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For the people that have seen "Happy Gilmore" starring Adam Sandler, you've seen the producers try to reproduce mental practice. What makes the movie different from the definition of mental practice that I used a lot in high school is the internal imagery of actually performing the skill. Adam Sandler used his imagination to calm his nerves in order to make a putt but none of his images were the putt itself. He was going to his happy place which included all of his favorite things, people, and future dreams. The real definition of mental practice is the active cognitive rehearsal of a physical skill in the absence of overt physical movements.

In high school my football coaches would always tell us on the bus to "imagine doing your job". The idea of it at first was rather odd since everyone was talking about their school day or how far we were traveling but I grew to love mental practice. I would sit in silence the entire bus ride just thinking about catching the football, breaking some tackles, and scoring a touchdown. Like most athletes do as kids, my images were always the most dramatic thing I could think of like scoring the game winning touchdown or making some impossible play. As I got older and better at using my imagination I began to go through our plays in my head and imagine where I need to step, where the football will likely be, and where the defenders usually are. This use of imagination is known as internal imagery and involves a person imagining themselves inside his or her own body performing a skill and experiencing the sensations that are expected in the actual situation. The use of internal imagery helped calm my nerves when I actually stepped on the field and had to remember where to run for a certain play. It was as if I was going through deja vu and reliving a past moment in time. I remember my first touchdown senior year was one where I didn't even have to think because I had rehearsed the same route in my head so many times. It was as if I was a robot and I knew what was going to happen before the play even started! Below is a picture of me(number 5) that my mom took before my touchdown. I can assure you I was using mental practice at the moment that picture was taken.

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I will admit growing up I had one of the most unorthodox shooting styles of anyone on the court. I used to bring the ball up the left side of my body and swing the ball high over my head to shoot. Everyone just stared in awe as I was still able to make shots even though my body was so crooked. People would ask me all the time, "how do you shoot like that". I just told people I shoot in a way that is comfortable to me and provides me with the most success. I could feel I was bringing the ball up from my side but I couldn't explain where I was releasing the ball, how it was set in my hand, or what makes me turn my body. I could never explain why I shot so abnormally because my shooting form had made it's way into my procedural memory. Procedural memories are automatic and do not require conscious thought to perform the motor pattern. It is actually beneficial for your shooting form to be a procedural memory in order to perform the motion before the defense can react and block your shot. If you had to consciously think about how to hold the ball and when to release it like it were a declarative memory, you would never have time to release the ball. At the beginning of my playing learning, I tried out various ways to shoot the ball in order to maximize my range and consistency. Once I found what was successful, I repeated the movement time and time again. Over time this shooting form had made it's way from my declarative memory into my procedural memory and was now engrained in me. As I became stronger in my upper body my shot continued to change but to this day I cannot shoot a basketball with "proper" form. As you can see from the NBA players below, shooting is as unique as handwriting and can't always be explained.

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One of the most common routes for wide receivers to run in football is the slant. The player lines up on either side of the quarterback, runs straight 5 yards, and then cuts toward the center of the field at a 45 degree angle. It is probably the route in football with the most "high risk, high reward" but players and coaches will always include it in their playbook. There is a very large chance for the ball to be intercepted but if it is caught the receiver is still likely to be hit very hard and have the ball pop out since there is usually a defender waiting and ready. I can say from experience that it is the scariest pass to catch for that reason alone. When the ball is caught though, the receiver is now running side to side on the field and can change directions so that he is headed toward the sideline, and with good speed he is impossible to catch. The process I went through to learn the slant route was very frustrating but more physically exhausting than anything. I was constantly looking for the ball too late and as a result I did not have enough time to process where the ball was and how fast or hard it was coming. Luckily my coach had us wear our helmets every practice even when we weren't wearing shoulder pads or tackling because I had countless footballs go right through my hands and bounce off my face mask. Imagine the amount of bloody noses I would have had without it!

Looking back I realize I went through Gentile's 2 stage model of learning to go from the kid who had "butterfingers", meaning I couldn't catch anything, to the next Jerry Rice(number 80 below who is known for scoring many touchdowns with the slant route). Gentile's first stage of learning is getting the idea of the movement. For me this was turning my head and bringing my hands closer to my chest as soon as I planted and cut to the inside of the field. I had to learn the exact timing of when I should stop pumping my arms to aid in my running, and bring them closer to my face in order to prepare for a football that was going a short distance at a high velocity. The key for me here was consistency. I had to run the route at the exact same speed in practice so my quarterback could be more consistent with where he throws the ball. Once I got this down I was now ready for the second stage of learning which is diversification because reacting to the defense is considered an open skill. The defense is often set up or moves in a different pattern from play to play. This is why my footwork and timing had to be modified in order to slow down in some parts of my route but speed up in others so I could get to the same spot on the field as I did in practice when I ran the same speed each time. Reacting to the defense was what caused the pumping of my arms and the speed of my running to be modified. Once I discovered I had to change my speed to counter the defense and get to my spot, I was able to "keep my head on a swivel" and look for the ball to make the catch.

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Jerry Rice (Turns 8 yard pass into 81 yard TOUCHDOWN)

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A few years back I saw Nike come out with a new slogan for their football apparel and equipment. Just like the classic "Just Do It" slogan, this one was simple as well and is the title for my example on how I learned to do a layup in basketball under control. Nike was going for this idea that being fast would "kill your opponent" on the field or leave them in the dust. To me this reminds me of Fitts' Law and in particular the two-stage aiming process proposed by Woodworth that is the underlying process by which you make a layup consistently when driving to the hoop at full speed.

When I first learned to do a layup I was determined to make it from different angles around the hoop and at different speeds. It seemed obvious that you would want to jump as high as possible to get closer to the rim and the only way possible was to run faster and gather more force in your legs. As I tried time and time again I figured I had to release the ball sooner, jump sooner, or come in at a different angle. None of these methods worked. Speed was killing my accuracy! This is exactly what Fitts' Law explains by saying accuracy is decreased when movement speed is increased. Over time I discovered I had to break my movement into two parts, a take off and a finish. The takeoff is Woodworth's initial adjustment phase and was my first few steps in driving to the basket. This is the part that is "ballistic" and the only component I was paying attention to when I was failing. The second part of Woodworth's 2 stage aiming process is the current control phase and involves using feedback to adjust your motion and finish the movement with accuracy. This second component is what I call the "finish" and is the last few steps you take before jumping for the layup. I could still drive to the hoop as fast as I could but in my last 2 or 3 steps I had to slow down in order to adjust my feet, square my body, and bring the ball up in a controlled fashion in order to bounce it lightly off the backboard and into the basket. Below is Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers also using the 2 stage process. He dribbles at full speed down the court and then slows down for his last two steps in order to do a perfect lay up while defended.

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When I began to play basketball, which was the only sport I played until middle school, I was constantly running around in my driveway shooting off balance shots, fade aways, or anything I saw on TV from my favorite athletes. What I failed to work on in my driveway or with my brothers was my defense or more specifically, my footwork. Whenever I played basketball at school in full games, I was constantly getting blown past by not only smaller and quicker players but by players my height as well. It was as if I was the only player with my feet "stuck in the mud". I thought for the longest time I was just too tall to stay in front of people and my long legs were hindering me from ever being a good defender. When I got to high school I slowly transitioned from playing basketball to playing football. One day my high school coaches asked each of us to learn a defensive position(or offensive if you were normally on defense) and I absolutely hated the idea. There was nothing fun about defense I thought at first. I didn't know it at first but this was the biggest turning point for my basketball career. One of the first skills we learned as defenders was "opening" our hips in order to smoothly change direction. My position on defense was cornerback which requires you to face the offensive player each play and then backpedal until either the offensive player is about to run past you, go left or right, or you must come forward to make a tackle. Opening your hips is all about being in a good athletic stance with your knees bent and then turning your feet in the next direction you want to move in order to change direction quickly.

As you may guess, after only a year of playing cornerback I was already a whole new defender on the basketball court. As I began to play in an intramural league at school, I noticed I was now able to guard every position on the court by just staying in front of people. Since a basketball court is smaller than a football field, there is a shuffle motion used to play defense as opposed to taking full steps but opening my hips was still key. By moving my feet in the next direction I wanted to go, I was able to shuffle to a spot on the court to cut off the offensive player. I attributed my new defensive ability to what I learned on the football field through positive transfer. Positive transfer is a gain in proficiency of one skill as a result of practice on another skill. Thorndike's identical elements theory best explains this phenomenon by saying the shuffle motion in basketball is similar to pointing your feet in order to change direction on the football field. Both of these skills are similar in context since they both involve playing good defense by using your feet to changing direction quickly. I later took pride in my ability to defend on the basketball court and would even say I became more of a defensive player as time went on. Had I never been asked to play cornerback on the football field, I'm sure I would still be "stuck in the mud" on the basketball court.