Reinvestment Theory
Let’s start with a quick image. Imagine an athlete who is getting ready to kick a ball towards a goal net, and they forget how to kick or lose faith in themself that they know how to kick the ball despite knowing how. A simple way to put this is someone who may be experiencing chocking. In the moment they decide, in their head, to go through the step by step process to kick the ball, and they miss the ball all together. This is where understanding Reinvestment Theory comes into play.
Reinvestment Theory (Masters, 1992; Masters et al., 1993; Masters, 2000) suggests that relatively automated motor processes may be disruptable if this processing is running by means of conscious access and task-relevant declarative knowledge is what is controlling the mechanics of the movements on-line. Understanding Reinvestment Theory may help athletes avoid reinvestment issues within the context of still tailoring based on the individual characteristics as well as other characteristics, such as developmental stage, learning style, or awareness of internal and external awareness.
Beginning with children, one method might draw on implicit learning as skills learned implicitly appear to have some resistance to choking (Masters, 1992). So a coach may decide to work with athletes “by feel.” Since the skill would be learned without explicit steps, the opportunity for the athlete to self-focus is not as high. The downside is that implicit learning does happen more slowly (Masters, 2000).
Analogy learning, which we learned about in a previous blog post, could potentially be deployed for many developmental levels but not for athletes who already have skills mastered through explicit learning. This would utilize biomechanical metaphors to teach more complex actions (Lola & Tzetzis, 2020). From my own perspective, this would probably be better for someone who has that ability to or favors visualizing. Furthermore, when using analogy there is also a culturally responsive element that needs to be taken into account. An analogy would need to be one that does not trigger trauma and one that understands someone’s experiences.
Switching from a potential practice of slowing down to think about it the movement to the idea of “just do it” is another option. Teaching an athlete to not take the extra time to prepare for the big moment or movement so that there is no time to overthink or overanalyze what the body does automatically. This would be challenging for people who tend to want to analyze everything but not impossible.
Focus on the outcome instead of the “how to”. This asks the athlete to see the ball flying over the fence so the players can’t catch the ball, hear the swoosh of the net, or feel the landing of an axel on the ice. In essence, the athlete is asked to think about what they want done rather than how they are going to do it.
One more example is the classic of teaching mindfulness and staying in the present moment. How this is explained and implemented is dependent on developmental age level and mind and body awareness.
Reinvestment Theory ultimately argues that the decision to use conscious thought to control movements on-line is indeed a function of individual personality differences, specific contexts, and a range of contingent events whether they are psychological, physiological, environmental, or mechanical (Masters, 1992; Masters et al., 1993; Masters, 2000). All of these must be taken into account when working with athletes in addition to culture as cross-cultural differences do have an impact (Iwatsuki et al., 2018).
Soccer player in the goal net with another player kicking the ball towards the net.
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References
Iwatsuki, T., Van Raalte, J. L., Brewer, B. W., Petitpas, A., & Takahashi, M. (2018). Relations among reinvestment, self-regulation, and perception of choking under pressure. Journal of Human Kinetics, 65, 281-290.
Lola, A. C., & Tzetzis, G. (2020). Analogy versus explicit and implicit learning of a volleyball skill for novices: The effect on motor performance and self-efficacy. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 20(5), 2478-2486.
Masters, R. S. W. (1992). Knowledge, knerves and know-how: The role of explicit versus implicit knowledge in the breakdown of a complex motor skill under pressure. British Journal of Psychology, 83, 343-358.
Masters, R. S. W. (2000). Theoretical aspects of implicit learning in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 31, 530-541.
Masters, R. S. W., Polman, R. C. J., & Hammond, N. V. (1993). Reinvestment: A dimension of personality implicated in skill breakdown under pressure. Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 655-666.