Purpose: The purpose of the study was to compare the effects of implicit, explicit, and similar task learning strategies on the performance and learning of a badminton overhead stroke skill. Methods: Participants were 40 right handed male undergraduate students whose age ranged from 18 to 27, with a mean age of 21.5 years. They were randomly assigned into one of four experimental conditions: (1) explicit group, (2) implicit group, (3) similar task learning, and (4) a control group,

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... The participants performed a badminton overhead stroke (receive returning) task for 40 times in the acquisition phase, 20 times in the retention phase and 20 times in the delayed retention phase a week later. A 4(groups)ⅹ4(types of learning phrase), 4(group) ⅹ2(types of learning phrase), and 4(group)ⅹ2(types of learning phrase) ANOVAs with repeated measures were used for the acquisition, retention and long term retention phases, respectively. Dependent variables were absolute error(AE) and variable error(VE). Results: The results of the study indicated that the explicit group, implicit group and the similar learning group presented less error score than the control group. Specially, the similar task learning group had less error score than the explicit group. In regard to variable error, the similar task learning group and the implicit group showed less error score than the explicit group and the control group. For the retention phase, the result indicated that the explicit group, implicit group and the similar task group had lower error score than the control group. For the long term retention phase, the result presented that the explicit group, implicit group and the similar task learning group had lower error score than the control group. Specially in absolute error, the similar task group showed lower error score than the explicit, implicit, and the control group. Taken together, the results of this investigation revealed that the implicit and similar task learning groups showed statistically less error than the control group. Although there were no significant differences between the similar learning group and the implicit condition, the similar task group has a tendency to decrease variable in acquisition and retention phases. Conclusion: The similar task learning strategy may have more potential to improve motor skill learning than those of explicit strategy.