PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The present study investigated order-of-practice effects on the acquisition of a complex basketball skill in a bilateral transfer paradigm. 16 school children (mean age = 12.1 years) practiced this skill over 4 weeks in 8 sessions under one of two training schedules: (1) with the right hand, before changing to the left hand (right-to-left group), or (2) with the left hand, before changing to the right hand (left-to-right group). Their primary task was to throw a basketball into a vertical target as often and as accurately as possible over a period of 30 s. After both a pretest and the training phase, learning gains were assessed not only in a posttest and a retention test, but also in a transfer test using throws in to a regular basketball hoop. All tests were conducted with the right hand, the left hand, and with both hands alternating. Results showed significantly larger learning gains for the left-to-right group compared with the right-to-left group. Interestingly, this performance advantage was independent of the respective hand tested. The same pattern of results was also found in the transfer test, with significantly higher scores at the basketball hoop in the left-to-right group. Such order-of-practice effects on the acquisition of complex skills can be explained with hemispheric brain asymmetries for processing specific task requirements. It is concluded that practitioners should include the oft-neglected left hand at an early stage when training sport skills.