News: A look at a few recent articles in the area of motor learning and performance. Can the structure of motor variability predict the rate at which a performer learns a new skill?  Does using social media before a game increase anxiety in an athlete?  What differs between the way in which I child and adult learns a motor skill?   Articles: Can the Structure of Motor Variability Predict Learning Rate? Facebook use and its relationship with sport anxiety Children and Adults Both Learn Motor Sequences Quickly, But Do So Differently   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Coty Hogue  - Second Hand News Silence is Sexy – Stories Yet to Come Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com

Danny Newcombe, lecturer in Sports Coaching, discusses applying constraints-led approach in practice design, research effectiveness evaluation methods. Topics include ecological dynamics, affordances, representative design, individualized training strategies, experiential knowledge in coaching.

A discussion with Diane Ste-Marie, Professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. Topics discussed include: why do athletes tend to perform better when they have control over the feedback they receive and when is self-controlled feedback ineffective? How do athletes use observation of themselves or others to acquire or improve sports skills and what factors should be taken into account when applying observational learning in sport?   More information about my guest: https://health.uottawa.ca/people/ste-marie-diane https://www.researchgate.net/researcher/15275124_Diane_M_Ste-Marie   Article mentioned: Observation interventions for motor skill learning and performance: An applied model for the use of observation   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc) Twitter: @Shakeywaits Email: robgray@asu.edu   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Lo Fi is Hi Fi - I’m on a Talk Show Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org

A discussion with Dave Collins, Professor & Director of the Institute of Coaching & Performance, University of Central Lancashire. Topics discussed include: what it’s like to be a sports psychologist, talent development, performance analytics, technique change, bridging the gap between research and practice, and the role of social media in research.   More information about my guest: http://www.uclan.ac.uk/staff_profiles/professor_dave_collins.php http://www.gm4p.com/ https://twitter.com/davegm4p https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-collins-46678310   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc) Twitter: @Shakeywaits Email: robgray@asu.edu   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Lo Fi is Hi Fi - I’m on a Talk Show Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org

Do athletes perform better when they talk to themselves? Should the talk be motivational or instructional? Positive or negative? Does it work for both novices and experts?   Articles/links: The influence of self-talk on the performance of skilled female tennis players Self-talk influences vertical jump performance and kinematics in male rugby union players Self-Talk of Marathon Runners Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis Effects of Self-Talk: A Systematic Review Self-talk: Review and sport-specific model   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Subscribe in iOS/Apple Subscribe in Anroid/Google   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action The Pandoras – You’re All Talk Silence is Sexy – Talk The Sights – Tick Talk Lies Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com

News: A look at a few recent journal articles. Do soccer players and referees sometimes see an event that never really happened? Can a basketball player detect where a dribbler is headed using sound alone? Is doing exercise in front of a mirror effective?   Articles: Seeing the unseen? Illusory causal filling in FIFA referees, players, and novices Expert Players Accurately Detect an Opponent's Movement Intentions Through Sound Alone The Effects of Either a Mirror, Internal or External Focus Instructions on Single and Multi-Joint Tasks   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Phantom Goal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huS7WcDHJXs   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Ultimate Painting – Can’t You See White Hills – Oceans of Sound Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com

Why does the presence of others change the performance of an individual athlete? Why is this social facilitation effect sometimes good and sometimes bad?  Does it matter whether the other people are observing, evaluating or performing the same action? Does being “observed” via activity monitoring technology facilitate performance?   Articles/links: The Dynamogenic Factors in Pacemaking and Competition Social Facilitation From Triplett to Electronic Performance Monitoring Social "facilitation" as challenge and threat Social facilitation in motor tasks: a review of research and theory Social Facilitation of Running: An Unobtrusive Study   Yerkes Dodson Figures   My other (new) podcast: Ultra Running Science & Superstitions   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Subscribe in iOS/Apple Subscribe in Anroid/Google   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action The Dark Brothers – Watching People The Henry Girls – Watching the Detectives Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com  

Should the goal of practice be to reduce movement variability to as low a value as possible? Is high variability the signature of an unskilled performer or a necessity for effective learning?   Articles/links: A schema theory of discrete motor skill learning Feedback-Induced Variability and the Learning of Generalized Motor Programs Optimizing generalized motor program and parameter learning Variability in baseball pitching biomechanics among various levels of competition What variability tells us about movement expertise The bliss (not the problem) of motor abundance (not redundancy) Timing an attacking forehand drive in table tennis Regulation of gait in long jumping Inter-individual variability in the upper–lower limb breaststroke coordination Differing Roles of Functional Movement Variability as Experience Increases in Gymnastics The education of attention as explanation of variability of practice effects: learning the final approach phase in a flight simulator More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Mr Airplane Man – Very Bad Feeling Dazie Mae – The Very Opposite of My Husband The New Mystickal Troubadours – The Fully-Blissed Out Leather Uppers – I Don’t Like You Very Much Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy

My list of the top 5 sports psychology stories from 2016: The death knell for brain games? Deliberate practice fights back! What to do about the relative age effect? Advances in Teamwork Research Somebody’s watching (or monitoring) me   Articles/links: Do “Brain-Training” Programs Work? Peak: The New Science of Expertise Age-ordered shirt numbering reduces the selection bias associated with the relative age effect Reversal of the Relative Age Effect Team Synergies in Sport: Theory and Measures Theoretical and Methodical Approaches to Studying Team Cognition in Sports More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com

A look at visual channeling theory and its consequences for perception. Why are some people blind to approaching objects in certain areas of their visual field and what implications does it have for sport?   Articles/links: The Charles F. Prentice Award Lecture 1990: specific tests and specific blindnesses: keys, locks, and parallel processing Visual field defects for unidirectional and oscillatory motion in depth Impaired Velocity Processing Reveals an Agnosia for Motion in Depth   More information: http://perceptionaction.com/ My Research Gate Page (pdfs of my articles) My ASU Web page Podcast Facebook page (videos, pics, etc)   Credits: The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action Beggar’s Velvet – Blind Gentleman Jesse – If I Can See You 5440 – I Go Blind Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com