Expert in a year: The challenge

A good friend of mine and table tennis coach Ben Larcombe has started a challenge...
to take a novice and turn them into an expert in the space of 1 year.
The way he has defined expert is "the top 1% of active players in the country" in English table tennis, where this project is based that means being ranked in the top 250 men in the country (with 25,000 registered members of the English Table Tennis Association).

Whether you agree with this definition of "expert" or not is not really the point. The point is: people at that level have been training many years, perhaps decades to reach that level, and are of a good standard. To get to that level in a year will be quite an achievement.

It will hopefully show the benefit and prosperity of efficient well-planned training or "Deliberate practice"- a concept talked a lot about in Matthew Syed's "Bounce", Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" and much scientific research over the past few decades. (I would highly recommend those books by the way- fantastic reads).

Brain-spec is proud to be accompanying Ben and his soon-to-be-expert Sam in their quest for success. As part of this process mental skills training will be given to supplement to coaching already being given and also consulting on how best to streamline the training being delivered.

This exciting project can be followed in more detail at: 

www.expertinayear.com

There will be also be some reflections from the player himself on how the mental skills training is affecting his performance and enjoyment.

Do you think Sam can do it? Comment below

Superstitions: do they help? Pre-match routines and their effect. Part 1

Those of you who follow tennis will know that Rafael Nadal has to have things a certain way. His water bottles have to be on certain spots, he has to sprint to the back of the court at the start of every match, he has to correct his hair and bandana before every serve and I'm sure there are many more things he does every time he plays that we do not notice or see.
There are many other famous examples including footballers needing to put one boot on before the other. Clubs trying to change strips at half-time as they determined a certain shirt was bad-luck.
Even as fans, who realistically have no way of altering the result (particularly, even if only watching on TV) have our own little things we do because last time we did that they won. I know of people who decided not to go to any of the games because every time they turned up, despite being one of tens of thousands there, they lost, but if he stayed home they often won.

Some psychologists suggest the way we look at the world is as detectives. We look for patterns and connections in everything because we have this internal desire to link things together into a logical, cause-and-effect world. Coincidences are confusing to humans as it means there is nothing they can change to get the desired outcome in that situation again. Therefore they develop superstitions from wearing lucky pants to not stepping on the lines of the field.

Do these work? The obvious answer would be no, unless those pants were exceptionally comfortable and allowed a greater range of movement that allowed better performance than others then no, wearing specifically those pants will directly affect performance. HOWEVER, if wearing those pants mean he goes into the game feeling more confident, there is a well-researched link between self-confidence and performance. So actually, YES, those lucky pants do help his performance!
 Would I tell these people that their superstitions are stupid? Would I tell Rafael Nadal the way he places his water bottles is silly? No, however, I would encourage anybody with these superstitions to analyse them, do you really believe this helps your performance? If so, then I would not in all cases tell you to stop, but in the long run I would encourage more of a focus on preparation that can have an effect on performance (which may include those superstitions) which I will talk about more in part 2.

If you have none of these superstitions, is this a problem? No! Would I encourage all athletes to search through their results and find a link between one specific thing and all the wins and decide that must be a lucky thing to do, and adopt it as a superstition. No, I wouldn't.
However, are there parts of your preparations you are ignoring that could have a positive effect? Is warming up before the match a superstition or does it actually have a biological or psychological effect that does improve performance objectively?

This will be continued in part 2 where more tips on how to improve your performance using routines will be given.

Working on routines is just one of the ways a sport performance enhancement specialist can help, check out "Services" to see how else one could improve your performance.

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Brain SPEC's facebook page is now up and running! So if you haven't been on it yet, have a look and give it a 'like', also share these services with any sportspeople you know. You will be doing them, and me, a favour!

Can high fives make a difference?

Sport is a very emotional game. In a team, or pair, or even individual game there are people that you

will look to share those emotions with. Even lots of individual sportsmen would want to share their successes with... some of the most touching moments in sporting history have been individual sportsmen running to their spouse or coach at the end of the championship. It has even become a somewhat expected custom in Wimbledon that the winner climbs up to their 'box' to share a hug and often a tear with those they are close to.

But is this sharing of emotion just a nice thing that can be poured out once after the end result, of could it be a factor in making that end result.

In team sports (and doubles) communication is an important factor for success- not only communication of different tactical elements but also exchanges of emotional information.

A pat on the back for a basketball player who missed a free throw may help console them, a handslap could reinforce a player who did something well, encouraging them to continue doing what they are doing, a team huddle may help build that cohesive unit that works so well together on the pitch.

One thing you may notice here for these examples is that they all contain an element of physical contact, or "touch".

Research done in the NBA, with some of the highest paid athletes in the world, by Kraus and his colleagues, showed the the amount of touch in the early season games could predict the levels of success the teams would show over the season. This factor was still important even when you had taken into account the early season performances and expert expectations for the team prior to the start.

This shows that teams that engage in more touching behaviour tend have more success...

Overall this is a relatively underresearched area so the precise reasons as to why it works are still unclear. Though research in mainstream psychology has long shown an ability to enhance a relationship through apropriate levels of touch.

What practical things can we take from this?

Well, the research does not show that touching more often causes more success, but it is linked. So, if you look at your team, how often do they slap hands or pat each other on the back or hug each other. If it's not often then it might be worth looking into the cohesion of the team. Are there any issues that may need addressing? Or are the players just not that close in general? Either way perhaps this is something the coach might want to improve.

It might be worth encouraging them to engage each other more often. I'm not suggesting there should be a mandatory hug between every member of the team between every point. But perhaps encourage a few more high fives after something good. Encourage the players to rally round a mistake with a few pats on the back of support to lift that players spirits back up. You may find that this actually has a positive effect on the general emotions of the team and the togetherness of their feelings and performance.

Paying attention to the correct signals

In sport sometimes it seems as though one person has "so much time on the ball" or "reads the game" particularly well. People often believe this to be a natural talent some players have more than others. Whether that is true or not is a long debate for another day. However, one very important thing to take away is that this is something that can be trained and improved.

What actually happens in these people is not that they aware of EVERYTHING around them (though it may seem that way). What they are better at is selecting quickly and effectively what they need to be aware of and pay attention to and what they can ignore. This tends to come more and more with experience. However "come with experience" is just another way of saying "learning through playing." This is not the effective, targeted training that is aimed for in the idea of deliberate practice and used on other aspects such as technique.

So, how can we train this in a more targeted way?

One good way is to video a situation from their point of view and replay it. I will take the example here from table tennis, since it is the sport I am most familiar with technically but it can be used in most sports.
When returning a shot the player has a very short time to "read" the direction, speed, spin etc of the opponents shot. This knowledge can be gathered by paying attention to certain things such as the bat angle and the body position of the opponent. Filming the shot and replaying it back over and over can give them that experience even if they are not able to be at a table.

However changing things up a bit can speed up the learning.

Slice the video so it only shows a small part of the shot, and then have the player guess the outcome of the shot (i.e. the placement and spin). Then importantly give them immediate feedback. This can be done by playing the video through to see the outcome.

If a player is particularly struggling you can slow down the video to give them more time to pay attention to the correct signals without it being TOO difficult. Then as they improve you can speed it up again. You can even go to a video quicker than normal speed in order to speed up the time in which they need to, and then hopefully learn to, pay attention to the signals and make a decision.
Another way make it more difficult you can also shorten the video to smaller and smaller parts of the shot so they have less and less information that they can use to make a decision.

Creating a Performance Persona

Imagery can be a powerful technique to increase sporting performance. Endurance athletes can imagine their body to be light and easy to carry. Cyclists could imagine their legs to be an engine that just keeps turning solidly.

The key here is the need to think about the characteristics your sport needs. For instance the 100m in athletics just need an explosion of power, so imagining your legs being light might not help here. Instead imagining your legs being coiled springs ready to spring with large amounts of power would be more effective.

However what I am suggesting here is that it is possible to take this idea one step further and create a whole persona which will compete “in your body.” This technique has already been used to Olympic success under the guidance of one sport psychologist I am aware of and I believe it is possible to use in many situations and sports.

It is often talked about: the need to “get into the zone” in order to give your best performance. What if it is possible to almost separate this into a frame of mind associated with a certain meaningful mental image. Imagery can then be used to remember effectively this mental image and the associated “zone” will then follow. This would make something that seems almost extraordinary and a uncontrollable phenomenon (the idea of “being in the zone”) into something that can be channelled and called upon almost at will.

Sounds great? If you can do this effectively then it has the potential to be. So how do we get this mental image associated with this optimal performance zone?

Firstly just like the imagery mentioned earlier you need to think about the demands of your sport. However you also need to include the mental requirements here too. Since my sport is table tennis I will use this as an example. 

Table tennis requires speed, agility and fast reactions. However, it also requires a calmness, clear thinking, and control over emotions. 

An image that I find to fit with this is the idea of a ninja! A ninja is quick, agile and sharp. When a ninja makes his move it is the correct move and is efficient and they make it count. A ninja is also always in control of himself, relaxed, smooth and calm in any situation. Sounds like a ninja would be ideal for the situation of a table tennis match!

Therefore if you can get into this sort of mindset you too will be in the ideal frame of mind to play the match.

To do this you need to practice the imagery of “Becoming” the ninja. Imagine yourself as the ninja. Look at yourself and see the ninja robes on your body, look at your bat and see the ninjas sword, gleeming, ready to strike with accuracy and speed. The key is to not just imagine being the ninja but become it, and ALL of the characteristics that come with it, physically and mentally.

Obviously, the “ninja” may not be appropriate for your sport, or yourself. So give it some thought, come up with an idea you like and give it a try. This technique won't be for everybody, but for some people this can be very effective.