07
Nov

What is Coach Cassie Learning About This Week (11/7)

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As a performance coach, we focus so much on how our athletes move yet we don’t always get an opportunity to observe how the athlete responds to game-like stimuli. Due to this, I was provoked to dive into this deeper when an athlete of mine had every athletic tool necessary to be successful in their sport yet when we incorporated a game-like scenario where she was required to respond to a visual stimulus, it appeared there was a delay in her motor response. Too much time was taken to make a decision on how to move instead of relying on athleticism and instead of reacting. This made me feel like we as coaches may be missing a major piece to our athlete’s development.
So much of my passion for this topic comes from my personal experience as an athlete. I have first hand experienced a ball looking as if it is moving in slow motion and being able to interpret the spin. Did that happen because of something I did in training? Was it more of a psychological response and was I instead just in a state of flow? Would I have ever experienced that visual acuity had I not faced great pitchers at a young age? Is there a way to measure someone’s capability for pitch interpretation? I ask all of these questions because the follow-up question to all of this becomes, how much does developing proper swing mechanics ACTUALLY matter with an athlete?

Therefore, this week I decided to dive deeper into how an athlete responds to their environment. Here is some major information I have come across: 

-The most important aspect of movement = the way it is initiated.

-As an object approaches an athlete OR as athlete approaches an object, the image on the retina gets progressively larger.

-The rate of dilation of the image on the retina may be the trigger for specific motor responses to athletics.

-The best athletes have a sequence of focuses (in response to a hitter facing a pitcher): 1. Soft focus – viewing the whole body of the pitcher, 2. Fine focus: Viewing something specific in the plane of the ball release (ie. outfield wall), 3. Specific Fine Focus: Looking at the area of the release (hip for softball or arm slot for football).

-The attention process in fastball sports is limited by three factors of the athlete: 1. Amount of information in the display, 2. The time available to take in the required information, 3. The ability of the player to then respond to this intake.

-Higher performance players are able to process critical information earlier in the opponent’s action. Thus giving themselves the feeling of, ‘having all the time in the world’ to respond.

This concept applies to all athletes. You can be the most athletic person but if you try and play your sport with your eyes closed and your hearing impaired, you are going to be at a severe disadvantage. In order to be able to use our athleticism that we’ve developed over our lifetime, we must also be in the correct mindset but consciously and subconsciously to respond to our environment.

Coach Cassie

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Cassie Reilly-Boccia

Cassie comes to Athletes Warehouse after winning a National Championship for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Softball team and completing her Masters where she focused on the biomechanics of the female athlete softball swing. She serves as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Softball Coach, and Director of Research and Development ensuring that she is pouring her passion for knowledge and overall athletic development into those she has the opportunity to work with. She is a published author of the book, Finished It - A Team's Journey to Winning it All; where she highlights the triumphs and tribulations of the 2012 Women's College World Series.
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About the author

Cassie comes to Athletes Warehouse after winning a National Championship for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Softball team and completing her Masters where she focused on the biomechanics of the female athlete softball swing. She serves as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Softball Coach, and Director of Research and Development ensuring that she is pouring her passion for knowledge and overall athletic development into those she has the opportunity to work with. She is a published author of the book, Finished It - A Team's Journey to Winning it All; where she highlights the triumphs and tribulations of the 2012 Women's College World Series.

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