Exploring the applicability of the contextual interference effect in sports practice.

This review will consider three key issues considered critical when determining the efficacy of the contextual interference effect when applied to sports practice. First, the issue of complexity is considered in relation to the amount of interference actually needed in the applied sports setting to create effective learning. Second, the traditional underpinning mechanism/s of contextual interference are discussed in relation to recent neurophysiological perspectives on their viability. A counter-position to these dominant theories is also presented drawing on an implicit learning framework. The final issue considers the typical measures of learning used within the contextual interference literature and scrutinizes them relative to the needs of bridging the apparent theory-practice divide. The concluding section then presents a model to measure the degree of contextual interference within the applied setting, which in turn offers both future research directions as well as guidelines for practitioners.