John Toner

In praise of conscious awareness: a new framework for the investigation of "continuous improvement" in expert athletes

A key postulate of traditional theories of motor skill-learning (e.g., Fitts and Posner, 1967; Shiffrin and Schneider, 1977) is that expert performance is largely automatic in nature and tends to deteriorate when the performer “reinvests” in, or attempts to exert conscious control over, proceduralized movements (Masters and Maxwell, 2008). This postulate is challenged, however, by recent empirical evidence (e.g., Nyberg, in press; Geeves et al., 2014) which shows that conscious cognitive activity plays a key role in facilitating further improvement amongst expert sports performers and musicians – people who have already achieved elite status (Toner and Moran, in press). This evidence suggests that expert performers in motor domains (e.g., sport, music) can strategically deploy conscious attention to alternate between different modes of bodily awareness (reflective and pre-reflective) during performance. Extrapolating from this phenomenon, the current paper considers how a novel theoretical approach (adapted from Sutton et al., 2011) could help researchers to elucidate some of the cognitive mechanisms mediating continuous improvement amongst expert performers.

A brief report on the development of a theoretically-grounded intervention to promote patient autonomy and self-management of physiotherapy patients: face validity and feasibility of implementation

BackgroundClinical practice guidelines for the treatment of low back pain suggest the inclusion of a biopsychosocial approach in which patient self-management is prioritized. While many physiotherapists recognise the importance of evidence-based practice, there is an evidence practice gap that may in part be due to the fact that promoting self-management necessitates change in clinical behaviours. Evidence suggests that a patient’s motivation and maintenance of self-management behaviours can be positively influenced by the clinician’s use of an autonomy supportive communication style. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop and pilot-test the feasibility of a theoretically derived implementation intervention to support physiotherapists in using an evidence-based autonomy supportive communication style in practice for promoting patient self-management in clinical practice.MethodsA systematic process was used to develop the intervention and pilot-test its feasibility in primary care physiotherapy. The development steps included focus groups to identify barriers and enablers for implementation, the theoretical domains framework to classify determinants of change, a behaviour change technique taxonomy to select appropriate intervention components, and forming a testable theoretical model. Face validity and acceptability of the intervention was pilot-tested with two physiotherapists and monitoring their communication with patients over a three-month timeframe.ResultsUsing the process described above, eight barriers and enablers for implementation were identified. To address these barriers and enablers, a number of intervention components were selected ranging from behaviour change techniques such as, goal-setting, self-monitoring and feedback to appropriate modes of intervention delivery (i.e. continued education meetings and audit and feedback focused coaching). Initial pilot-testing revealed the acceptability of the intervention to recipients and highlighted key areas for refinement prior to scaling up for a definitive trial.ConclusionThe development process utilised in this study ensured the intervention was theory-informed and evidence-based, with recipients signalling its relevance and benefit to their clinical practice. Future research should consider additional intervention strategies to address barriers of social support and those beyond the clinician level.

From ‘blame’ to ‘shame’ in a coach–athlete relationship in golf: a tale of shared critical reflection and the re-storying of narrative experience

This paper is centered on the principle authors (John) personal narrative of a coach-athlete relationship in golf, and how the original story altered through a process of shared critical thinking. On first telling, John explained to his co-authors how he considered himself to be the victim of bad coaching practice following his coachs failure to correctly diagnose a key but subtle fault with his golf swing. The initial rendering was a story of blame, betrayal, and of a coach who ultimately failed to provide the expert service required. Having shared and critically reflected upon this comfortable version of events with his co-authors, John explores how he came to understand his role in an ultimately dysfunctional coaching relationship in a different way. Rather than being a blameless victim, John began to explore his own contribution to the process of relationship breakdown. For example, his conscious decision to not share his thoughts and feelings about his golf swing with his coach; an act of stubbornness that led John to ‘test’ his coach in a way that could only lead to failure. Finally, the author team considers the value, role and issues associated with reflective writing in coaching, especially as they relate to the development of co-constructed narratives.

Letter to the editor concerning the article “Performance of gymnastics skill benefits from an external focus of attention” by Abdollahipour, Wulf, Psotta & Nieto (2015)

ABSTRACT Abdollahipour, Wulf, Psotta, and Nieto (2015) recently published data in the Journal of Sports Sciences to show that an external focus of attention promotes superior performance effects (gymnastics jump height and judged movement form score) when compared to internal or control foci during skill execution without an implement involved. While we do not contest the veracity of findings reported, nor others that have been used to support beneficial effects of an external focus of attention, in this Letter to the Editor we comment on considerable methodological limitations associated with this and previous studies that, we suggest, have resulted in serious theoretical oversights regarding the control of movement and, most crucially from our practitioner perspective, suboptimal recommendations for applied coaching practice. Specifically, we discuss the lack of consideration towards translational research in this area, the problematic nature of attentional focus cues employed, interpretation of findings in relation to other applied recommendations and coherence with mechanistic underpinning and, finally, the representative nature of task involved. In summary, while (laboratory) research evidence may appear to be conclusive, we suggest that the focus of attention effects are in need of more ecologically valid and rigorous testing as well as consideration of current coaching practices if it is to optimally serve the applied sporting domain that it purportedly aims to.

The perils of automaticity

Classical theories of skill acquisition propose that automatization (i.e., performance requires progressively less attention as experience is acquired) is a defining characteristic of expertise in a variety of domains (e.g., Fitts & Posner, 1967). Automaticity is believed to enhance smooth and efficient skill execution by allowing performers to focus on strategic elements of performance rather than on the mechanical details that govern task implementation (Williams & Ford, 2008). By contrast, conscious processing (i.e., paying conscious attention to ones action during motor execution) has been found to disrupt skilled movement and performance proficiency (e.g., Beilock & Carr, 2001). On the basis of this evidence, researchers have tended to extol the virtues of automaticity. However, few researchers have considered the wide range of empirical evidence which indicates that highly automated behaviors can, on occasion, lead to a series of errors that may prove deleterious to skilled performance. Therefore, the purpose of the current paper is to highlight the perils, rather than the virtues, of automaticity. We draw on Reasons (1990) classification scheme of everyday errors to show how an overreliance on automated procedures may lead to 3 specific performance errors (i.e., mistakes, slips, and lapses) in a variety of skill domains (e.g., sport, dance, music). We conclude by arguing that skilled performance requires the dynamic interplay of automatic processing and conscious processing in order to avoid performance errors and to meet the contextually contingent demands that characterize competitive environments in a range of skill domains.

Toward an explanation of continuous improvement in expert athletes : the role of consciousness in deliberate practice

In a body of research spanning three decades, Janet Starkes and her colleagues have produced a wealth of empirical evidence on the importance of deliberate practice in the development of elite performers. Within this corpus of work, a number of studies have alluded to the important role that self-focused attention plays in helping skilled athletes to refine inefficient movements during deliberate practice. Unfortunately, these studies have largely under-represented the role that somatic awareness plays in facilitating further improvement amongst sports performers who have already achieved elite status. In seeking to address this issue of continuous improvement in elite athletes, the current paper marshals evidence to suggest that reflective somatic awareness plays an important role in the practice activities of elite performers. In particular, we argue that such awareness enables elite athletes to consciously and deliberately improve their movement proficiency. More generally, we propose that Shusterman’s (2008) theory of “somaesthetic awareness” offers expertise researchers a potentially fruitful theoretical framework for future research on skill advancement at the elite level of sport.

Knowledge of facts mediate "continuous improvement" in elite sport: a comment on Stanley and Krakauer (2013).

Traditional theories of motor skill learning (e.g., Fitts and Posner, 1967) and many contemporary perspectives in sport psychology (see Masters and Maxwell, 2008) and cognitive neuroscience (see Yarrow et al., 2010) argue that skilled action is guided by procedural or implicit knowledge. Researchers adopting this perspective believe that skilled performance proceeds rapidly, efficiently and without the need for conscious monitoring, or a reliance on propositional knowledge (what some might term declarative or explicit knowledge) to guide an activity. However, in a recent paper published in this journal, Stanley and Krakauer (2013) present a compelling argument which offers a stern challenge to the latter of these assumptions. Drawing on evidence from famous cases in neuroscience (e.g., the case of HM) and other research on the nature of skill, Stanley and Krakauer (2013) suggest that becoming proficient at any motor task, and maintaining and improving ones skill in that activity, is heavily influenced by the use of what they refer to as “knowledge of facts” (i.e., propositional knowledge). The aim of this brief commentary is to build on Stanley and Krakauers work by pointing to empirical evidence (e.g., Collins et al., 1999), recent theory (e.g., Shusterman, 2009) and phenomenological descriptions (e.g., Cotterill et al., 2010) which suggest that “continuous improvement” at the elite level of sport is mediated by the “ongoing accrual and improving application of knowledge of facts about an activity” (Stanley and Krakauer, 2013, p. 2). More specifically, the current paper presents evidence which demonstrates how performers use knowledge of facts in two distinct sporting situations: (1) in the training context when the performer is seeking to improve “attenuated” movement patterns and (2) during the planning and strategizing that occurs in pre-performance routines during on-line competitive performance.