to Practice Mistakes Inadvertently......................55 Successive Approximations....................................56 Using Pauses To Create Successive Approximations.............57 Selecting Proper Pausing Points..............................58 MAKING THE PERFORMANCE ULTRA-STABLE..................................59 Cues in Skilled Performance..................................59 Visual and Auditory Cues.....................................60 Kinesthetic Cues.............................................61 Making Cue Sources Redundant.................................62 Making Coordinative Structures Redundant.....................63 "Getting Stuck" in the Middle of a Passage...................64 How To Avoid "Getting Stuck".................................65 Benefits of Redundancy.......................................66 MISTAKES DUE TO CUE GENERALIZATION...................................66 Cue Generalization Problems..................................66 Managing Cue Generalization Problems.........................67 Practicing "Getting Stuck"...................................69 PERFORMANCE MONITORING IN PRACTICING.................................70 Phylogenetic Origins of Short-Term Memory....................70 Short-Term Memory and "Following"............................71 Monitoring in Following......................................72 Following in Performance Learning............................73 Following in Sight Reading...................................74 Subsequent Passes Through the Score..........................75 Looking at the Score in Practicing...........................77 The Efficient Way............................................78 MANAGING THE PRACTICING PROCESS......................................80 Length of Practice Sessions..................................80 The Need for Performance Refreshment.........................81 Scheduling Practice Sessions.................................82 Awareness in Performance Learning............................83 Advantages of Total Immersion................................85 Competing Drives.............................................86 The Teacher's Functions......................................87