“Too robotic and you risk rigidity, predictability. Too free-flowing and your skill may suffer because you’ve never intentionally trained.” is such an incredibly beautiful sentiment on the balance of two ideal spectrums
This video came out 8min ago. While it’s a regular Thursday afternoon. I deadass just walked out of work and told my boss I had a call to take.. and meanwhile I’m just watching another Michael mackelvie video
Sat down and watched this with my wife, an optometrist currently doing research in eye tracking. Had nothing but glowing praise for you and your teams thorough research and presentation. Keep up the fantastic work!
@@michaelmackelvie shout out for the amount of non digital props on this video, it must have taken a long time to arrange them, the visuals are outstanding subbed for sure!
I can't speak on the pysiology of "quiet eye" in an athlete, but as a tennis coach I can tell you that the surest signs that a player was rattled would be when I would call them over on a changeover and their eyes would be darting around all over the place. Sometimes it could be caused by being physically over matched or sometimes it could be caused by still being fixated on a prior mental mistake, but I just thought it would be worth saying that anecdotally I have seen this in real life without even knowing what to call it.
That makes sense. Feels to me like the main mechanic here is attention. The eyes show where the attention is, and being more deliberate with vision causes the same change in attention (because they're paying ATTENTION to where they're looking). I think some great athletes are solid at controlling attention, and others have a mind that naturally races/changes with the pace and flow of their given sport. I think it does so much more heavy lifting than people appreciate.
yea i find in tennis we have to teach this a lot. we say to the kids "keep the glass of milk on top of your head" so they dont whip their heads to look at where the ball goes
In football ⚽️ coaches say it’s better to keep your eye off the ball to scan the pitch, players like messi keep their eye off the ball and scan the pitch in crosses and look for passes
This is something you get taught very early in motor racing, they call it target fixation and is ironically a big reason in why people tend to crash into hazards they pay too much attention to. But its also used to teach basic cornering, to look far ahead and focus your eyes on the apex of a turn, it completely and perceptively alters your sense of speed and time and improves your consistency and ability to correct yourself immensely, it feels like you are moving slower. The same principle is also used in drifting, you fixate on where you want the car to go, not where its going
Spot on describing target fixation and its effects on time, speed, and balance perception. Although I am not sure this is quite the same as the ‘quiet eye’ referenced in this video. Could be wrong though! Dr. Emily Balcetis’ lab has some great research on narrow and panoramic vision and how it has direct impact on your inner ear/blood flow and synapses. Might be worth a read for someone with your understanding. I rode street bikes among other things growing up and her research definitely clicked with me.
this is so sick. in mountain biking, they teach you a very similar thing early on. steadily looking at where you want to go will get you steadily there. this "steadiness" is just the efficient path, making you quicker, and your journey safer.
Hey Michael. First of all, this video was absolutely awesome. Incredibly insightful. I am a professional tennis player (around 300 in the world) and I always thought my eyes were a big reason of why I’ve excelled at tennis. Recognizing clues quickly in order to anticipate. I also always had a theory that elite players have even better eyes and this video hit the nail in the head. Federer really exaggerated for how long he watched the ball after his strokes for example. I think the better the eyes, the slower the game becomes so you are able to make higher quality decisions for longer. In tennis “keeping the eye on the ball” is such a common instruction but it is absolutely key. During matches, when things are tense I always go back to that: keep the eye on the ball for a little longer and it always helps. I plan on reaching out to some of the doctors you showed in the video for training once this season is over. Any edge I can get is invaluable. Really appreciate your work, you earned a subscriber. This is what RU-vid is about. Keep it up
The most proficient athletes are adept at interpreting a set of cues that let them predict future events. According to a Wired article, what set professional tennis players apart from the rest was their capacity to recognise direction from a swing's early phases and, as a result, anticipate where to hit the ball a fraction of a second sooner. This implies that an expert has twice as much time to move, place his feet, and swing as someone who must wait for contact.
I was a high level tennis player in high school and I realize after picking it up again recently that that sort of anticipation is there naturally still. I’m already moving before the ball is hit a lot of the time and I’m almost always correct about where it’s going. Plus being able to estimate how it’ll move with spin. I’ve given lessons to some kids and it’s interesting to see how beginners just can’t even predict how a ball will bounce normally, much less with spin on it. Because of the 100s of thousands of times I’ve seen a ball hit and been on the returning end of it, it’s not even a conscious thought now. And the pros are going to be incomparably better at that than me
>The most proficient athletes are adept at interpreting a set of cues that let them predict future events I'm not a pro gamer but the period of time where I had the most rapid improvement in Splatoon was when I would rewatch clips of my mistakes and look for cues I could have used to better inform myself so that next time I would arrive at the correct decision. Some of these cues were as simple as the information provided by the in-game UI.
@@Benjatastic Yes this is very true! I went from a 700 elo chess player to an 1100 elo player just from looking back over my games and memorizing different ways to counter certain attacks i would previously fall victim to.
Im currently doing my PhD themed exactly around this topic, eye tracking combined with brain activity scaling from closed activities to open activities (3pt shooting on the move) and hopefully decision making (reading stimuli and performing appropriate actions). The first year has been... uninspiring (natural disaster hit the area and the lab) but hopefully progress will be made towards explaining quiet-eye and possibly enhancing it (or it's effects). This video was a much needed kick in the butt to get back at it! Amazing and well informed content as always!
If you can switch to video games, it might make it a lot easier. In some games, the same thing is going on with the eyes, brain, and movement, but for testing purposes, there are less variables on top of outcomes that can be measured easier.
So I have a question for you you will answer easily and the video doesn't adress. How about the foveal zone increase? If I'm not mistaken, we do not all have the same foveal zone (I'm interested in the subject for the opposite matter, not training elite, but to understand how to train or find a way around for bad/slow readers), and there is a similar process in all activities when analyzing the efficiency , and I've wondered if a given lesser/wider foveal zone would result in disturbing the use of the quiet eye? There are so much factors in this (like mental image recognition of what a target look like, and so on) that I've been wondering...
There’s a British expression, used mainly in sports “get your eye in”. It means to get accustomed to the conditions and thus able to produce a consistent performance - e.g. “It takes a few shots to get your eye in” - this research has given me a whole new understanding and appreciation for how accurate this expression is!
I’ve heard American shooters, trackers, ranchers, and roofers (among others) use the same expression. Henry V had his eye in when he chose his ground for the stand at Agincourt.
What I love the most about this channel is, that the content is something I never thought about, but yet after watching it, I research on it myself cause I find it interesting. Basically stuff I didn't even know myself I'm interested in.
Actually as a tennis player, this is solid information. As I’d assume the same thing that happens with the quiet eye duration in golf and basketball also is important when it comes to tennis
Honestly I started seeing similarities between tennis (which I play on and off casually) and Smash Brothers. The BIGGEST difference between casual players and competent players in Smash Bros is the ability to manipulate your character while tracking your opponent. New/Casual players are clearly locked in on *their* character, making them lose sight (literally) of what their opponent is doing. When I’m keeping up in a game of tennis, similarly, I find my ability to track the ball to be the key factor in my performance. I remember one time I was having a great volley until I swung and the ball just seemingly vanished. My friend and I were so locked in on the motion of the ball that we failed to realize it got stuck in my racket!
@@WMDistraction Funny, I realized the same playing the UFC videogames, it was very hard for me to defend leg kicks or to use head movement effectively until I realized that I was just focusing on my movement, when I started to focus on my opponent it was easier to see shots coming. This quiet eye thing also applies to real fighting. Very interesting.
Holy crap this is the first video I've watched of yours and this is no joke this is the highest quality video I've seen on my years of being on this platform. PLEASE keep this up.
Elite athletes have a visual advantage. I remember early on, we were analyzing a basketball play, and the level of detail, even about the rotation of the ball was much higher in the better players. But the "what makes them better" question has two answers: 1) Minimized deltas - the better athletes have far less variance in their executions. Some naturally and some through training. 2) Applied intelligence - the ability to perceive, analyze, and decide in the most effective way. The better players can consume the entire environment, quickly identify pros and cons, prioritize, and decide. As you reference JJ, his podcast often attempts to expose some of item 2 above, highlighting the symphony being managed in the athletes head.
Michael MacKelvie is my freakin' HBO dude. These videos are GOLD, every single time. Michael- It's like you decided to make content specifically FOR graduate assistant coaches and pseudo-intellectuals🤣 You're the man.
My guess: Being more deliberate with your vision causes your attention to become more locked in. Attention does so much heavy lifting in sports. Practice as well as games. Players like Bron or Jokic know how to shift their attention to the correct thing every play. You never catch them unfocused and looking lost. Anyway this is another amazing video. Thanks for pursuing this RU-vid thing, you're great at it.
The commitment that this channel has to highlighting accurate, evidence-based insight on sports is palpable and highly appreciated. Michael, please continue the great work!!!!
As a baseball player I can confirm that we indeed do not read spin, we look for what the ball does out of the hand, if it goes up or in or straight, then we try to see how it moves.
I think the “quiet eye” is a tool used for training. By tracking the “object” for so long, you can be able to recognize the patterns, so long as your inputs are the same and consistent. With that, the “quiet eye” gives you access to to more information about the reality of these small slivers of time.
Born and raised Alaskan here. Love to hear the home state mentioned. I would love to see this expanded in to the art of recognizing 'tells.' I feel it is such a common yes underrated aspect of sport. It's truly amazing when you get a pro athlete to talk about it. They all "see" it but until you ask they don't expand how far the understanding goes. I had the chance to talk with Chris Algieri about it. Talk about a master class. Truly amazing
At the very top, there's crap tons of mental analysis going on. Scalibrini, a journeyman NBA player talks about how high level amateurs have good moves, but they're fairly predictable and telegraph everything. At most, their moves might work on him once, and then he's got them beat.
@@IlIlllIllIlIIIll Exactly. What got me about that interview with JJ; was how he was just nodding when he mentioned noticing how they hold the ball when they dribble. Which was telling him which direction they planned to go. Like it was just common knowledge. And once you consider it it makes sense, and every sport has it.
That phenomena takes place a lot with American football. Where all 22 players line up before hand and go at once, certain foot positions directions or even hand placement can let a player know what’s coming and it’s always very very minuscule stuff. There was this series on RU-vid where this guy would interview the players and ask them what they were thinking what went down in that play and a lot of times these guys know something is coming pre snap
@@crepinhauser5274 I would love to see the articles, documentation of this 'common knowledge' since we only have documentation of the term in poker from the 90s... I am open to being wrong, I just would like some evidence of how commonly it's discussed.
As a guy who only reached varsity level in high school as a basketball player and still plays in afult leagues andnpick up games, i have to admit I've personally experienced that the more focused i was on the ball/hoop/ my matchup vs my eyes wandering the sidelines, looking at peoplr in the crowd if it was a high school game. if it was at a park, cars passing by , barking dogs, etc then back to the game. In games I played bad i was barely focused on the hoop or in game action and more so worried with the pressure and responding to crowd/heckler comments. In games i played exceptional, i was locked in, nothing could get my attention outside of the ball , my teammates and the hoop. I barely heard chatter on the sidelines, barely took in the surrounding environments. Those games are blurs with only the best plays sticking out versus bad games where every detail of a crowd member laughing at a turn over or bad missed shot led to more mistakes and ultimately me not even attempting to shoot and becoming a brain dead zombie on defense.
As a person who plays multiple sports and video games this now makes so much sense. The times i felt best doing those activities, is when i was hard focused and felt like everything was on point, specifically my vision. Its like i can remember those moments perfectly staring at the ball going up for a layup. Or tracking someone in a video game perfectly.
It's truly remarkable that you had only 155k subscribers when I discovered your channel. After finishing one of Veritasium video, I was searching for more insightful content and happened to come across one of yours. I’m so glad I clicked on it. With the level of quality and depth you bring to your content, it’s only a matter of time before your channel skyrockets.🙌
Chef’s kiss! I’m just relishing in the moment before this channel explodes. 10 years from now, the 135k strong will look back and know he’s been on his A game from the start.
The quiet eye is one of the most compelling pieces of art I have ever seen. It's insane how much it resonates with audiences whenever I watch sports, especially when up close.
I'm not an elite athlete, but I was a stand out in high school sports, I competed in college, and I have a great ability to pick up any sport with ease and beat most people in a short period of time. The quiet eye theory makes a lot of sense. I would add - from my experience and first-hand accounts by other athletes - when I'm playing a sport, the world quite literally goes silent and slows way down. I can see the pocks in a golf ball as it rolls, the degree of spin in a basketball as it is passed, or the trajectory of a football in slow motion... or so it feels... I think this helps vision because the mind is somehow stretching out the timeline of action, allowing me to process a ton of information in a small window of time... at least it feels that way.
Love that you go the extra mile and do original interviews and research. Most video essayists just read up on a topic and repackage it. But you’ve crossed the line into genuine journalism. Love to see it.
Thank you for consistently putting out some of the most interesting, well-presented and exhaustively researched sports programming on RU-vid. This is really an excellent channel.
2:43 while Messi was never the most physically gifted player, he was rapid during his late teens and early 20s (and his acceleration was still good until his mid 30s). But his gravity/balance is a big physical advantage. It's what allows his dribbling to be so great. Yes, he's not Bale in speed, Lukaku in strength or Cristiano in overall athleticism, but we can't underestimate his balance as a physical advantage.
Completely agree, even now he uses this. He doesn’t run much in games now and saves those spurts of amazement because he cannot move like he used to all the time. You see this with players like Lebron James, he will make plays that are spectacular, but he has tricks to maintain energy. His size makes it possible for him to slow the game down and still dictate pace. Also, their iqs are so amazing because they have seen so much. The eyes can retain so much! We are truly special beings!
From a non-athletic perspective, I’ve discovered that whatever I focus on enlarges. I’m thinking of life problems or successes. When I redirect my attention to what good thing could occur…the likelihood of success increased.
I don't usually comment, but your attention to detail and care for your videos are outstanding. Top tier content Michael. It's like I'm watching a lite-documentary off of Netflix. My only suggestion is that E-Sport should be on your radar as well. Many forget, but first person shooting games also require tremendous hand eye coordination.
This channel and video is amazing. I don't remember the last time I discovered something new and immediately enjoyed it this much. Keep it up Mr. MacKelvie!
Great video! I've been playing basketball for 15 years now, I would say I'm a pretty good shooter. Sometimes in game when I shot a three, I immediately know it's going in, even before I begin my shooting motion. And the craziest thing is I really go into tunnel vision, almost blurring out everything except the back of the rim. I didn't really recognize this feeling, until I saw this video and it made so much sense. It's not only the motion and muscle memory that matters, it's the 'stillness in your vision'. I just wanted to share that revelation, because I always wondered about this feeling of knowing the ball is going in, before even shooting it.
I said it a year ago on your channel, enjoy your last days of anonymity. Your videos are honestly the best sports related videos I’ve seen on the internet. I know that’s a lot of “glazing” but man it’s true. Would love to see/hear about how you go about making these videos. Keep crushin
I absolutely love your videos, and as someone who plays a video game at a high level professionally, i think a lot of what you said towards the end about concentration and the overarching system of your brain and eyes translates incredibly well. Keep up the great work!
My onsight climbing game in alpine and bigwall territory increased so dramatically after I heard a Lynn Hill quote about how she takes time before every hard pitch to relax her face, open her eyes, and sort of let her periphery soak in the climb as she moved rather than simply stare at what she perceives to be the next hold
Your videos are what all sports channels on youtube should strive to create. It’s rare to see someone whose passion and talent overlap in such a perfect way.
I am so impressed again with your videos! So eloquently spoken and explained. I binged watched all of your content when I found you a few weeks ago. More content please! ☺️
1:28 this is such an ambitious and ballsy shot -- 3 subjects to focus on all at different depths very close to each other. Does your camera have that multiple focus feature (that I think GH5 - GH7 have), or did you manually focus this???
As someone who grew up playing sports competitively and now moved that competitive nature to gaming, i feel like this all still applies. This was a good video
For me this is the ultimate example of a guy who could talk about literally anything and I would enjoy it , amazing story telling and production. Next video about drying paint I would watch it on the edge of my seat . Probs be blown away...off my seat
Great video and great ending. Such original and creative flow man. You’ve really found a niche in the way you discuss basketball and sports. I love it!
Great video loved it. I could never make content this interesting or entertaining. Only advice I have is scheduling your ad breaks at more graceful moments. The ads I experienced were mid-sentence. Subscribed!
Great video! 'Repetition without repetition' was one of the foundations of my master’s thesis and later played a key role in developing technique training in our aim training software, which focuses on mouse control. So simple, yet so effective. :D
As an ex archer, l do have an insight: Quiet Eye allows for normalizing body position against the target across the full range of motion, thus making it easier to tune all of the motions correctly.
Wow, amazing video. This very much confirms why counter-strike is such an impressive esport. I don't think enough people really appreciate how difficult it is to be successful at it. I think there's aspects of it that I could only assume to be more difficult than traditional sports.
Really good information, and good questions. Wow, did I just learn something I actually wanted to learn, arbitrarily, on youtube?! Your real video clips, and your use of props is stellar. Shaq's hair LOL. I hope your other videos are this good, I'm going to check them out. Thanks!
yes, popular channels have more views, but average channels have better videos. Didn't see your channel before, but the video is incredibly interesting, thanks for your work.
"Quiet Eye" is the time it takes to diagnose your own performance. How did it feel? How does it look? How does it perform? And then you make adjustments based on the minutia. People who spend the time to do this will inevitably surpass their peers.
Shout out to Beethoven at 0:59 Sonata in C major, op 2 no 3, 4th movement. It takes some elite eye control for a pianist to handle that as well! Fantastic video as usual.
Been wondering about this. A common thing for musician is not to look at hand or fingers - while in improvisated music you may do look at others, it'd be more of a ear control, but I don't think it's true either, you know before playing a sound what sound will come off based on your felt position, so it may rather be feeling control (not sure either because most of times you're already focusing on several notes after the one you will be playing next, like a chess player)...
@@crepinhauser5274 yeah that’s interesting, it’s all of the above. And of course there are amazing blind pianists. But I think it’s very similar to athletes, actually - Jokic has “eyes in the back of his head”… it’s some heightened sense of awareness, of which vision is just part of it (and not always needs to be the primary sense). I think it’s the same with classical pianists - in certain kinds of virtuosic passage work, the best play with a calm eye and heightened awareness and coordination in which eye movement is working in participating with the ear and connecting to the fingers.
