The emergence of data science has had a profound effect on brain science and behavioral economics. Those two research domains have, in turn, had a profound effect on the research into human psychology. Evidence-based social science puts human performance under a microscope and sports science is a beneficiary.
I studied human-computer interaction in graduate school. It’s a field that I describe as one-third computing, one-third design and one-third human factors psychology. HCI practitioners get a fairly deep understanding of how people work and it helps to build proper computer interfaces, ones that do what you need them to.
My outlook favors engineering more than social science, and out of grad school I tended to feel that psychology was helpful but it came with the risk of wheel-spinning. You could spend untold amounts of time, energy and money seeking answers to psychological questions and never come close to ground truth.
My opinion has changed as I have spent time appreciating human performance psychology’s role in athlete development. The neuro part of the human neuromuscular is overlooked at a sport scientist’s peril. In fact it’s become abundantly clear that cognition, decision making, habit building and skill acquisition are brain centric activities with major affects on athletic performance.
7-Steps to Self-Motivated Decision-Makers (Player Development Project, Lara Mossman)
Study Shows Young Runners Have Stronger Brain Connections (Runner’s World, Amby Burfoot)
Breathing modulates brain activity and mental function (The Guardian, Science, Mo Costand)
You’re an Adult. Your Brain, Not So Much. (The New York Times, Carl Zimmer))
Play, Where Ideas Come From | Simon DeDeo | TEDxIndianaUniversity (YouTube, TEDx Talks)
Decision-Making 101: Trust Your Gut (Paste Magazine, Tiffany Leigh)
Everyone thinks you should read this (The Boston Globe, Cass R. Sunstein)
How Human Memory Works: Not Like a Computer (New York Magazine, Science of Us blog, Drake Baer)
The Athletic Brain – How Neuroscience Is Revolutionising Sport (The Set Pieces, Amit Katwala)
Brain Health and Performance: Why the Brain Matters Beyond What We Consider (SimpliFaster Blog)
Research finds how the brain decides between effort and reward (University of Oxford)
The Hunger in Our Heads (The New York Times, Well blog)
Muscle Memory—It’s In Your Head, Not Your Limbs (Psychology Today, The Fallible Mind blog)
The Neuroscience of Trust (Harvard Business Review, Paul J. Zak)
The effects are being seen primarily in sports management and coach education, but there are also examples of coaches engaging athletes cognitively:
WNT head coach Jill Ellis headlines Girls’ Development Academy Launch Meeting (U.S. Soccer Development Academy)
Emergence of Exploratory, Technical and Tactical Behavior in Small-Sided Soccer Games when Manipulating the Number of Teammates and Opponents (PLOS One; Carlota Torrents et al.)
The reason Chris Petersen holds team meetings about real-world issues (CoachingSearch.com)
Royals create Sports Science Coordinator position in front office (The Kansas City Star, Pete Grathoff)
Can we think about training loads differently? (Australian Institute of Sport)
Soccer in 2017 to be dominated by virtual reality and the continued rise of analytics (ESPN FC, Simon Kuper)
U.S. Soccer Completes First Pro License Course (U.S. Soccer)
Performance psychology is just one domain where capital-S Science has advanced sports science. But beware, drawing conclusions and basing decisions on half-baked armchair psych is the same as guessing. I’m glad that my default perspective is skepticism but I also pay significant attention to advances I hear about.
More things that I read and liked last week:
The Neuroscience of Trust (December 21, Harvard Business Review, Paul J. Zak)
Serious sacrifice and little money – welcome to the world of Jam footballers (December 24, The Guardian, Laurence Bell)
7-Steps to Self-Motivated Decision-Makers (December 19, Player Development Project, Lara Mossman)
Scientists discover concussion biomarker – Discovery takes guesswork out of concussion diagnosis and management (December 22, Northwestern University, Northwestern Now)
WNT head coach Jill Ellis headlines Girls’ Development Academy Launch Meeting (December 23, U.S. Soccer Development Academy)
Molly Huddle’s Inner Strength: Versatile Distance Star Finds Peace, Sets American Record (December 23, RunBlogRun)
Study Shows Young Runners Have Stronger Brain Connections (December 22, Runner’s World, Amby Burfoot)
Emergence of Exploratory, Technical and Tactical Behavior in Small-Sided Soccer Games when Manipulating the Number of Teammates and Opponents (December 22, PLOS One; Carlota Torrents et al.)
Breathing modulates brain activity and mental function (December 23, The Guardian, Science, Mo Costandi)
Scientists say your “mind” isn’t confined to your brain, or even your body (December 24, Quartz, Olivia Goldhill)
Premier League’s Festive Slog: Adored by Fans, Endured by Players (December 23, The New York Times, Rory Smith)
The reason Chris Petersen holds team meetings about real-world issues (December 20, CoachingSearch.com)
Baseball Therapy – Worrying About the Money (December 23, Baseball Prospectus, Russell A. Carleton)
Fifa: the video game that changed football (December 21, The Guardian, Simon Parkin)
Can we think about training loads differently? (December 21, Australian Institute of Sport)
A ‘Hoop Dreams’ Sequel, Written by Gun Violence (December 23, The New York Times, Joe Nocera)
Why gelatin plus exercise might repair ligaments (December 20, Futurity, University of California-Davis)
Top athletes may suffer low sleep quality (December 21, Reuters)
You’re an Adult. Your Brain, Not So Much. (December 21, The New York Times, Carl Zimmer)
4 Ways to Control Your Emotions in Tense Moments (December 21, Harvard Business Review, Joseph Grenny)
Play, Where Ideas Come From | Simon DeDeo | TEDxIndianaUniversity (December 20, YouTube, TEDx Talks)
Soccer in 2017 to be dominated by virtual reality and the continued rise of analytics (December 22, ESPN FC, Simon Kuper)
Royals create Sports Science Coordinator position in front office (December 19, The Kansas City Star, Pete Grathoff)
Decision-Making 101: Trust Your Gut (December 20, Paste Magazine, Tiffany Leigh)
Developing a “Data Sensemaking” Course (December 19, Enrico Bertini, Fell in Love With Data blog)
James Harrison, Pittsburgh’s (Old) Man of Steel (December 20, The MMQB, Tim Rohan)
The Reasons We Buy (and Eat) Too Much Food (December 20, Harvard Business Review, Pierre Chandon)
Maturational and social factors contributing to relative age effects in school sports: Data from the London Youth Games – Reed (December 20, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports )
Everyone thinks you should read this (December 19, The Boston Globe, Cass R. Sunstein)
U.S. Soccer Completes First Pro License Course (December 20, U.S. Soccer)
The No-Nonsense Rookie Head Coach (December 20, The MMQB with Peter King, Jenny Vrentas)
Why I’m Going to Play in Lyon | The Players’ Tribune (December 20, The Player’s Tribune, Alex Morgan)
How Fitbit, Samsung, Apple and Google misfired in watches in 2016 – CNET (December 19, CNET, Scott Stein)
How Human Memory Works: Not Like a Computer (November 21, New York Magazine, Science of Us blog, Drake Baer)
The Athletic Brain – How Neuroscience Is Revolutionising Sport (November 11, The Set Pieces, Amit Katwala)
Brain Health and Performance: Why the Brain Matters Beyond What We Consider (October 14, SimpliFaster Blog)
Research finds how the brain decides between effort and reward (September 28, University of Oxford)
The Hunger in Our Heads (September 11, The New York Times, Well blog)
Muscle Memory—It’s In Your Head, Not Your Limbs (August 24, Psychology Today, The Fallible Mind blog)