Learning of a whole-body motor task (ladder test) progresses by a two-component exponential curve. The fast component lasts only 5 trials, while the slow component, established within the first 10 trials, controls the mean trend for a 60-trial learning period distributed over 6 days. Warm-up decrement is noticeable on the last 3 days. Individual differences in initial skill have relatively little relation to performance attainment after the first 3 days. Reasonably good multiple-correlational prediction of individual attainment in this task after n days of practice requires using initial skill estimates combined with learning scores that cover at least the first n/2 days of practice.
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