In class on November 1st, we paired up and experienced the concepts of varied and constant practice with partners. In constant practice, an individual or team will repeat a procedure exactly the same way every time to perfect the action. During varied practice, variables such as distance, time, or number of repetitions is changed to provide the individual or team a chance to practice under many different circumstances.
My partner and I took turns aiming a bean bag at a hula-hoop with a circle inside. I changed the distance from which I threw the bean bag each time, in a repeating sequence of 4 meters, 5 meters, 6 meters, 4 meters, etc. My partner threw the bean bag from 5 meters each time. We each threw the bean bag 15 times, took a 5 minute break, and repeated the sequence 3 times. At the end of the throwing/aiming sessions, we were asked to take a retention test in which we threw the bean bag only 5 times, each time from 5 meters. The theory was that my partner would score better that I would since she recieved constant practice from 5 meters. We actually scored the same, however. The results didn't match the readings from the textbook. The results could have been affected by a number of outside variables, though. My partner had just come from a workout and was tired, while I didn't feel tired. Also, we were in a crowded area that made it difficult to stay focused on the task and hard to not bump into another team when throwing the bean bag. Many bean bags were flying recklessly through the air and we had to keep an eye out for those as well. Perhaps if those variables had not been factors the results would have better matched the theory, but it was still a fun and educational lab for teaching the differences in constant and varied practice.
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