The Psychology of Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks in Sports

In practice settings, competitions, and games, athletes are often required to perform an arsenal of motor tasks in dynamic and challenged sporting environments, where they have to respond without having enough time to prepare themselves for the act. However, in many sport activities athletes also perform closed self-paced motor tasks - tasks that take place in a relatively stable and predictable environment, where there is adequate time to prepare for their execution. Among these tasks are free-throw shots in basketball, putting in golf, serving in tennis, and bowling. In these tasks, performers are able to plan their actions in advance. They can activate a plan, a strategy, a protocol, or a procedure - what we term a ritual behavior. Effective rituals are usually achieved with a high degree of consistency. That is, either deliberately or subconsciously they become an integral part of the act itself. The Psychology of Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks in Sports explores those plans, procedures, protocols, strategies, and techniques that aim at facilitating the performance and learning of closed self-paced motor tasks. Included in the instructional-psychological routines discussed in this book are pre-performance routines, focusing attention, motor imagery, enhanced expectancies, autonomy support, gaze strategies, self-talk, and periodization. The routines discussed in the book are evidence-based. Based on updated reviews of laboratory and field inquiries on the discussed instructional-psychological routines, practical implications are given for those professionals who teach closed self-paced motor tasks, including coaches, instructors, and sport psychology consultants.

Ronnie Lidor is a Professor of motor behavior and is the Director of the Academic College at Wingate, Israel. His main areas of research are cognitive/learning strategies, talent detection and early development in sport, and sport for development. Gal Ziv, PhD is the Head of the Motor Behavior Laboratory at The Academic College at Wingate (Israel). He conducts research on perceptual-cognitive skills and expert performance and learning.

1. Ritual Behaviors in Closed Self-Paced Motor Task 2. The Neural Correlates of Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks 3. Functional Variability Enhances Performance in Self-paced Tasks: An Ecological Dynamics Approach 4. Quiet Eye, Performance, and Learning of Closed Self-Paced Aiming Tasks 5. Focusing Attention in Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks 6. Enhanced Expectancies in Learning Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks 7. Autonomy Support in Motor Performance and Learning 8. The Use of Motor Imagery in Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks 9. The Use of Self-Talk in Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks 10. Modifying Technique in Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks 11. Teaching Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks in Virtual Reality 12. Performance under Pressure in Self-Paced Motor Tasks 13. Combining Periodization and Sport Psychology to Optimize Performance of Closed Self-Paced Motor Tasks 14. Instructional and Psychological Observations and Future Reflections