SMART POWER TRAINING REPORT Page 7: ADVANCED TRAINING CONCEPTS USED IN SMART POWER TRAINING

SMART POWER TRAINING CONCEPTS

The SMART POWER TRAINING SYSTEM is based on thousands of hours of research and testing. It incorporates the most recent developments in sports science and and power training. The following is a summary of the fundamental concepts behind the SMART POWER TRAINING SYSTEM. This information is substantiated by numerous independent university studies and the sports researchers (a reference list is available upon request).

Specificity and Transfer

A common belief is that skills learned in one sport (say basketball) help in another sport (baseball). Research shows that unless the two skills are exactly the same, very little if any benefit (transfer) is gained. Another term used to describe this effect is “specificity of training” Specificity states that to get the maximum benefit, training must duplicate the skill in terms of motion, muscles used, and speed of execution. In general the only benefit of one sport to another is general aerobic conditioning, “getting into shape”.

Swinging a bat is a “ballistic” muscle activity. It requires high speed strength. Study after study shows that the most beneficial training for high power (speed and strength) is to duplicate the event with overload and over speed training (ballistic power training).

The bottom line; to become a better hitter you must swing a bat hundreds of times a week, thousands of times a month, tens of thousands of times each year. Each swing must have a purpose (mechanics, location, power, timing). Unless there is some means of measuring your swing results, many of these swings will be of little or no value. With SETPRO’s SMART POWER TRAINING products you can monitor every swing for speed, power, reaction time. You will benefit from every swing. Batting practice can then be be used to fine tune your swing.

Ballistic Training

Ballistic training stresses the muscles at the high speed end of its’ speed-strength curve. Swinging, throwing, jumping, running are ballistic events. Conventional weight training does not create the same speed-strength overload required for ballistic events. Training programs need to address the following; muscles get strong only at the speed they train at, muscles must be trained using the same motion as the event, muscles must be over loaded during training

Choosing the correct ballistic exercises and being able to measure the progress/results are the greatest challenges to developing an effective ballistic training program. Only SETPRO offers BALLISTIC OVERLOAD TRAINING. Ballistic training offers the greatest potential for reaching maximum athletic performance.

Complex Training

Training “theory” has been an evolutionary process. Fifty years ago, weight training was only used by body builders. Coaches thought that using weights would decrease athletic performance (become muscle bound). Coaching emphasis was more conditioning (aerobic) than strength with strong emphasis on technique (sport specific). The cold war (olympic competition) brought a new level of research and training intensities.

Weight training was found to benefit almost every sport. Even the traditional high motor skill sports such as baseball have embraced weight training. Weight training benifits most those sports requiring more strength than power (football). More recently, plyometrics (jumping, bounding and medicine ball exercises) emphasized ballistic training. Most training regimens treat each training method as a separate program. You weight train on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. You do plyometrics other days. You go to practice in the afternoon. Complex training does not isolate the individual training methods. You combine resistance (weight) training, plyometics and sport specific exercises into the same workout session. Hence the name complex training. With SETPRO’s SMART POWER TRAINING SYSTEM you develop a complex training system that gives the most return on every minute of your training time.

REACTION TIME

Reaction time is the time it takes for you to BEGIN responding to a stimulus. Classic reaction time experiments flash a light and measure how long it takes to respond. Researchers used to believe reaction time was essentially fixed and could not be reduced. Recent studies show reaction time can be reduced and in fact there is more than one type of reaction time. It is the choice of training methods that is critical to improving reaction (and response time). The following is taken from “MOTOR LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE”, FROM PRINCIPLES TO PRACTICE by Richard A. Schmidt, PhD.

Autotamacity and the Amount of Practice. Highly practiced performers can overcome the disadvantages of  multiple choice/decision reaction (hitting a high inside pitch versus a low outside pitch). Research shows that two major factors affecting choice RT (Reaction Time) are the nature and the amount of practice . For a given number of stimulus-response alternatives, the larger the level of practice, the shorter the RT. Overall, practice reduces the steepness of the increase in RT as the number of stimulus-response alternatives increases. This means that there is only a small effect of practice on simple RT but very large effects of practice on choice RT, particularly when the number of alternatives is large or when S-R (Stimulus-Response) compatibility is low. With extremely large amounts of practice, high-level performers can produce reactions that approach automatic processing (automaticity); these reactions are very fast and are slowed little, if at all, as the number of S-R alternatives increases (high fast pitch versus low off-speed pitch). Finally, the nature of practice is important here, where practice using consistent mapping, the same stimulus always leading to the same response, is most effective (practice under game like conditions).

Focal and Ambient Vision

One of the more interesting and exciting discoveries is the importance of vision on reaction/response time. The following is taken from “MOTOR LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE”, FROM PRINCIPLES TO PRACTICE by Richard A. Schmidt, PhD.

Two Visual Systems for Movement  Control Over the past 20 years or so, it has become increasingly clear that two essentially separate visual systems underlie human functioning, rather than just one as it would appear. Visual information is delivered from the retina of the eye along two separate pathways to two different places in the brain, and there is good evidence that these two different pathways of information are used differently in the control of behavior (Trevarthen, 1968). These two systems are the focal system, specialized for object identification, and the ambient system, specialized for movement control.

Focal Vision for Object Identification Focal vision is the system you already know about in general terms from personal experience . This system is specialized for conscious identification of objects that lie primarily in the center of the visual field. Its major function seems to be providing answers to the general question “What is it?” Hence you use this system to look at and identify something, such as the words on this page you are reading now . This system contributes to conscious perception of the objects that are focalized, leading to identification and perhaps action. Focal vision is severely degraded by dim lighting conditions, as you know from your attempts to read or do fine handworkwithout adequate light.

Ambient Vision for Movement Control Generally unrecognized is the operation of a second visual system, the ambient vision system, thought to be specialized for movement control. Distinct from focal vision, which is sensitive only to events in central vision, ambient vision involves the entire visual field, central and peripheral. Ambient vision operates nonconsciously, contributing to the fine control of movements without your awareness. Clearly, one reason it is difficult to recognize the existence of ambient vision is that it is nonconscious. Even so, there is good evidence that such a system does operate for movement control (see the Highlight Box on the Bridgeman et al experiment). Ambient vision is not seriously degraded in dim lighting conditions, as focal vision is. This is clear if you attempt to walk on varied terrain in the near-dark; you have no trouble making your way without tripping, even though the light is far too dim to allow reading with the focal system. The ambient system functions to detect motion and position of elements in the environment, and provides information about your own movements in relation to them. Thus, its function is to provide answers to the questions “Where is it?” and perhaps “Where am I relative to it?”

Focal Vision and Movement  Before realizing there could be an ambient system for movement control, scientists believed that a conscious focal system was the only way visual information could influence action. Under this outmoded view, a baseball batter watching a pitch come toward the plate relied only on the relatively slow processes in the information-processing stages to detect the ball’s flight pattern and to initiate changes in movement control. This idea was supported by numerous experiments that seemed to show that visual information requires about 200 ms (or approximately the value of visual reaction time) for processing (e.g., Keele & Posner, 1968) and that visual control of action was particularly slow and cumbersome. However, recent information about the ambient visual system, together with the ideas about optical-flow processes in vision, have markedly changed the understanding of visual information processing for action.

Focal vision can dominate sensory input.  Visual dominance prevents the additional help of other sensory information: When vision dominates, it sometimes actually leads to poorer performance when other senses are more appropriate. If you use vision in a conscious information-processing mode (i.e.,FOCAL VISION), processing can be slow and attention demanding. On the other hand, if you use kinesthetic information (touch, feel, balance), responses can speed up noticeably. Experiments on fencers (]ordan, 1972) suggest just this, where allowing visual information actually slowed performers’ responses by shifting attention away from the more relevant kinesthetic senses.

In the same general way, asking a performer to concentrate (consciously) on certain visual events can have detrimental effects on performance. Such a shift to conscious processes would shift control from the relatively fast ambient system to the slower focal system. For example, coaches often use various visual aids for performance, such as telling a batter to initiate the swing when the pitched ball has passed a certain visually determined point in space or when it is a certain measured distance away. Such an instruction seems certain to cause a shift to conscious control by the ambient system, probably resulting in poorer, rather than better, performance. A more natural strategy would be to instruct the performer to watch the ball and to swing when the time “feels right.” Such an instruction should encourage the use of the ambient system, allowing the time-to-contact information more reliably derived from optical flow to trigger the response (McLeod, McLaughlin, & Nimmo-Smith, 1985).

This is another example of the Bliss-Boder hypothesis, in which performance is hurt by instructions to intervene in natural processes by conscious activities that demand attention and controlled processing. Remember that a high-level performer has developed many elegant, nonconscious processes for detecting and processing visual and kinesthetic information, along with very fast and effective processes for making corrections based on this information. When asked by the coach to pay attention to these processes, the performer is forced out of these nonconscious modes of processing and into the more conscious, controlled information- processing activities, which are usually not very effective for skilled performance.

FEEDBACK

Feedback is information about the difference between some goal state and performance. A coach gives you feedback when you take a swing and he tells you your dropping your elbow or to hold the bat higher. Feedback is extremely important. Dr. Schmidt makes thefollowing statement on feedback;

“Without doubt, one of the most important learning processes concerns the use of feedback about actions attempted in practice”

Some of these findings can be summarized as follows; If learners have no knowledge of their own errors, then practice results in no learning. Feedback in the form of Knowledge of Results (KR) generates rapid and permanent learning. Generally, information about errors, is essential for learning to occur.

Summary Feedback for Enhancing Learning

For years researchers have believed in the premise that the more frequent the feedback, the faster the learning. Recent studies show this is not true. Too much feedback can make the learner dependent (learning lazy). It was found that with-holding feedback could increase learning as measured by “retention” (how well you performed after some period of time had passed). With-holding feedback for a certain number of trials and then presenting it is called summary feedback. In this method, first studied by Lavery (1962), the feedback is withheld for a set of trials-say from 5 to 20 trials-and then is summarized for the learner in various ways.

On the surface summary feedback would seem to be particularly ineffective for learning. Early research by Lavery (1962; Lavery & Suddon, 1962) and more recent efforts have shown that summary feedback can be particularly effective for learning. Generally, even though summary feedback is less effective than every-trial feedback for performance during practice, when feedback is withdrawn in retention tests, subjects who had received summary feedback performed better than subjects who had received every-trial feedback. These results show that, relative to every-trial feedback, summary feedback produces poorer performance in the acquisition phase but better learning, as measured on a retention test.

This is just what was shown in an experiment by Schmidt, Lange, and Young (1990), who studied different numbers of summary feedback trials on a laboratory task resembling batting in baseball. As seen in Figure 10. 10, there was an inverted-U relationship between summary length and learning, with the 5-trial summary feedback length being best. Again, even though the 1-trial condition (every-trial feedback) was best for performance during earlier practice, when feedback was being presented, the 5-trial condition was best for learning.

MOTIVATION and GOAL SETTING

Common sense tells us that a motivated individual will try harder than a unmotivated individual. Studies show this to be true. The main difficulty is finding the most effect  means of motivation. Telling an athlete to do his or her best or to try harder are rarely very effective. The most effective motivation results when the athlete is given specific goals and sees concrete progress. The SMART POWER TRAINING SYSTEM establishes very specific goals (bat speed, bat power, reaction time, number of swings, etc.) and allows the athlete to see the immediate results of his or her effort. The following  is taken from Dr. Schmidts book;

Most Important: Amount and Quality of Practice It almost goes without saying that the most important variable for learning is practice its self. With the highest skill levels shown by champion athletes, the amount of time, effort, and practice that went into preparation is very impressive. For example, Kottke, Halpern, Easton, Ozel, and Burrill (1978) estimated that across 15-year careers in their respective sports, a quarterback in professional football throws 1.4 million passes and a basketball player shoots 1.0 million baskets! It is clear that a high level of practice is critical for sophisticated skill development, so the athlete who really wants to be successful should be prepared to maximize the amount of practice. There’s no easy way around it.

But the amount of practice time is not the only concern here. Certainly, the quality of this practice is critical, too. A athlete can exert much effort over many hours in ineffective practice, emerging with little to show for it except boredom and frustration. It is critical to organize and structure practice effectively.

The SMART POWER TRAINING SYSTEM uses all of these concepts.  All of the SMART POWER products provide vital information about your swing performance. The SMART TRAINING manual tells you how to most effectively use this information to get the greatest results in the least amount of time.