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
Latest posts by Cassie Reilly-Boccia (see all)
- SSA Success - December 10, 2018
- The Dichotomy of Bat Velocity - November 9, 2018
- What is Coach Cassie Learning About This Week (11/7) - November 7, 2018
