Chapter 14: Arrange Practice Conditions so that Practice Performance Will Transfer to Competitions Flashcards
List three practice strategies for transferring practice performance to competitions.
- Deliberately simulate in practices many cues that always exist in the competitions.
- Program a few stimuli at practices that can be taken to competitions.
- Vary many training conditions in the hope that some of the cues at practice might occur at competitions.
How did David Scott and colleagues simulate serves in tennis so that a tennis player could practice service returns?
David prepared a videotape of an elite tennis player hitting a variety of serves towards the camera. Next, an intermediate-level tennis player, with a tennis racket in hand, watched the camera, tried to anticipate where the ball would likely be hit by the server, vocalized his/her prediction, watched the serve on videotape, and then physically acted out what he believed to be the correct returning shot. For each serve observed on videotape, the practicing returner could earn up to three points. Then, across five sessions, the speed was increased until the player scored 45 points when viewing the videotape at regular speed (which represented a level of 75% accuracy). So David used a videotaped presentation of tennis serves in order to simulate the variety of serves that a player might occur during a tennis match.
List seven categories of cues that are useful for simulating competitive stimuli at practices.
- Cues from the behaviour of the coach.
- Cues from the behaviour of the athletes.
- Cues from the level of autonomic arousal or degree of anxiousness of the athlete
- Proprioceptive cues from the muscles of the athlete
- Cues from the athlete’s imagery
- Cues from the athlete’s self-talk
- Program a few stimuli at practices that can be taken to competitions
Describe an example of how athletes might use imagery at practices to stimulate aspects of a competition in order to increase the likelihood that practice performance will transfer to competitions.
If it is not possible to rearrange various aspects of the practice environment to stimulate competitive condiments, then an alternative is to capitalize on imagery at practices.
A golfer, for example, while at the drive range, might imagine all 18 holes of a course that she is going to play. Before actually playing the course (assuming she is familiar with it), she can play it at the driving range. For each hole, she could visualize the general layout and the landing area for each shot. She could then hit those shots that she wants to play on those holes. She might keep track of the number of imaginary fairways that she hit with her tee shots, the number of imaginary greens that she hit in regulation, and she could try to improve on each visit to the driving range. If the golfer is able to hit the desired shots at the driving range under such imaginary, simulated conditions, then the odds are increased she will be able to do so when actually playing the course.
Describe the generalization strategy referred to as “programming a few common stimuli”. Illustrate it with a sport example that involves a pre-competition routine that is not in this chapter.
Simulations require the analysis of the many stimuli that typically exist in competition, and the duplication of those stimuli at several practices. An alternative strategy is to deliberately bring desired athletic behaviour under the control of a few specific stimuli in practice, and then to take those stimuli to the competition. If athletic performance occurs to a specific stimulus in practice, and if that stimulus can be introduced into a competition, then the likelihood of stimulus generalization to the competitive environment is increased. Ex. A basketball player has a warmup that they go through each time before they scrimmage in practice which calms them down and they use keywords to help them focus on specific skills to pay attention to during the game. They can do this before a competition to help stimulus generalization occur.
Describe the generalization strategy referred to as “programming a few common stimuli”. Illustrate it with a sport example that involves imagery that is not in this chapter.
Simulations require the analysis of the many stimuli that typically exist in competition, and the duplication of those stimuli at several practices. An alternative strategy is to deliberately bring desired athletic behaviour under the control of a few specific stimuli in practice, and then to take those stimuli to the competition. If athletic performance occurs to a specific stimuli in practice, and if that stimuli can be introduced into a competition, then the likelihood of stimulus generalization to the competitive environment is increased.
Example: If a basketball player has a kink in their shooting form with a hitch in their shot, the athlete could imagine the flow of electricity going through their body, starting in their calves and moving up their body and into their hips as they lift their body and feel it move into their arms as they extend their arms and release the shot in one fluid shot. By doing this in practices they can stimulus generalize the fluid shot to the competition by imagining the electricity flowing.
Describe the generalization strategy referred to as “vary many of the training conditions”. Illustrate it with a sport example that is not in this chapter.
This involves conducting practices under a wide variety of conditions. The assumption is that if athletic skills are brought under the control of a greater variety of stimuli during training, then there is an increased probability of some of those stimuli being present during competition.
Example: a basketball player practicing foul shots with lots of people in the gym all watching, screaming and waving their hands back and forth, in an extremely hot gym, after a long conditioning practice where their legs are tired. This would prepare them for a game situation where they have no control over the environment they are playing in.
