Throwing skills: Analysis of movement phases in early motor learning

Traditionally, motor learning scientists have evaluated the process of learning a new
motor skill by considering the skill as a whole. Yet, motor skills comprises various
phases, and in the motor learning literature, it is not clear whether new learner show
similar or different learning across various phases. We provide exploratory data on
learning movement phases by novices, using baseball pitching as the learning task.
Eight participants (four male, four female, M age ¼ 23.7 years, SD ¼ 2.4) performed
five trials each in the pretest followed by three blocks of 10 trials each in the
acquisition phase. Finally, two retention tests of five trials were conducted by each
participant 10 minutes and 7 days after the last acquisition block, respectively. Intraand
interlimb coordination of upper and lower body segments were measured as
dependent variables. We found significant differences between the stride phase and
the other phases at pretest, during the acquisition phase, and on both retention tests
across all kinematic variables. Participants experienced more trouble coordinating
the stride phase than the other phases of pitching, perhaps because the stride phase
is the only phase in which the participants had to move their upper and lower body
parts simultaneously. We discuss implications for motor learning generally.