An expertise approach to training anticipation using temporal occlusion in a natural skill setting

Anticipation skill was trained through temporal occlusion using vision occlusion spectacles. A with-movement training group had vision occluded as they batted against bowlers, while the without-movement training group’s vision was occluded as they stood behind a net and made a verbal prediction of ball types. Intervention groups and a control group also participated in sports-specific practice. Training benefits, assessed using video simulation and in-situ anticipation tests, were found for the anticipation of short length but not full length deliveries. The with-movement group performed better on the video simulation test than the control group after training. In the in-situ test, both training groups showed improvements from pre- to post-test of foot movements made when vision of ball flight was deprived. This enhanced body positioning translated into an improvement in quality of bat-ball contacts for only the with-movement group. Temporal occlusion training appears to have some selective benefits to improve anticipation expertise

Embedding of psycho-perceptual-motor skills can improve athlete assessment and training programs

Practitioners in a variety of sports seek unique ways to train athletes to better prepare them for competition. In this position paper, we argue that inclusion of psycho-perceptual-motor skills, from the fields of sport psychology and sport expertise, is crucial, but underutilized in the assessment and training of athletes. First, a brief introduction is provided as to why psycho-perceptual-motor skill is vital for training athletes. Second, examples are discussed relating to key concepts. These include the following: assessment of expertise discriminators such as visual anticipation under pressure contexts, incorporation of sports analytics and performance analysis to aid reflection upon previous experiences of good anticipation and coping with pressure, use of qualitative and quantitative measures to understand processes underlying performance and learning, as well as design of representative tasks for assessment and training anticipation under pressure contexts. Third, some recommendations are made to practitioners of sports teams to assist them in taking advantage of psycho-perceptual-motor skill to better prepare athletes for competition. Collectively, we hope this paper stimulates collaboration between practitioners of sports teams and scientists to create a greater focus upon integrated sport psychology and sport expertise in the training of athletes

Coach rating combined with small-sided games provides further insight into mental toughness in sport

Literature indicates that mental toughness contributes to successful performance when faced with challenge. This study used an exemplar sport of Australian Rules football to investigate whether skilled performance thrived across increased challenge in small-sided games. Higher (n = 14) and lower (n = 17) skilled Australian footballers were recruited. First, coaches rated participants' mental toughness (MTC) using the Mental Toughness Index. Second, participants competed in small-sided games where challenge was manipulated by varying the attacker to defender ratio to create lower and higher pressure scenarios. Decision-making, motor skill execution, and a combined total were measured. MTC rating was higher for higher skilled players. Total score of higher skilled players was significantly superior to lower skilled players in higher and lower pressure scenarios (p = 0.003). A "pressure differential score," calculated to determine whether participants maintained performance across increased challenge, indicated a significant decrease in performance (total score) from lower to higher pressure scenarios for lower skilled (p = 0.011), but not for higher skilled (p = 0.060) players. Furthermore, MTC scores were predictive of high pressure scenario total scores (p = 0.011). Findings suggest higher levels of mental toughness may contribute to maintain performance across the increased challenge of pressure within small-sided games. Practitioners can subjectively rate athlete mental toughness and then structure small-sided games to objectively measure performance under pressure scenarios. This provides an interdisciplinary approach to assess and train psychomotor skill. © 2019 Piggott, Müller, Chivers, Burgin and Hoyne

Energy conservation for dynamical black holes

An energy conservation law is described, expressing the increase in mass-energy of a general black hole in terms of the energy densities of the infalling matter and gravitational radiation. For a growing black hole, this first law of black-hole dynamics is equivalent to an equation of Ashtekar & Krishnan, but the new integral and differential forms are regular in the limit where the black hole ceases to grow. An effective gravitational-radiation energy tensor is obtained, providing measures of both ingoing and outgoing, transverse and longitudinal gravitational radiation on and near a black hole. Corresponding energy-tensor forms of the first law involve a preferred time vector which plays the role for dynamical black holes which the stationary Killing vector plays for stationary black holes. Identifying an energy flux, vanishing if and only if the horizon is null, allows a division into energy-supply and work terms, as in the first law of thermodynamics. The energy supply can be expressed in terms of area increase and a newly defined surface gravity, yielding a Gibbs-like equation, with a similar form to the so-called first law for stationary black holes.Comment: 4 revtex4 pages. Many (mostly presentational) changes; emphasizes the definition of gravitational radiation in the strong-field regim

Embedding of psycho-perceptual-motor skills can improve athlete assessment and training programs

Practitioners in a variety of sports seek unique ways to train athletes to better prepare them for competition. In this position paper, we argue that inclusion of psycho-perceptual-motor skills, from the fields of sport psychology and sport expertise, is crucial, but underutilized in the assessment and training of athletes. First, a brief introduction is provided as to why psycho-perceptual-motor skill is vital for training athletes. Second, examples are discussed relating to key concepts. These include the following: assessment of expertise discriminators such as visual anticipation under pressure contexts, incorporation of sports analytics and performance analysis to aid reflection upon previous experiences of good anticipation and coping with pressure, use of qualitative and quantitative measures to understand processes underlying performance and learning, as well as design of representative tasks for assessment and training anticipation under pressure contexts. Third, some recommendations are made to practitioners of sports teams to assist them in taking advantage of psycho-perceptual-motor skill to better prepare athletes for competition. Collectively, we hope this paper stimulates collaboration between practitioners of sports teams and scientists to create a greater focus upon integrated sport psychology and sport expertise in the training of athletes

Implementing skill acquisition research in high performance sport: Reflecting on the importance of autonomy-support for successful collaboration

Perceptual-cognitive-motor skills, such as visual anticipation, are pivotal for superior performance in sport. However, there are only a limited number of skill acquisition specialists working with coaches to develop these skills in athletes. The purpose of this paper is to present a brief reflection on the use of psychological strategies to create an autonomy-supportive environment to embed a skill acquisition research project in high-performance sport. The research project was conducted with the Australian national field hockey high-performance unit and investigated individual differences in expert goalkeepers’ visual anticipation. The paper first discusses the role of a skill acquisition specialist, how they collaborate with coaches and athletes, and barriers to collaboration. The paper then outlines how psychological strategies can be used to create an autonomy-supportive environment to build a relationship and establish a research collaboration with a team. Further, the paper discusses the importance of continually involving coaches and athletes in the research process to facilitate their engagement and self-determined motivation to complete the project. By applying psychological strategies to create an autonomy-supportive environment, sports scientists may have greater success in overcoming the many barriers to conduct research in an elite sport setting, with the outcomes highly valuable for athlete development

Validating an inertial measurement unit for cricket fast bowling: a first step in assessing the feasibility of diagnosing back injury risk in cricket fast bowlers during a tele-sport-and-exercise medicine consultation

This study aimed to validate an array-based inertial measurement unit to measure cricket fast bowling kinematics as a first step in assessing feasibility for tele-sport-and-exercise medicine. We concurrently captured shoulder girdle relative to the pelvis, trunk lateral flexion, and knee flexion angles at front foot contact of eight cricket medium-fast bowlers using inertial measurement unit and optical motion capture. We used one sample t-tests and 95% limits of agreement (LOA) to determine the mean difference between the two systems and Smallest Worth-while Change statistic to determine whether any differences were meaningful. A statistically significant (p < 0.001) but small mean difference of −4.7° ± 8.6° (95% Confidence Interval (CI) [−3.1° to −6.4°], LOA [−22.2 to 12.7], SWC 3.9°) in shoulder girdle relative to the pelvis angle was found between the systems. There were no statistically significant differences between the two systems in trunk lateral flexion and knee flexion with the mean differences being 0.1° ± 10.8° (95% CI [−1.9° to 2.2°], LOA [−22.5 to 22.7], SWC 1.2°) and 1.6° ± 10.1° (95% CI [−0.2° to 3.3°], LOA [−19.2 to 22.3], SWC 1.9°) respectively. The inertial measurement unit-based system tested allows for accurate measurement of specific cricket fast bowling kinematics and could be used in determining injury risk in the context of tele-sport-and-exercise-medicine

Trajectories of brain volumes in young children are associated with maternal education

Brain growth in early childhood is reflected in the evolution of proportional cerebrospinal fluid volumes (pCSF), grey matter (pGM), and white matter (pWM). We study brain development as reflected in the relative fractions of these three tissues for a cohort of 388 children that were longitudinally followed between the ages of 18 and 96 months. We introduce statistical methodology (Riemannian Principal Analysis through Conditional Expectation, RPACE) that addresses major challenges that are of general interest for the analysis of longitudinal neuroimaging data, including the sparsity of the longitudinal observations over time and the compositional structure of the relative brain volumes. Applying the RPACE methodology, we find that longitudinal growth as reflected by tissue composition differs significantly for children of mothers with higher and lower maternal education levels.publishedVersio