The Impact of Skill Level Matching in Cooperative Dyadic Interaction on Learning Table Tennis Forehand Skills among Adolescent Girls

Abstract

Background: Dyad training is one of the new practicing methods which has received growing attention due to its increasing practice efficiency in skills. Objective: The present study aims to investigate the impact of skill level matching in cooperative dyadic interaction on learning forehand table tennis skills in adolescent girls. Methods: Participants were selected based on convenience sampling from among 24 junior high school girls in Nahavand city, and were randomly divided into two groups of Novice-Novice and Novice-Expert. Both groups performed six sessions of participatory dyad training with their respective arrangement (novice-novice, novice-expert), each session consisting of 20 sets of 3-minute with a 1-minute rest time between the sets. Using table tennis forehand shot accuracy test, the motor performance was measured in the pre-test, post-test, retention and transfer stages (merely forehand performance with increasing throwing speed of ball launcher machine). Results: The results revealed that both Novice-Novice and Novice-Expert groups displayed significant progress learning of table tennis forehand skills. Moreover, the Novice-Expert performed better in the post-test, retention and transfer stages in comparison to the Novice-Novice group. Conclusions: As a result, Novice-Expert arrangement facilitates learning table tennis forehand skill more than Novice-Novice arrangement during participatory dyad training.