The Perception & Action Podcast

Why is it important to include emotional context in practice? A look at the evidence for the beneficial effects of anxiety in training and guidelines for implementing pressure training. Articles/links: The dynamics of expertise acquisition in sport: The role of affective learning design Training with mild anxiety may prevent choking under higher levels of anxiety Perceptual-motor learning benefits...

When a coach identifies a maladaptive movement pattern in an athlete, what is the best way to change it? Do formal biomechanical evaluations help? How can we identify the origins of the problem? How can we improve agility and speed without disrupting perception-action coupling?   Articles/links: Do baseball pitchers improve mechanics after biomechanical evaluations? A problem-solving process to id...

What is "transfer of training"? How should we be assessing it and what does research tell us is the best way to achieve it?   Articles/links: Motor imagery and 'placebo-racket effects' in tennis serve performance Transfer of Movement Control in Skill Learning Changes in balance coordination and transfer to an unlearned balance task after slackline training: a self-organizing map analysis Riding a...

A discussion with Mark Williams, Professor and Chair of the Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation at the University of Utah. We discuss designing effective practice, talent identification and development and anticipation training.   More information about my guest: https://faculty.utah.edu/u6006972-ANDREW_MARK_WILLIAMS/research/index.hml   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/...

Can the two opposing theoretical views of the role of attention in choking under pressure be integrated? A look at some theories that have attempted to do so and consideration of what still needs to be done in this area.   Articles/links: Choking Under Pressure: Multiple Routes to Skill Failure Anxiety and perceptual-motor performance: toward an integrated model of concepts, mechanisms, and proces...

A discussion with Sam Vine. Senior Lecturer of Psychology & Human Movement Science from the University of Exeter. We discuss recent research and unresolved issues related to the Quiet Eye, appraisal of stress and performing under pressures, and Sam's new VR training venture, Cineon Training.   More information about my guest: http://sshs.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Samuel_Vine https://www....

Is focusing one's attention on skill execution as a result of increased self-consciousness really the primary cause "choking under pressure"?  Is the evidence in support of this theory flawed?   Articles/links: Putting pressure on theories of choking: towards an expanded perspective on breakdown in skilled performance The fourth dimension: A motoric perspective on the anxiety–performance relations...

A discussion with Edward Coughlan. Lecturer in Skill Acquisition at the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland. We discuss practice design, skill acquisition, deliberate practice, and occlusion training with Chin Up Googles.   More information about my guest: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Edward_Coughlan2 http://dredwardcoughlan.com/profile/ https://twitter.com/DrSkillAcq http://www.chinup...

Meeting webpage:  http://perceptionaction.com/saaz/ If you are interested in attending please take the short survey on this page to help choose a date and provide info about presentation topics.

How have researchers used virtual environments to distort reality, disobey gravity, create conflicting feedback, and alter an athlete's perception in the name of science? How have they effectively brought rate events in sports into the lab?   Articles/links: Behavior of College Baseball Players in a Virtual Batting Task Perceiving and Acting upon Spaces in a VR Rugby Task: Expertise Effects in Aff...

A discussion with Anne Benjaminse from the Department for Human Movement Sciences at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. We discuss the role of attentional focus in injury prevention and recovery, using video feedback and VR as rehabilitation tools, and making "return to play" decisions.   More information about my guest: http://www.rug.nl/staff/a.benjaminse/ https://www.researchgate.net...

How effective are VEs for sports training? Have they achieved good fidelity? Can they induce competitive anxiety? Does augmentation help performance? Do they show evidence of transfer of training?   Articles/links: Distance Perception in Real and Virtual Environments Do monocular time-to-collision estimates necessarily involve perceived distance? Motion in depth: Adequate and inadequate simulation...

A discussion with Emma Mosley, Lecturer in the School of Sport, Health and Social Sciences at Southampton Solent University. We discuss topics including emotional intelligence, guidelines for using heart rate variability, performance under pressure, and links between personality traits and sports.   More information about my guest: https://www.solent.ac.uk/staff-profiles/academic-profiles/emma-mos...

What are the potential advantages of using virtual environments (VE) to train and study sports skills? How should a VE be evaluated? How important is fidelity, presence, and cost? When is the best time to use a VE in relation to skill level and physical training? Why haven't VE's been more widely adopted?   Articles/links: A review of virtual environments for training in ball sports Understanding...

A discussion with Gerard Jones, Head of Coaching at Bristol Rovers Football Club. We discuss topics including developing decision making skills in players through improved communication, how to handle regional differences in sports vocabulary, encouraging different levels of knowledge in players, and how to balance player and coach development.   More information about my guest: http://www.gerards...

How important is feel or body awareness in sports?  How can we assess kinaesthetic sensitivity and proprioceptive acuity in athletes and can these be improved through training? How does it influence an athlete's ability to implement technical changes?   Articles: Level of competitive success achieved by elite athletes and multi-joint proprioceptive ability Exploring the kinaesthetic sensitivity of...

How well can we integrate samples from a visual scene (e.g. when an outfielder is trying to catch a fly ball and has to look from the ball to the wall and back)? How long of a view do we need and what interval between samples can we tolerate? Does training to perform under such intermittent conditions result in improvements and transfer to performance in full vision conditions?   Articles: Intermi...

News: A look at a few recent articles in the area of motor learning and performance. Can skill execution be improved by combining self and expert models in video feedback? How do combat athletes using affordance to control interpersonal distance? How can we determine the degree to which the decisions made by teammates are coordinated?   Articles: Innovative Video Feedback on Jump Landing Improves...

A discussion with Stephanie Rossit, Lecturer in Psychology from the University of East Anglia in the UK. We discuss perceptual and action related deficits in visual neglect, brain areas associated with online and offline control of action, her recent work with patient DF that challenges some well know previous findings, and her research examining ways to rehabilitate neglect patients.   More infor...

A discussion with Damian Farrow. Professor of Skill Acquisition at Victoria University in Melbourne Australia. We take a step by step look at practice design discussing how to determine the goals of practice, how to effectively manipulate constraints, how to achieve the right balance of practice variability, how to effectively use instruction and feedback, and things an athlete should do when off...

A discussion with Jenelle Gilbert, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, California State University Fresno.  We discuss the importance of mental skills training in sports and beyond, her concept of the Psychological UNIFORM, using a Game Plan format to teach mental skills and her recent research looking at the stressors faced by coaches.   More information about my guest: http://www.fresnos...

A discussion with Bruce Hoyer, Martial Arts Coach at the Next Edge Academy in South Dakota. We discuss how Bruce has employed a variety of different ideas from sports science research in his coaching including using a flipped classroom, observational learning, giving feedback and reducing interference in motor learning.   More information about my guest: https://www.nextedgeacademy.com/bruce-hoyer...

What do we mean when we say an athlete is "in the flow"? How often does it occur? What brings it on? Can we control it?  How does it relate to "psychological momentum" and performance?   Articles/links: A systematic review of the experience, occurrence, and controllability of flow states in elite sport The relation of flow-experience and physiological arousal under stress — Can u shape it? Underst...

A discussion with John Kiely, Senior Lecturer in Elite Performance from the University of Central Lancashire. Topics discussed include the evolution of theories of stress, anxiety and injury, the role of psycho-emotional factors in the stress process and designing supportive training environments to increase athlete buy-in.   More information about my guest: http://www.uclan.ac.uk/staff_profiles/j...

News: Listener picks for articles to review including more research on the effect of variability on motor learning, attention training to reduce the effects of stress on performance and the effect of explicit instructions.   Articles: High variability impairs motor learning regardless of whether it affects task performance The effects of attention training techniques on stress and performance in s...