[shadowbox] Visual Information about Horizontal Pitch Movement: Sensitivity, Release Points & Eye Separation Following up on my post on pitch tunneling which examined pitch movement in the vertical plane, I want to now consider visual information available to a batter about the trajectory of pitch in the horizontal plane (e.g., whether it will cross on…
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71 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? Download link Articles: Behavior of College Baseball Players in a Virtual Batting Task Perceiving and Acting upon Spaces…
Read More[shadowbox] The Psychology of Quick Pitching & Altering Deliveries In recent years some prominent MLB pitchers have begun altering the timing of their delivery in an attempt to mess with batters (although it is not a new practice). A few examples of how Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman does this can be seen in…
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70 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. Download link More information about my guest: http://www.rug.nl/staff/a.benjaminse/ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anne_Benjaminse…
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69 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? Download link Articles: Distance Perception in Real and Virtual Environments Do monocular time-to-collision estimates necessarily involve perceived distance? Motion in depth: Adequate and inadequate simulation…
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68 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. Download link More information about my guest: https://www.solent.ac.uk/staff-profiles/academic-profiles/emma-mosley/emma-mosley https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emma_Mosley https://twitter.com/ Emma_Mosley More information:…
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67 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? Download…
Read More[shadowbox] A Baseball Batter’s Perception of Spin & How it Relates to Hitting Performance One of the most interesting measurements that has come from the “Pitch f/x – Statcast Era” in baseball is pitch spin rate. While there has been a lot of discussion of how spin influences the flight of the ball, how it…
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66 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. Download link More information about…
Read More[shadowbox] Pitch Tunneling & Perceptually Equivalent Pitches Recently I have become fascinated with the topic of pitch tunneling, not only because I am a big baseball fan but because it bears a striking resemble to some of the psychophysical experiments I did during my PhD (and since). Specifically, one’s designed to measure discrimination thresholds for…
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