perfect practice or pitch perfect: a story about performance & learning

Performance & LearningPerfect Practice or Pitch Perfect

Nick Winkelman, PhD | Head of Athletic Performance & Science, IRFU

Leaving Cert Examination

Putting for the win

Presenting @ Huddle Dublin

Scoring a Try for the win

WorryAnxietyStress

Jana Novotna Greg Norman NY Yankees

Choking

ChokingChoking is suboptimal performance, It’s a result

that is inferior to what you can do and have

done in the past

Beilock, 2010

WorryingWhen people worry about themselves & their

performance, they tend to try to control

their movement to ensure optimal performance

Beilock, 2010

Learning

Learningrelatively permanent changes in Motor

behavior or knowledge that supports long-

term retention and transfer to competition

SoderstroM & Bjork, 2015

Performancetemporary changes in motor behavior or

knowledge that can be observed & measured

during or immediately after the Practice

SoderstroM & Bjork, 2015

(+ / -) Practice Performance

(+ / -) Pitch Performance

Positive Practice Performance

Poor Pitch Performance

Large % DIFF | ↑ Choking




Poor Pitch Performance

Large % DIFF | ↓ Retention




Positive Pitch Performance

small % DIFF | Performing




Positive Pitch Performance

small % DIFF | Learning

DLPFC

PMC

SMC

M1

Novice Expert

01: Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)

02: Premotor Cortex (PMC)

03: Supplementary Motor Cortex (SMC)

04: Primary Motor Cortex (M1)

“Focus On The Movement”

The Learning Brain of a Novice looks very similar to the Choking Brain of an Expert –the key – minimizing conscious focus on “movement steps” during skill execution

Song, 2009 | Beilock, 2010

Consider how shifting your focus outward as opposed to inward could help your next big presentation or sales Pitch

Practice

Skil

l 1Sk

ill 2

Skil

l 3

S 1

S 1

S 1

S 1

S 2

S 2

S 2

S 2

S 3

S 3

S 3

S 3

BLOCKED Serial Random

A progressive increase in

contextual interference

from blocked to random has

been shown to be superior to

blocked or random only.

Porter et al., 2010

Lage et al., 2015

Skill Retrieval Drives

learning. To strengthen

retrieval we must first

forget. Skill spacing &

variability creates

Desirable difficulty.

Lage et al., 2015

Prepping for a big

presentation or trying

to learn a new skill?

spacing out short &

frequent bursts of

practice is the key.

External Focus

Explode Off The Ground

Internal Focus

Explode Through Your Hips

External Focus

Catch Ball at Highest Point

Internal Focus

Extend your arms as high

as you can

Internal cues constrain

the motor system by asking

the person to focus on a

Simple part at the expense

of the complex whole. .

External cues direct

attention towards relevantmovement features, allowing

the body to self-organize a

preferred movement solution.

Wulf, 2013

External cues have been

shown to inoculate

choking & encourage an

expert-like physiological

state.

Ong et al., 2010 | Neumann & Thomas, 2011

Choke by Sian Beilock

Padraig Harrington has

said, to hell with swing

thoughts; he tries to

keep his mind blank and

think only of the ball’s

flight path.

THANK [email protected] | @NickWinkelman