“Just
Do It”: How Neuroscience Proves the Most Important Slogan in Sports Performance
Ever wonder how professional athletes “do it”? What
separates pro from amateur and why? How do they respectively learn and then
perform. We’ve all heard coaches say things like “drill it then trust it”, “you
can’t think and perform at the same time”, or “the science is in the
repetition”. We’ve also heard athletes in post performance interviews discuss
their performance in terms such as “I don’t know how I did it, I just did it”,
or “it just happened”. As coaches we know intuitively that these statements are
true, but with recent discoveries in cognitive neuroscience researchers are
learning how and why amateur and professional athletes are able to learn,
practice and perform. With this new understanding we are able to develop better
systems of feedback and education in developing athletes at different
levels.
It is helpful to begin with idea that all mastery is
cyclical. When we first begin, all we have is our instinct- what we can
intuitively do based on our limited level of knowledge. Thus begins the circle:
we begin with intuition, and then we start to learn. We continue to learn until
we become masters of our craft. However, to reach the highest level of mastery,
we must forget about everything we have learned and return once again to
instinct. This idea is reflected in the overly discussed, “Four Stages of
Competence” model, as well as Decision Theory and Stages of Motor Learning
models. It describes the process by which someone goes from incompetence to
competence in a skill. I won’t take the time to outline it in this article
because it is easily researched (see references).
What I am more concerned with modeling is how
attention, timing, imagery, regulatory focus and feedback affect the
sensorimotor performance of athletes who are at differing points along the
competence continuum, how neuroscience proves this, and how we can use this
research as coaches to improve how we teach and how our athletes perform.
A.
Procedural vs Rule based feedback and
attention
B.
Timing and imagery
Given appropriate timing conditions there
is little difference as far as the brain's neurophysiology is concerned between
performing an action and the mental rehearsal of that action. Motor imagery and
execution share common neural substrates. In addition, manipulating the time
available to image a movement between sets is just as effective as actually
altering the time between sets. How these two different variable affect the
performance of sensorimotor skills differs between amateur and professional
athletes. In several studies amateur and professional athletes were asked to
perform a number of imagined movements followed by a number of actual
movements. They were also given feedback the highlighted hurried or not hurried
imaging/execution. The findings were quite interesting. Amateurs performed
worse under conditions in which they were hurried. Professional performance was
the opposite, they performed better when given less time. When amateurs were
given more time to think and perform a movement their scores improved, and when
professionals were given the same conditions their scores dropped. Manipulating
either imagined execution time or imagined execution time produces this
differential impact on amateur and professional outcomes (Beilock, 2008).
So what does all this mean and how do we
apply it as coaches? Simply put, novice performance benefits from conditions
where athletes are given more time to think about the steps involved in a
movement. Not well-learned skills are based on rule based knowledge and thus
respond well to direct explicit attention. While professional performance
benefits from conditions where athletes are not given enough time to attend to
the different steps of a movement. Well-learned skills are believed to be based
one procedural knowledge that run largely outside of explicit attentional
control (Beilock & Carr, 2001; Jackson et al., 2006; Maxwell, Masters,
& Eves, 2000).
C.
Dual Task/ Secondary cognitive tasks and
performance
There have also been significant studies
involving how distraction tasks, or “secondary cognitive tasks” effect amateur
vs professional performance. Secondary cognitive tasks and their juxtaposition
with athletic activity have been highly studied and have been to shown to
improve several performance categories including balance and memory (Swan,
2004). Concerning sensorimotor skills the research is compelling as well. In
tasks where athletes were asked to perform under conditions where tests where
designed to distract attention from movement under skill-focused conditions
that prompted attention to step-by-step (rule based) processes professionals
performance improved and amateur performance suffered.
Conclusion:
In light of these
findings its important to ask ourselves how effective we are as coaches
depending on the skill level of the athlete we are training. How fast are your
athletes learning, and how well are you teaching? How well do your athletes
make adjustments? How proprioceptively aware are they? Do they maintain their
gains? Getting athletes strong and
powerful is the easy part, teaching them how to learn the advanced procedural
movements involved in their sport, as well as how to get in the zone (and stay
there) is the hard part. Neuroscience is teaching us how to teach and how
athletes of different skill levels
learn. So whether you are working with the amateur or professional be
adjustable with your teaching style and adapt to the athlete's learning style,
instead of the dreaded “cookie-cutting” and making athletes adjust to your
teaching style.
SEGMENT ACCELERATION
Producing Power in your Swing with Technique not Effort
by
Ben Himes
Head Hitting Coach, Sharp End Athletics
I define hitting with power simply as the ability to transfer
as much energy into the ball as possible. The ability to do this comes from the
consolidation of power as the swing uncoils up the kinetic chain. As certain
technical aspects of this chain break down, many hitters lose percentages of
power in their swing.
In this article I will show you how to create more power without
effort, consolidate the largest percentage of your power into the baseball via
technique, while showing you how to allow your strength to work for you, or how
to allow your swing to happen, rather than try to make it happen. There
are several major tenants to make this leap in your development as a hitter:
1.
Footwork. The swing uncoils from the
ground up. Your ability to consolidate power comes directly from your
connection to the ground. Your footwork is your connection to the ground
Fig. 1 is an example of Barry Bonds' foot work at contact.
Note that his front foot is closed. If his front foot were open already he
would lose a percentage of power at contact for every degree the foot is open.
Fig. 1
1.
Separation. The ability to “separate”
mean the ability to begin rotating the back hip and core against a closed front
side (closed front foot, hip, shoulder), while keeping the hands back as well.
Fig. 2 is Michael Reed of the Milwaukee Brewers. Every off-season Micheal
trains with Sharp End Athletics. In this session we were specifically focused
on creating separation in Michael's swing. Can you spot the difference between
the two pictures?
In the shot on the right, notice how much further along Michael's
back hip is, rotationally, compared to the shot on the left, while his front
side hip, shoulders, and hands are in relatively the same position in both
shots. Creating separation makes you uncoil and accelerate as one connected
unit from the ground up.
Fig. 2
1.
Bat Speed & Balance. Once the swing
has begun with the right consolidation and direction of energy, the swing is
also about extending and accelerating at high velocity. At high speed,
especially when rotation is involved, high levels of stability are required.
The acceleration of a swing is directly proportional to the net unbalanced
force and inversely proportional to the body's mass. Force = Mass x
Acceleration.
2.
Relaxation & Extension. “When you let
go, a lot happens”. The ability of major muscle groups involved in hitting is
to extend and accelerate. This a a feeling more than it is an mechanical aspect
of a hitters swing. Tension or strength prevents this acceleration. If you try,
you somewhat inhibit the learning process- when you allow you learn to
feel it.
Keep your eyes out for more hitting tips coming to you soon. To learn more, or to sign up for
private or online lessons please email sharpend@sharpendathletics.com Also, check us out at sharpendathletics.com.
