Motorsport Demands and Effective Practices Part 2: The Effective Practices
Red race car on a track.
In the last blog post we explored the unique physical, physiological, psychological, and competitive demands for motor sport athletes. The focus now shifts to determining what activities would help develop some of the unique sports demands for motorsport athletes.
Effective Practice Activities
Deliberate practice (DP) are specific activities focused on giving immediate and accurate feedback and executed explicitly with the aim of performance improvement (Lappi, 2018). DP are the ones that would be considered effective in helping develop skills. In the previous post, there was a discussion about the psychophysiological states based on performance level and attentional demands from research by Filho et al. (2015). Their research argues that sports consultants need to think about idiosyncratic and multimodal plans related to action-centered and attention-focused strategies (Filho et al., 2015). This means athletes need to specifically practice focusing attention on the best driving line on the track, which can be specific to a car or driving style, or refining their skills around brake, throttle and steering modulation, oftentimes in combination. Another option for athletes is to engage in bio-neurofeedback practices to encourage psychophysiological state regulation (Filho et al., 2015). Other practices that athletes can engage in arise from the understanding that expert drivers have extensive knowledge and are guided by top-down information processing (Lappi, 2018). Thus, Lappi (2018) suggests that athletes must practice, engage, and understand different techniques, such as cornering techniques, and accumulate time to become familiar with a track.
Motorsports are unique because there is the material factor, the car. The car is thus a factor that an athlete can engage in DP with, as discussed above. However, there are aspects of the material factor the athlete cannot utilize DP to help address physical, physiological, psychological, and competitive demands. Considering this perspective and understanding is essential because it factors into how an athlete can engage in DP and what type of support an athlete needs for a consultant, coach, and support team, which consists of mechanics, for example. To explore this topic further, the first example arises from the discussion earlier about Carlon et al. (2014) research on thermoregulatory and physiological stress. The researchers' recommendation is to consider heat mitigation practices (Carlon et al., 2014). This recommendation is directly targeted towards the car and the technology employed to help the athlete. The car, its capabilities, and the impact on athlete performance are also directly connected with the resources of the driver and team to afford an adequate car. The following example arises from the research of Ebben and Suchomel (2012) about the fear of head and neck injuries and the fear of fire. For head and neck injuries, an athlete can utilize the fact that Ebben and Suchomel (2012) highlight how athletes can incorporate strength training into their routine, which is not necessarily DP, but is vital to developing as a driver. Additionally, no DP or physical practice can address the fear of fire. That is the assumed risk of driving a car, which is not above the laws of physics, and no modification can take the risk away. Every precaution can be taken, like wearing a fire retardant suit and installing a fire suppression system in the car, but the risk remains. At this point, using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy may be an option to help address the fear, but that is not a DP. While this blog post is meant to address practices an athlete can take to improve, not all demands can be helped with DP or physical practices. Other practices must be considered in combination in order to understand the best of DP because we are not just minds or bodies, we are both!
take action today moment:
While you absolutely can research effective practices and probably know some yourself, it can be helpful to find a mentor, coach, and/or sport and performance coach to help you discover the most effective practices for your sport. The important thing to remember is to make sure to be holistic in practice and remember that effective practices may not just be about building your physical skills. Remember that you have thoughts, feelings, and emotions as a human being that must be considered as well.
References
Carlson, L. A., Ferguson, D. P., & Kenefick, R. W. (2014). Physiological strain of stock car drivers during competitive racing. Journal of Thermal Biology, 44, 20-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.06.001
Ebben, W. P., & Suchomel, T. J. (2012). Physical demands, injuries, and conditioning practices of stock car drivers. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 26(5), 1188-1198.
Filho, E., Di Fronso, S., Mazzoni, C., Robazza, C., Bortoli, L., & Bertollo, M. (2015). My heart is racing! Psychophysiological dynamics of skilled racecar drivers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 33(9), 945-959.
Lappi, O. (2018). The racer's mind—How core perceptual-cognitive expertise is reflected in deliberate practice procedures in professional motorsport. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1294. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01294
McKnight, P. J., Bennett, L. A., Malvern, J. J., & Ferguson, D. P. (2019). VO2peak, body composition, and neck strength of elite motor racing drivers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 51(12), 2563-2569. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001961
Reid, M. B., & Lightfoot, J. T. (2019). The physiology of auto racing: A brief review. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 51(12), 2548-2562. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002070
van Kesteren, E. J., & Bergkamp, T. (2023). Bayesian analysis of Formula One race results: Disentangling driver skill and constructor advantage. Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. https://doi.org/10.1515/jqas-2022-0021