MacPherson, Alan

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     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      Optimization of performance in top level athletes: A commentaryCitation for published version:MacPherson, A 2009, 'Optimization of performance in top level athletes: A commentary' InternationalJournal of Sports Science & Coaching, vol 4, no. 1, pp. 67-70.Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Publisher final version (usually the publisher pdf)Published In:International Journal of Sports Science & CoachingPublisher Rights Statement:© MacPherson, A. (2009). Optimization of performance in top level athletes: A commentary. InternationalJournal of Sports Science & Coaching, 4(1), 67-70.General rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 20. Feb. 2015Optimization of Performance in Top-LevelAthletes: An Action-Focused Coping:A CommentaryAlan MacPherson1 and Dave Collins21Physical Education, Sport & Leisure Studies, University of Edinburgh, St. Leonards Land, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AQ, UKE-mail: alan.c.macpherson@education.ed.ac.uk2P2E Consulting, UKINTRODUCTIONThere is undoubtedly an increasing breadth of expertise in ‘joined-up’ high performanceathletic programs. However, it is crucial that the focus remains on performance. With regardto athletic performance, scientists and coaches recognise that it is necessary to put in place acoherent system whereby complex movements can be scrutinised and altered wherenecessary. The action-focused coping approach (AFCA) developed by Yuri Hanin and MuzaHanina has much to commend it, as we discuss in more detail below. However, our concernsare twofold: the sources of information used in this approach to deliver athlete feedbackseemingly rely upon the use of video as the mode through which technical performance isanalysed and then reassembled. A further concern relates to the extent that analysis deliveredin this format is useful for elite athletes. Athletes of this calibre execute motor skillsautomatically [1]. Therefore, if you wish to promote good performances, is it necessary toconsider the utility of focusing on bad ones?The target article is of value and interest, because it provides an applied example of howsports scientists can assist athletes whose performance has either broken down, is unstable,or needs to be reacquainted with a previously successful movement pattern. In this criticalcommentary, we will seek to draw attention to salient features of the Identification – Control-Correction (ICC) program and provide a few empirically grounded suggestions regardingpotential modifications to service delivery. ACTION-FOCUSED COPING?AFCA is concerned with providing real-time, best available evidence – in a high-performance sporting environment that prominently features, values, and then utilises athleteinput to stabilise movement execution. It is interesting to recognise that the emphasis lies onimproving motor execution, and then attending to emotional self-regulation. The underlyingrationale being that if an athlete is confident that they can execute a movement underpressure, any accompanying psycho-behavioural issues can be delimited and attended tosystematically. The athlete can be secure in the knowledge that worthwhile measures havebeen put in place to make the components that derive motor execution identifiable andaccessible to technical modifications.From our own experiences as researchers and practitioners, we can see the directapplication and potential value of the AFCA principles. Consider the example of an eliteInternational Journal of Sports Science & Coaching Volume 4 · Number 1 · 2009 67horizontal jumper whom we have researched, who has had ten years of competitiveexperience and medalled in major international competition and who, despite an ‘excellentoutcome record’ of European and Commonwealth athletic medals, over a three-year period‘no jumped’ in 48% of attempts. In simple terms, almost half of this athlete’s output waswasted effort, a contention supported by the fact that many of these no jumps wereunofficially well over PB distance! The AFCA program, provided it was tailored to the athlete’s learning style, couldpotentially be utilised to provide a corrective intervention designed to inform the athlete andprovide them with the psychological resources to cope with the physical rigours, and addressthe inconsistencies associated with performance in elite competition. ATHLETIC NEEDS TO THEORY: NOT VICE-VERSA Hanin and Hanina design their sports science interventions for Finnish elite athletes from aneeds to theory approach, rather than theory to performance, the potential cost of which isoutlined in the following example.For some athletes, the majority of research suggests that oral creatine supplementation isan effective means by which to improve some aspects of athletic performance either directlyor through improved training. However, many studies with athletes [2, 3] fail to demonstratesignificant findings as the response is very much on an individual basis (responders vs. non-responders), dependent on the amount of creatine uptake, which is in turn influenced by anumber of factors. The crucial point is, individual performance should remain atheoreticaluntil the athlete’s performance requirements are ascertained. Consequently, carefulexamination of elite competitors must be the essential precursor to personalised intervention.To maximize this confirmation, it seems sensible that data be taken from actual competitionswhenever possible, a point that AFCA exemplifies.TOTAL-COACHING APPROACHThe psycho-pedagogical approach adopted by Hanin and Hanina is of particular interest. Theirwork with athletes through the AFCA is concerned with enhancing performance by stabilisingmovement execution. To achieve this in competition, there is a necessary transfer ofknowledge / expertise among coaches, scientists and athletes. The coach is required to becomea facilitator, and the athlete in turn is required to increase their knowledge with regard to thecausative chain of physical movement that plays such a vital role in motor execution. It is interesting to note that in the AFCA programme, it is the athlete’s language that isused to describe their movement patterns, an approach that is validated by practitioners whouse mental simulations of movement to improve performance [4] (cf., PETTLEP). Thebenefit of using the athlete’s words, not those of the coach, is that it results in a sharedlanguage between athlete and coach. The utility associated with this approach is that it canconvey much more than just technical information [5]. For example, the emotional intensity,or the speed at which the movement should be performed can be conveyed by carefullyselecting words and sounds; so called mood words [6] that embody the totality (and thereforethe causative chain) of the movement. DELIVERY OF CORRECTIVE FEEDBACKThe means of delivering corrective movement information to athletes was an area where wefelt the authors of the target paper could develop a lead if they considered alternate sourcesof information [7], whilst ensuring a fit with the previously identified preferences of theirathletes. 68 Optimization of Performance in Top-Level Athletes: An Action-Focused Coping: A CommentaryThe background to the approach that we are proposing stems from the widely supportedposition that if an athlete is elite, they will perform their event / skill automatically. Ourcontention is derived from the apparent mismatch between automatic execution and thesubsequent accuracy of post-performance review discussed in the target paper. In essence, itmakes more sense to promote positive performances rather than to seek to correct thosedeemed as sub-standard. A potential solution to movement correction is strongly linked to sources of information.We have worked with elite athletes who have the ability to correct, and subsequentlyoptimise the stability of movement patterns using an auditory representation of the wholemovement (e.g., footfall in javelin or footfall in horizontal jumps). The athlete consults anauditory representation of a ‘good’ movement and rehearses it [4, 8, 9]. Working with thewhole movement in this sense does not lead to the athlete emphasising one component in themovement sequence at the expense of another [8]; nor does it re-emphasise any negativeimagery associated with previous performances that were poorer than expected by theperformance team. Auditory cues offer a number of advantages: information can be carried in an auditoryrhythm concerning the co-ordination of a movement pattern. Furthermore, the auditoryrhythm indicates when the execution of a movement should occur and where its constituentcomponents be executed. Utilizing this auditory cue may also be in effect a pre-performanceroutine and a means of directly accessing stored motor representations. Using this approach,modelling movement and formatting a pre-performance routine is possible for self-paced,closed events such as triple jump, javelin [9], and hurdles.This approach is supported by work that demonstrates that audition dominates vision intemporal processing [10] and that neurological processes involved in sensorimotor coordinationare largely subconscious. Of particular significance in providing theoretical support to ourcontention were the findings that, while participating in a tapping exercise, participants reliedmore heavily on auditory information. This remained so even whilst they were instructed toattend to visual information to follow accurately changes in timing (the experimental stimulusas it shifted). Similarly it was demonstrated that that to correct phase alterations in tapping,participants were reliant on temporal information from the auditory rather than visual field [11].Therefore, in light of the theoretical and applied examples proffered in this commentary, wehope that coaches, performers and scientists will consider the ramifications for performers whenseeking to make alterations or changes to gross motor actions. CONCLUSIONIn essence, sound, and therefore derived patterns of rhythm, seem to dominate vision inlearning movement patterns emphasising that it is important for coaches and directors ofathletic performance to consider the modality that is used to provide feedback to athletesregarding movement competency. Aside from this constructive criticism detailed above, wecommend Hanin and Hanina’s target article for its breadth and concerted focus on the myriadof components that comprise athletic potential. REFERENCES1. Fitts, P.W. and Posner, M.I., Human Performance, Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA, 1967.2. Valek, J.S. and Rawson, E.S., Scientific Basis and Practical Aspects of Creatine Supplementation forAthletes, Nutrition, 2004, 20, 609-614.3. Kreider, R.B., Effects of Creatine on Performance and Training Adaptations, Molecular Cell Biochemistry,2003, 244, 89-94.International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching Volume 4 · Number 1 · 2009 694. Holmes, P. and Collins, D., The PETTLEP Approach to Motor Imagery: A Functional Equivalence Model forSports Psychologists, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 2001, 13, 60-83.5. Rushall, B.S. and Shewchuck, M.L., Effects of Thought Content Instructions on Swimming Performance,The Journal of Medicine and Physical Fitness, 1989, 29, 326-334.6. Rushall, B.S., The Effects of Three Selected Cognitive Patterns on Rowing Ergometer Performance, in:Albinson, J., ed., Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learningand Sport Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, 1989.7. Reed, E.S., Encountering the World: Toward an Ecological Psychology, Oxford University Press, Oxford,1996.8. MacPherson, A.C., Collins, D. and Morriss, C., Is What You Think What You Get, Optimizing Mental Focusfor Technical Performance, The Sport Psychologist, 2008, 22, 288-303.9. Collins, D.J., Morriss, C. and Trower, J., Getting it Back: A Case Study of Skill Recovery in an Elite Athlete,The Sport Psychologist, 1999, 13, 288-299.10. Repp, B. and Penel, A., Auditory Dominance in Temporal Processing: New Evidence from Synchronizationwith Simultaneous Visual and Auditory Sequences, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perceptionand Performance, 2002, 28, 1085-1099.11. Kato, M. and Konishi, Y., Auditory Dominance in the Error Correction Process: A Synchronized TappingStudy, Brain Research, 2006, 1084, 115-122.70 Optimization of Performance in Top-Level Athletes: An Action-Focused Coping: A Commentary

Auditory Dominance in Temporal Processing: New Evidence from Synchronization with Simultaneous Visual and Auditory Sequences, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,

Auditory Dominance in the Error Correction Process: A Synchronized Tapping Study,

Effects of Creatine on Performance and Training Adaptations, Molecular Cell Biochemistry,

Effects of Thought Content Instructions on Swimming Performance,

Encountering the World: Toward an Ecological Psychology,

Getting it Back: ACase Study of Skill Recovery in an Elite Athlete, The Sport Psychologist,

Is What You Think What You Get, Optimizing Mental Focus for Technical Performance, The Sport Psychologist,

Scientific Basis and Practical Aspects of Creatine Supplementation for Athletes, Nutrition,

The Effects of Three Selected Cognitive Patterns on Rowing Ergometer Performance,

Optimization of performance in top level athletes: A commentary

Optimization of performance in top level athletes: A commentary

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