Random and Blocked Practice for Learning Football Kicking

The question of how to organize the practice for learning skills of a given sport is still unresolved. Despite the common belief that random practice is more beneficial for retention/transfer tests in motor learning than blocked practice, recent reviews demonstrate limitations in generalizing this effect for the sport context. Therefore, we investigated the effect of random and blocked practice schedules on learning the football kick. Seventy subjects aged 6–11 years were tested in five different kicking conditions varying whether the kick was (1) for maximum velocity of the ball, or whether the kick was for precision depending on the initial position of the ball; (2) stationary ball; (3) under kicker’s control; (4) with the ball at a constant speed; and (5) with the ball at varied speeds—as in a pass. For the practice phase, participants performed the four precision conditions under either block or random practice schedules. After seven practice sections, both groups improved similarly from pre- to posttests (120 hr after practice) in performance and overall movement pattern considering retention (Conditions 2–5) and transfer (Condition 1). Blocked and random practice conditions did not lead to distinct outcomes in learning the football kick.