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UF Research Reveals How Amateur Athletes Can Think Like Experts

February 25, 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Despite years of practice that tee shot just won’t stay in the fairway. Or maybe after serving that tennis ball a thousand times, you just can’t make it fly like you want.

Don’t give up just yet: The problem may be all in your head, says a University of Florida researcher and author of a new study that reveals, among other things, how to think like Tiger Woods or Pete Sampras.

“If beginners knew more about what to do to get to an optimal mental state before an event, they could imitate the experts,” said Robert Singer, a UF professor of exercise and sports science whose report is published in the current issue of the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.

The secret, Singer said, lies not in concentrating on the physical side of the sport but rather in reaching a transcendent level known as “the zone” or “the flow state.” Getting there, he said, has been a mystery in the past.

“With enough practice, generally there is a transition from the conscious state to the unconscious state of performance,” Singer said. “And if you’re really good at executing, you can learn to regulate your thoughts and emotions so that they work for you. Then you can get into the flow state.”

Singer’s research is a compilation of more than 60 different academic papers and studies conducted primarily over the last decade with an average of 30 subjects per study. The studies involved motor skills, pre-performance state and brain activity, and a variety of other related topics. Some investigators, like Singer, observed the psychological activity of both experts and amateurs who performed tasks ranging from tossing free-throw shots in basketball to pitching darts. Some also observed eye fixations and brain-wave activity during various performances, including rifle and pool shooting and putting in golf.

The studies show the best athletes develop a method to achieve a state of pre-performance perfection immediately before an event. That is, superior athletes don’t focus their attention on body movements or the physicality of what they are doing when they have their best performances. Instead, Singer said, they consistently use an effective pre-performance routine to ensure their expectations are high, no external distractions arise, and they have no fears or self-doubt that can disrupt performance.

Studies conducted on pre-performance brain activity apply mainly to elite athletes, but beginners can do something to get to that next level, said Charles Hillman, a professor in the Dept. of Kinesiology and Psychology at the University of Illinois.

“Just before performing, every individual has an ideal pattern of brain activity,” Hillman said. “This type of research could identify an (amateur’s) ideal pattern and further down the road be used to help them achieve an ideal brain state.”

When a performance is without conscious attention on the action and the outcome is great, an athlete has performed at an optimal level or flow state, Singer said.

Such strategies don’t apply to sports such as football and boxing, however, where anticipation, emotions, and quick decision-making and reaction times to unexpected occurrences are key to performance. Abiding by a pre-performance routine works best in events in which there are no major time constraints on when to initiate a performance in activities that occur in stable and predictable conditions, Singer said.

Although there are many versions of such routines, they all serve to develop a series of strategies that work together to hone a pre-performance state crucial to performing at one’s best, he said.

One way to develop a pre-performance routine is to use Singer’s five-step strategy: