Rob Gray | An Innovative Approach to Learning and Optimizing Movement

In this episode, Dr. Rob Gray discusses the importance of movement skills in sports and explores alternative approaches that are transforming the sports performance landscape.

The traditional approach to learning movement skills focuses on breaking down complex movements into smaller components, teaching proper technique, and encouraging repetitive practice. However, this method may not be the most effective way to develop adaptable athletes who can perform at a high level in various situations. Conversely, the ecological approach to movement skills emphasizes the importance of variability and adaptability in sports performance. Instead of focusing on a single "correct" technique, athletes should learn to achieve their goals in various ways due to changing environments. This approach also shifts the role of a coach from an instructor to a designer and guide, helping athletes find their own solutions and develop creative problem-solving skills.

We dive into this view of movement training, the benefits of a constraints-led approach, the concept of self-organization in movement, and the challenges of combining traditional movement theories with more recent approaches. Rob shares insights from his two books, How We Learn to Move and Learning to Optimize Movement, which go deeper into these concepts. Prepare to immerse yourself in the intricacies of learning and optimizing movement!

Time stamps:

[1:49] What the world of sports performance is learning from the world of skill acquisition

[4:12] The traditional view of learning movement skills and its potential shortcomings

[13:39] An alternate view of learning movement skills and its potential advantages

[17:39] The difference between doing drills and learning skills

[23:39] Refining movement via a constraints-led approach

[31:31] The importance of movement variability

[37:02] Self-organization: what it is and how it's misunderstood

[43:28] Can you combine both approaches?

[47:16] How to start teaching movement from an ecological approach

Rob Gray is an associate professor and undergraduate program chair in human systems engineering in the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University. Rob completed his bachelor's degree in psychology at Queen’s University and his master's and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology at York University in Canada. His research focuses on perceptual-motor control with a particular emphasis on the demanding actions involved in driving, aviation, and sports. His goal is to conduct basic research that can be applied to the improvement of training, simulation, accident prevention and human-machine interface development within these contexts. Rob is also the host of The Perception & Action Podcast, which explores how psychological research can be applied to improving performance, accelerating skill acquisition and designing new technologies.

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