7 posts · 6,164 views
Welcome to my blog that mixes sport science with cognitive science to look at the mental side of sports.
Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
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- October 4, 2008
- 07:40 AM
- 1,164 views
The Big Mo' - Momentum In Sports
by Dan Peterson in Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
A player can feel it during a game when they hit a game-changing home run or when they go 0 for 4 at the plate. A team can feel it when they come back from a deficit late in the game or when their lead in the division vanishes. A fan can feel it as their team "catches fire" or goes "as cold as ice". And, play-by-play announcers love to talk about it. We know it as the "Big Mo", the "Hot Hand", and being "In The Zone" while the psychologists call it Psychological Momentum. But, does it reall........ Read more »
Jim Taylor, & Andrew Demick. (1994) A multidimensional model of momentum in sports. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 6(1), 51-70. DOI: 10.1080/10413209408406465
Jim Taylor, & Andrew Demick. (1994) A multidimensional model of momentum in sports. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 6(1), 51-70. DOI: 10.1080/10413209408406465
- August 15, 2008
- 02:50 PM
- 946 views
Inside An Olympian's Brain
by Dan Peterson in Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, Misty May-Treanor and Lin Dan are four Olympic athletes who have each spent most of their life learning the skills needed to reach the top of their respective sports, swimming, gymnastics, beach volleyball and badminton (you were wondering about Lin, weren't you...) Their physical skills are obvious and amazing to watch. For just a few minutes, instead of being a spectator, try to step inside the heads of each of them and try to imagine what their brains must acc........ Read more »
R AJEMIAN, A GREEN, D BULLOCK, L SERGIO, J KALASKA, & S GROSSBERG. (2008) Assessing the Function of Motor Cortex: Single-Neuron Models of How Neural Response Is Modulated by Limb Biomechanics. Neuron, 58(3), 414-428. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.02.033
Meel Velliste, Sagi Perel, M. Chance Spalding, Andrew S. Whitford, & Andrew B. Schwartz. (2008) Cortical control of a prosthetic arm for self-feeding. Nature, 453(7198), 1098-1101. DOI: 10.1038/nature06996
R AJEMIAN, A GREEN, D BULLOCK, L SERGIO, J KALASKA, & S GROSSBERG. (2008) Assessing the Function of Motor Cortex: Single-Neuron Models of How Neural Response Is Modulated by Limb Biomechanics. Neuron, 58(3), 414-428. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.02.033
Meel Velliste, Sagi Perel, M. Chance Spalding, Andrew S. Whitford, & Andrew B. Schwartz. (2008) Cortical control of a prosthetic arm for self-feeding. Nature, 453(7198), 1098-1101. DOI: 10.1038/nature06996
- July 2, 2008
- 02:37 PM
- 559 views
Getting Sport Science Out Of The Lab And Onto The Field
by Dan Peterson in Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
You are a coach, trying to juggle practice plans, meetings, game prep and player issues while trying to stay focused on the season's goals. At the end of another long day, you see this in your inbox:
MEMOTo: All Head Coaches From: Athletic Director Subject: Monthly Reading List to Keep Up with Current Sport Science Research - Neuromuscular Activation of Triceps Surae Using Muscle Functio........ Read more »
David Bishop. (2008) An Applied Research Model for the Sport Sciences. Sports Medicine, 38(3), 253-263. info:PMID/18278985
David Bishop. (2008) An Applied Research Model for the Sport Sciences. Sports Medicine, 38(3), 253-263. info:PMID/18278985
- June 21, 2008
- 03:32 PM
- 987 views
Single Sport Kids - When To Specialize
by Dan Peterson in Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
So, your grade school son or daughter is a good athlete, playing multiple sports and having fun at all of them. Then, you hear the usual warning, either from coaches or other parents; "If you want your daughter to go anywhere in this sport, then its time to let the other sports go and commit her full-time to this one." The logic sounds reasonable. The more time spent on one sport, the better she will be at that sport, right? Well, when we look at the three pillars of our Sports Cognition Fra........ Read more »
Bruce Abernethy, Joseph Baker, & Jean Côté. (2005) Transfer of pattern recall skills may contribute to the development of sport expertise. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19(6), 705-718. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1102
Bruce Abernethy, Joseph Baker, & Jean Côté. (2005) Transfer of pattern recall skills may contribute to the development of sport expertise. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19(6), 705-718. DOI: 10.1002/acp.1102
- June 14, 2008
- 07:20 PM
- 890 views
Why The Offsides Flag Has Been "Ruud" to Italy
by Dan Peterson in Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
Two Euro 2008 games and two questionable offsides calls against Italy, one on defense, the other on offense, are still being talked about this weekend. First, in the Netherlands opener, van Nistelrooy scores from an obvious offsides position... except for Panucci, who is lying on the ground next to the goal. In fact, UEFA had to defend their referee for a correct interpretation. The call that did not get an explanation was Luca Toni's offsides on a cross from Zambrotta in the Romania match, w........ Read more »
F Belda Maruenda. (2004) Can the human eye detect an offside position during a football match?. BMJ, 329(7480), 1470-1472. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1470
F Belda Maruenda. (2004) Can the human eye detect an offside position during a football match?. BMJ, 329(7480), 1470-1472. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1470
- June 13, 2008
- 04:03 PM
- 692 views
Federer and Nadal Can See the Difference
by Dan Peterson in Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
Watching Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal battle it out in the French Open final and now again in the Wimbledon final, I started thinking more about the interceptive timing task requirements of each of their visuomotor systems... yeah, right. C'mon, I just needed a good opening line for this post.
However, other than a 120 mph tennis serve, take a second to think about all of the different sports that send an object flying at you at very high speeds that you not only have to see, but also estima........ Read more »
Leila Overney, Olaf Blanke, Michael H Herzog, & David C Burr. (2008) Enhanced Temporal but Not Attentional Processing in Expert Tennis Players. PLoS ONE, 3(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002380
Leila Overney, Olaf Blanke, Michael H Herzog, & David C Burr. (2008) Enhanced Temporal but Not Attentional Processing in Expert Tennis Players. PLoS ONE, 3(6). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002380
- May 26, 2008
- 07:08 PM
- 926 views
A Keeper's Nightmare - Beckham, Ronaldo or Juninho
by Dan Peterson in Sports Are 80 Percent Mental
Whether you bend it like Beckham or Ronaldo or Juninho or even Nakamura; the curving free kick is one of the most exciting plays in soccer/football. Starting with Rivelino in the 1970 World Cup and on to the specialists of today, more players know how to do it and understand the basic physics behind it, but very few can perfect it. But, when it does happen, by chance or skill, it is the highlight of the game.But let's take a look at this from the other side, through the eyes of the goalkeeper........ Read more »
Cathy Craig, Eric Berton, Guillaume Rao, Laure Fernandez, & Reinoud J Bootsma. (2006) Judging where a ball will go: the case of curved free kicks in football. Naturwissenschaften, 93(2), 97-101. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-005-0071-0
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