Sport psychology for students, school sports, coaches + more...

Strategies to improve performance - performance psychologist Miranda Banks of Excel in Exams and the Smartivate system.
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[@mariefair9669]

You have a great video on slow processing speed and the impact on learning - but how about how it impacts sports performance? For example, there is a lot of information to process on the court when playing basketball and it is everchanging. And then there are different plays, etc. So wouldn't slow processing speed also greatly impact sports performance - in fast-moving team sports? I found this to be the issue with my nephew who had a slow processing speed. His skill level was strong, but navigating game and response time impacted his ability to perform well or keep up with the fast-moving game. What advice would you give in this situation? I think this is a greatly overlooked aspect/consequence of slow processing speed and much less easy to remedy given you can't get accommodations in sports.

[@excelinexams1056]

Hi Marie, I am so sorry that I haven't replied before. For some reason, your message missed me. To answer your question, sports performance is highly dependent upon reaction times and so, as much as possible, decision-making needs to be automatic rather than in the non automatic part of the brain. This actually helps those with slow processing speed - when they have spent sufficient time in training. Your nephew needs to spend more time in training and slow game scenarios. Once he has learned techniques to the point of automation, another part of his brain takes over. His disadvantage is that he will struggle to perform at the same level as his peers until he performs 'automatically', which requires a lot of time spent in training and in slow game scenarios. Once his actions are automatic, he will be comparable to his peers. He can also help himself by watching videos of games and, in his own time, anticipate what happens next. He can play a video, stop it and then try to work out what might happen next. Press play again and he can see what happens. The more he learns, the faster he will become. Automatic behaviour is controlled by a different part of the brain from non-automatic behaviour, so it can hugely help those with slow processing speed, just so long as their behaviours are sufficiently automatic. It also helps to have a coach who understands this!!

[@hodor8910]

Hodor