Today’s episode welcomes back to the show, Rob Gray, professor at Arizona State University and host of the Perception & Action Podcast.  Rob Gray has been conducting research on, and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years.  He focuses heavily on the application of basic theory to address real-world challenges, having consulted with numerous professional and governmental entities, and has developed a VR baseball training system that has been used in over 25 published studies.  Rob is the author of the book “How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach and Practice Sports Skills”.

You cannot separate the world of athletic development, even pure “power” training, from concepts on motor learning.  If we look at interest in athletic performance topics by “need”, speed training will typically be first on the list.  At its core, sprinting, lifting (and every other athletic skill) has its roots in how we learn.

The great thing about motor learning knowledge, is that it can both allow you to have a better training session on the day, as well as month to month, and year over year.  Training done only on the level of raw “power” as a general quality, and explicit instruction will create early ceilings for athletes in their career.  Understanding motor learning allows for more involved daily training sessions, and better flourishing of skills that grow like a tree, over time.  Whether you work in sport, in the gym, or as a parent/athlete, understanding how we learn goes a massively long way in becoming the best version of one’s self athletically and from a movement perspective.

In episode 293, Rob got into the constraints-led approach to movement vs. “teaching fundamentals”, and in this episode, he goes into CLA’s counter-part: differential learning.  Rob will get into the nuances of differential learning on the novice and advanced level.  In the back end of the show, we’ll talk about “stacking constraints”, games, exploration, using the “velocity dial” as a constraint, and finally, the promising results of Rob’s research showing the effectiveness of a variable practice model.

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Timestamps and Main Points:

5:07 – How differential learning is different than the constraints led approach in athletic development

12:10 – Using differential learning as a recovery tool from intense training means

15:51 – Using constraints within the scope of differential learning and vice versa

21:28 – If and how differential learning or the CLA led approach can be too “widespread” vs. focused towards a movement goal

25:02 – Some games Rob would specifically utilize in training tennis players using constraints and differential learning

28:11 – The advantage of free flowing sports with limited rules and setups for children in the process of youth sports

36:05 – How performing exploratory movements in the weight room can fit with differential learning concepts

41:55 – Rob’s take on the innate ability of athletes to figure out movement on their own, and when to dig into constraints more deeply to help determine why they may not be solving a problem well, and the integration of analogies into the process

44:23 – Thoughts on manipulating velocity and time as a constraint, and the relationship between intensifying constraints, and the amount of movement solutions

53:30 – How using variable learning and constraint led approaches can improve players ceilings in long-term development

59:52 – The specifics of Rob’s landmark study with baseball players and long-term development

“The constraints led approach is a bit more focused… you have a rough idea of where they want to be,