The second installment of My Head Training Journey where I examine whether a smart phone app can improve sports performance. Does the luge game race to the finish or going flying off the track?  My first episode on this topic can be found here: http://perceptionaction.com/11d   Articles/Links: http://headtrainer.com/#/ As soon as the bat met the ball, I knew it was gone”: Outcome prediction, hindsight bias, and the representation and control of action in expert and novice baseball players Visual and skill effects on soccer passing performance, kinematics, and outcome estimations   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 Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org  

How prevalent are superstitious rituals in sports e.g., always wearing the same socks, eating the same meal or listening to the same music on game day? Do they serve actually serve a purpose?   Articles: Superstitious behavior in sport: Levels of effectiveness and determinants of use in three collegiate sports Superstitious Behavior Among American and Japanese Professional Baseball Players   More information: http://www.perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.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: Port City Music – Night Terrors Out of Orion – Horror House Little Debbie – Halloween Instrumental Aritus –Path of Witches Shrink - Fearworks Blik – Halloween Rendezvous Nightfall-Psicodreams Lullaby for the Darkness - Psicodreams Monk Turner –Halloween Night     via freemusicarchive.org 

Recovering from an injury can be one of the most difficult challenges an athlete can face.  In this episode I discuss two topics related to this issue. First, I look at the growing epidemic that is sport related concussions  and consider issues related to detection, assessment, multiple concussion syndrome, and when an athlete can return to play.  Second, I discuss the role of attention in recovery from knee and elbow injuries and how we might get an athlete to stop being overly focused on their injury.   Technically Challenged: A few podcast recommendations   Links to articles discussed: Sport-related concussions: a review of epidemiology, challenges in diagnosis, and potential risk factors Neuropsychological testing for sports-related concussion: how athletes can sandbag their baseline testing without detection Perceptual relearning of complex visual motion after V1 damage in humans The effects of attentional focus on jump performance and knee joint kinematics in patients after ACL reconstruction   Other podcasts links: http://www.radiolab.org http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/ http://www.eis2win.co.uk/Pages/inthezone_podcasts.aspx http://eliteftssportsperformance.libsyn.com/ http://humanfactorsblog.org/2015/07/10/psychology-podcasts/   More information: http://www.perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.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 Reigning Sound – Love Won’t Leave You With a Song Jahzzar – Out of School Archers – Radical Opinion Brian Fallon – American Slang Beans & Bullets – Love Machine   via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com

Dynavision is a visual training device that has been marketed for improving sports performance and has been around for roughly 25 years.  It has received a lot of anecdotal support from athlete but what does the research say about its effectiveness.  Surely, in 25 years there must be a ton of studies that have evaluated it? What can we learn from this case study of visual training in sport?   Articles: High-Performance Vision Training Improves Batting Statistics for University of Cincinnati Baseball Players An Exploratory Study of the Potential Effects of Vision Training on Concussion Incidence in Football The impact of a sports vision training program in youth field hockey players The influence of sport goggles on visual target detection in female intercollegiate athletes L-alanyl-L-glutamine ingestion maintains performance during a competitive basketball game   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 Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org  

A discussion with Alana D’Andrade, Director of Business Development for Fitlight Sport Corporation whose main product is the Fitlight Trainer, a system designed to improve an athlete’s reaction time, speed, agility and awareness. Along with exploring the Fitlight Trainer in detail, we also discuss the value of research validation for products like this and what it’s like to be a part of the rapidly expanding sports technology industry.   More information about product discussed: http://www.fitlighttraining.com/ https://twitter.com/fitlighttrainer   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  

News: Do sports help protect against the effects of ageing? Can observing the performance of a novice hurt the actions of an expert?  Articles: Sports can protect dynamic visual acuity from aging: A study with young and older judo and karate martial arts athletes Watching novice action degrades expert motor performance: Causation between action production and outcome prediction of observed actions by humans Hitting is contagious: experience and action induction   More information: http://www.perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.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: Bored With Four – Kung Fu JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound – Bad News Learning Music - Contagious  via freemusicarchive.org     

Does making an athlete wait longer to perform a high pressure action (e.g., icing the kicker in football) increase the chance of them choking?  If so, why does it occur?   Articles: Haste does not always make waste: Expertise, direction of attention, and speed versus accuracy in performing sensorimotor skills Pressure Kicks in the NFL: An Archival Exploration into the Deployment of Timeouts and Other Environmental Correlates   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 Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org    

I tackle what has been one of the most interesting and contentious issues in sports psychology: hot and cold streaks in performance. Does the hot hand exist? What is the best way to get out a slump?  Is an athlete’s ability to perform under pressure influenced by the streak they are on?   What Grinds My Gears: Interviewing fails   Links to articles discussed: The Hot Hand In Basketball: On the Misperception of Random Sequences Twenty years of ‘hot hand’ research: Review and critique The hot hand reconsidered: A meta-analytic approach The Hot and Cold Hand in Volleyball: Individual Expertise Differences in a Video-Based Playmaker Decision Test Interactions between performance pressure, performance streaks, and attentional focus   More information: http://www.perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.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 The Agrarians – We Run Hot, We Run Cold Reigning Sound – You Got Me Humming Mondo Topless – Break the Ice Milgrom – Hot Six Star General – Cold  via freemusicarchive.org and jamendo.com    

Can training with the new HeadTrainer app make you a better athlete?  The beginning of my “head training journey” (http://perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.com/join-me-on-my-head-training-journey) where I dig into the science behind this first game in this app.   Links to articles discussed: http://headtrainer.com/#/ Reaction times and anticipatory skills of karate athletes Perceptual-cognitive skill training and its transfer to expert performance in the field: Future research directions   How to Listen & Subscribe to The Perception Action Podcast: http://perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.com/podcast/how-to-listen-and-subscribe-to-the-perception-action-podcast-0   More information: http://www.perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.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 Mark Lanegan - Saint Louis Elegy via freemusicarchive.org    

A discussion with Robert Gronbeck, owner and coach at Cairns Sport Performance Clinic in Australia. Covering topics including: being an entrepreneur in sports psychology, perceptual-cognitive training using multiple object tracking, evaluating concussions, and the relationship (and often lack thereof) between basic research and practice in sports.    More information about my guest: http://www.cairnssportsperformanceclinic.com.au/ https://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-gronbeck/6a/245/844 More information about products discussed: http://neurotracker.net/   How to Listen & Subscribe to The Perception Action Podcast: http://perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.com/podcast/how-to-listen-and-subscribe-to-the-perception-action-podcast-0   More information: http://www.perceptionactionpodcast.libsyn.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