The Perception & Action Podcast 542 – Training to Maintain, Skill Retention & Decay
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Jul 8, 2025 Discover how quickly skills can decay without practice and what factors influence this process. Explore the best strategies to maintain and improve skill retention, especially for elite athletes. Learn about the various levels of complexity associated with skills and how they impact performance. The discussion draws on the latest research to reveal insights that can help anyone looking to enhance their practice routines.
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Three Practice Goals Explained
- Practice has three goals: train to learn, train to perform, and train to maintain. - Train to maintain focuses on confidence with moderate specificity and lower difficulty.
Skill Decay Over Time
- Skill retention decreases steadily over time without practice, with accuracy skills declining about one standard deviation after 10 months. - Skills involving speed and mixed tasks decline at different rates but all show significant drop-off if unused.
Loss of Skill Gains Duration
- Half of initial skill gains are lost after 6.5 months (accuracy) to 13 months (speed) of no practice. - Performance can drop below baseline after 2 years without practice.