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Shooting a basketball is considered a high organization task in the motor learning world. Organization is defined as the relationship among the components of the skill - components happen together to execute the task. A high organization task means that one part of the movement depends on another part. Shooting a jump shot is the perfect example for a high organization task. There are many components that go into a jump shot: feet shoulder-width apart, elbow in, arm goes straight up, and hand follows-through. In order to beneficially practice a jump shot, it should be practiced all together in its entirety -- whole practice. If your shot is struggling to go in, whole practice can be tricky to do because there a specific parts of your shot that need work. Attentional cueing is great for this reason; you are able to focus on specific parts of the shot that need help while continuing to practice the skill in its whole. This type of practice is used all the time when practicing shooting. If your elbow is sticking out when you go up for you shot, your coach will advise you to focus on keeping your elbow in during a shooting drill. Say if your hand is not following-through during a free throw, your coach will advise you to focus on flicking your wrist downward during your free throw practice. Attentional cueing is a great tool to use with whole practice, and it conserves the spatial and temporal characteristics of the task to keep in a game-like situation.
Disclaimer: My youngest sister is quite the baller so I couldn't resist sharing this awesome photo.

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Attentional Focus - Shooting a Free Throw

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Attentional Focus - Shooting a Free Throw

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A free throw is easily one the easier and underrated shots in basketball; however, it is also one of the most important shots to have. We have all seen time and time again how teams who were in control the whole game lost a game because they didn't make all of their free throws. You have probably seen the extensive amount of pressure as a player stands at the free throw line with the outcome of the game in his/her hands. I've been in this situation before; specifically, the Girl's State Quarterfinals against New Berlin Eisenhower. We were down by 1 point in the last minute of regulation. I can still remember the pressure I felt walking up to the line, the feeling of all the eyes in the room on me, and my heart racing while my breathing felt tense. To shorten the suspense, I did make both free throws; but how did I focus my attention on the shot when my heart was ready to jump out of my chest? Chapter 9 in the book talks about attention and how we direct our attention in situations with multiple inputs and outputs occurring simultaneously. My attentional focus, the attention-directing process, in this game situation can be described in terms of both width and direction of focus. Width indicates that our attention can be broad or narrow. Direction indicates that our attention can be focused on the external or internal environment. A broad-external focus would be me taking in everything from the environment; assessing what is happening on the court before I shoot the free throw. A broad-internal focus would be focusing on myself; analyzing how I am feeling during the free throw, which I can tell you overall was nervous. A narrow-external focus would be focusing on one thing in the environment; reacting to the ball being given to me before I shoot the free throw. A narrow-internal focus would be focusing on one thing about myself; rehearsing my free throw shot in my head. We are able to have all four of these attentional focuses because we engage in attentional switching. Attentional switching can be disadvantageous during free throws. If I were to only focus on my nervousness as I shot the ball, the likelihood of me making the basket would be lower.

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Discrete Coordinated Tasks: "Keep your eye on your girl and the ball!"

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Discrete Coordinated Tasks: "Keep your eye on your girl and the ball!"

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Basketball is a contact sport that consists of combining many tasks into one game. While playing defense, you must be able to know where the ball and the person you are guarding is at the same time. If you have the ball on offense, you must be able to dribble and handle it while keeping it away from the player defending you from their basket. All together, you are integrating set plays to run on the court, defending the other team so they do not score in your basket, while making sure to not make a turnover. Coordination is vitally important while playing basketball. It is defined in the book as the patterning of head, body, and/or limb motions relative to the patterning of environmental objects and events. Coordinated tasks can be divided into two types movements: discrete and continuous. A discrete movement called eye-head coordination is used constantly while playing basketball. This coordination is a tight relationship between the head and the eyes. It allows the vestibulo-ocular reflex to occur; motion of the eyes compensates for head motion. I used this reflex every time I played defense. My head always faced the direction of the player I was defending while my eyes kept track of the basketball on the court. If my eye-head coordination was lacking during a possession, I would either lose my player on defense and she would score a basket on me or I would lose track of the ball and not be able to help one of my defenders if she lost her player. The vestibulo-ocular reflex is an important coordinated task to master if you want to be a successful basketball defender.

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Augmented Feedback can Hinder Skill Learning: Coach K needs a lesson on this one

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Augmented Feedback can Hinder Skill Learning: Coach K needs a lesson on this one

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Have you ever been in the middle of a task and had a coach yelling down your back? Well, I have. My high school basketball coach was known for his competitive demeanor and being ruthless when it came to constructive criticism. He would yell at you in the middle of a shot and a game play, outwardly screaming at times that what you did was wrong. Now back then, I had other coaches whose strategy was not the same as Coach K's and they were just as successful as him. I knew that his coaching strategy was not the best, but thanks to this course I can actually tell you why. Augmented Feedback, the information provided about the task from an external source that's additional to the sensory information normally obtained, can hinder skill learning when presented concurrently with the performance, or in the middle of the movement. When feedback is given in the middle of a movement, it can make the performance of the skill worse. Individuals halt listening to their intrinsic feedback because an external source interrupted their thought process. For example when you are running through a set game play in practice, you are able to use intrinsic feedback on how the play went by analyzing afterwards, "are the girls in the right positions," "did the point guard get the screen from the low post?" However, if a coach stopped the play in the middle of the performance, the players won't be able to use intrinsic feedback to analyze their performance. Players in the girl's basketball program struggled with Coach K's coaching, especially when they were learning new skills. Coach K, if somehow you see this, ask me about how you can use augmented feedback correctly.

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Basketball is the one sport growing up that I spent all my time, energy, and love. I first have to thank my parents; without them being basketball fans or enrolling me on a team I would not have fell in love with the game. My older brother was also a huge contributor. I always wanted to follow in his footsteps; whenever he was in the driveway shooting, I was too. Throughout my years of playing the sport, I was on a successful city team that traveled throughout the state to compete. Our success in our adolescent years transferred into our high school years. Kinesiology 361 has opened my eyes to seeing how my success in basketball can be correlated to different concepts in Motor Learning. This motor scrapbook will give you an inside look at what I learned throughout the semester by comparing concepts to my experiences in basketball.

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Mental Practice: If you SEE it you can ACHIEVE it

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Mental Practice: If you SEE it you can ACHIEVE it

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I probably do not need to tell you the importance of successfully shooting a basketball; but, if your team successfully outshoots the opposing team, you will win the game. Shooting a basketball is not as easy as professional basketball players make it seem. During the middle of my senior season, I struggled with my shot. Previously I wasn't afraid of shooting a three pointer with a defender in my face; however, after a few bad shots in a hyped game my confidence and ability to shoot was lacking. My coach and I worked on my shooting form in practice, trying to get back to the fundamentals of shooting. One technique that my coach and I used to help me get back to normal was mental practice. Mental practice is defined in the book as the active cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill in the absence of overt physical movements. After I would successfully shoot the basketball, I would remember the skill and how it felt and try to replicate it. Internal imagery came into play before games, and I would imagine myself performing the skill and feeling the sensation of a successful shot. When I would miss a shot during a game, I knew instantly that my arm did not feel the same going up for that shot compared to a successfully made basket. I would apply mental practice and actively rehearse the shot in my head without actually going through the motions. Mental practice helped me gain the confidence to shoot again. Even though I would have unsuccessful shots, I knew how to fix it because of mental practice and internal imagery.