Introduction: To develop the skills which are usually complicated, coaches should learn them with practice distribution and applicable and intelligible instructions such as analogy. So the aim of this study was the effect of two analogy and practice distribution at performance, retention and transfer of basketball free throw in novices.
Methodology: In this semi-experimental study, 24 subjects without any basketball experience were replaced in two analogy and tow explicit groups. In the acquisition phase, two groups (one analogy and one explicit) practice 8 blocks of 20 trials in 4 days in a raw. Two other groups practice every other day. Before each block explicit groups receive explicit instructions and analogy groups receive 2 analogies of hand and body. In the test phase two retention and one transfer test contains backward counting was conducted. Explicit knowledge, performance, retention and transfer scores were measured.
Results: The results revealed explicit knowledge were low in analogy groups. Analyze of variance with repeated measure showed there were no differences between groups in acquisition phase. Differences between all groups in first retention test was significant. In the transfer test there were significant differences between analogy and explicit groups and between two explicit groups.
Discussion: Using two analogies make the same performance score as explicit conditions. Also It seems, learning by two analogies can make lasting memory. Better retention in the distributed practice groups support consolidation hypothesis and distributed practice. Unlike the previous literature, analogy learning could not prevent performance decrements under pressure than explicit learning. It suggest that in using analogies in learning sessions should be cautious.