14 Making adjustments to a heavily practiced, well established skill can be one of the most difficult tasks required of an experienced athlete. Although there can be several situations in sport for which this is required (e.g., rule or/and equipment changes, advancement to a higher level of play), there are a dearth of empirical studies…

13D Sports Science Shorts: Ice, Ice Baby! As the thermometer keeps dropping what effect will the cold weather have on the perceptual-motor abilities of athletes? Download link Articles/links: Effects of moderate cold on performance of psychomotor and cognitive tasks A Meta-Analysis of Performance Response Under Thermal Stressors Interactions between cold ambient temperature and older age…

The Perception & Action Podcast is going LIVE and I want you to be involved (or at least just watch). On Wednesday November 11, 2015 at 9AM AZ/8 AM PST I will host my first live discussion on the general topic of skill acquisition using blab.im. My co-host for this topic will be performance advisor…

13C A discussion with Shawn Myszka, movement skills trainer for the National Football League. We discuss connecting research and practice, technique change, dealing with injury, choking under pressure and look at the constraints lead or dynamic systems approach to skill acquisition. Download link More information about my guest: https://footballbeyondthestats.wordpress.com/ http://www.optimizemovement.com/sq/35323-movement-mastery-intro https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI0sfP6vEMuR-EyC673uplg More information: My Research…

13B 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. Download link Articles/links: Head Trainer App As soon as the…

13A 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? Download link Articles: Superstitious behavior in sport: Levels of effectiveness and determinants of use in three collegiate sports Superstitious Behavior Among…

13 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…

12D Sports Science Shorts: 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…

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…

12B News: Do sports help protect against the effects of ageing? Can observing the performance of a novice hurt the actions of an expert? Download link 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…