Each year during March Madness, a familiar scenario plays out. A player approaches the free-throw line, takes aim, and misses, shattering the hopes of maintaining a perfect bracket. These athletes are among the elite, having made the same shot countless times. So, what causes the sudden misstep?
Research conducted in my lab suggests that the difference between making and missing a shot may be linked to stability in both physical movement and mental focus.
Measuring brain activity
Our team aimed to understand how individuals develop their basketball shooting skills. We focused on the initial learning phase, where coordination between the brain and body is still being established.
Research spanning decades indicates that elite athletes’ movements are consistent and their brains seem to be optimized for the task at hand. This means they exhibit minimal unnecessary brain activity and concentrate intently on executing specific actions. However, it remains uncertain whether these brain states are unique to top-level performance or can emerge early in the learning process.
frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen>To explore this, we recorded both the body movements and brain activity of novice and intermediate basketball players during shooting sessions.
Using motion capture technology, we analyzed their mechanics, while electroencephalography helped us examine their neural activity. After a brief practice session, each player attempted 50 shots, allowing us to compare successful and unsuccessful attempts.
The findings were revealing.
Successful shots shared more consistent movement patterns. Players’ feet and lower bodies were positioned to create a stable base, enhancing balance and facilitating effective force transfer to the ball.
Joint movements across the body were more coordinated, with reduced variability in crucial areas like the wrist and elbow.
On the neural front, successful shots correlated with stable neural activity, accompanied by increased integration of sensory information and motor control.
Conversely, missed shots exhibited greater inconsistency, with small fluctuations throughout the movement, indicating players were continuously correcting their movements mid-execution.
Similarly, brain activity during missed shots mirrored a system still in the process of learning, constantly evaluating and adjusting.
This variability and adjustment are expected in early skill acquisition, where beginners rely heavily on processing verbal, visual, and spatial information to coordinate perception and action, as per a classic model of learning.
Simply put, they consciously think through their movements. Learning involves exploration, error detection, and correction while the brain and body seek solutions.
Even amid this complex learning process, successful shots demonstrated greater control. It wasn’t just about brain activity levels but about consistency in operation.
Successful attempts were marked by a stable, less variable brain state with activity patterns indicating better task alignment.
Mind over matter
Here’s the twist: The processes aiding learning can hinder performance.
Elite athletes don’t micromanage every action. Instead, they rely on systems finely tuned through repetition. As skills develop, performance relies less on effort and more on consistency. Variability diminishes as neural processing becomes more efficient.
However, under pressure, this stability can falter. College players, despite their talent, are still growing physically and mentally.
In high-stakes moments like March Madness, which they haven’t practiced for, pressure can push them back into their own heads, leading them to consciously monitor and control their movements.
This shift to conscious processing can disrupt the automatic coordination built through practice, inadvertently increasing variability in movements and thoughts, thereby reducing performance.
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Training that emphasizes both the sport’s mechanics and the mental aspect of performance could help athletes achieve and maintain the mental state required for consistent performance, even under pressure.
Our lab is exploring biofeedback and neurofeedback tools to make these invisible states visible for training purposes.
By learning how their brains and bodies respond under pressure and practicing returning to a stable state, athletes might achieve more consistent performance.
The aim is not just to learn the correct movement but also to know when and how to let go of control.
David Van den Heever, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
