For this assignment each student was to pair up in groups of two and practice juggling. The catch was that one student was to do part-practice while the other had to go straight into juggling. Part-practice is when a person separates a large task into smaller tasks in order to perfect the larger task.
For this assignment the large task of juggling was broken down into four smaller tasks, which included a One-ball toss and catch, a two-ball toss and catch, a three-ball toss and drop, and three ball juggling. Each small task was done in an 8 trial block with five tosses per trial; trials one through three were followed by a one minute break period, trial four with a five minute break period, then an 8 trial retention test.
I was chosen to do the part-practice while my partner Amanda was chosen to go straight into juggling.By the end of the four trials both of us had improved, but my skill level was far higher than Amanda's. By the end of the fourth trial I was able to juggle fairly well and make five rotations through while Amanda was still struggling to make two.
Factors that may have effect the outcome of our results are previous juggling knowledge, the capability to multi-task, and good hand-eye coordination.
Part-practice worked a lot better than just jumping into juggling due to the focus on important skills that allow you to juggle successfully. By attempting to juggle straight from the beginning, the participant is not able to specialize in any movement or task. Part-practice can be used to better a person's skills on a certain task by breaking the task down into simple steps and having them practice the smaller steps before putting them all together to make one fluid motion.
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