'Deliberate practice' strategies are essential to develop expert skill performance (Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Romer 1993). Deliberate practice components include: clear instructions, appropriate task difficulty, a sufficient number of skill repetitions, immediate feedback, individualised supervision, a variety of learning strategies, tasks designed to maintain focus in the cognitive and associative learning stages, and replication of superior performance. In contrast, traditional practice in swimming, particularly for older and more competitive teenagers, often emphasises training distance (quantity) over skill instruction (quality). A previous study found that teenage competitive swimmers did not improve their technique (as measured by the active drag coefficient, Cd) when training with traditional practice strategies (Havriluk 2003). In another study (Marinho, Barbosa, Costa, Figueiredo, Reis, Silva & Marques 2010), an eight week training program included only 'practicing technical drills' (consistent with typical traditional practice) and concluded that there was no significant improvement in the Cd. In comparison, two deliberate practice studies reported impressive technique improvements. A study with young teenage swimmers showed that a one-week intervention using deliberate practice produced a significant improvement in the Cd (Havriluk 2006). In another study, swimmers practiced deliberately during a two hour intervention that included real-time video and hand force feedback and had a 22% increase in average hand force (Jefferies, Jefferies & Donohue 2012). A general lack of emphasis on technique for (particularly more competitive) teenagers may be related to concern for interfering with success, a misperception about the potential impact on performance, and/or an emphasis on increased training distance. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of a deliberate practice intervention on the technique of older teenagers (national caliber swimmers) where in comparison to younger teenagers; the habit strength would likely be more resistant to change.
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