A regular reader of the Freakonomics blog sent in a collection of stories on the cognitive-visual strategies of top athletes:
“A different sense knocks into me when the ball is in the air,” [top NBA rebounder Kevin] Love says. “I know where it will hit and where it will land. I’m playing percentages, but it’s not a guessing game. Most of the time I’m right.”[…]The more accurate representation of Love’s prowess is his rebounding rate, the percentage of rebounds he snags when on the floor. Love’s was 24.6% through Sunday, the highest since Dennis Rodman‘s 25.6% in 1996–97.
[Minnesota Twins’ Torii] Hunter kneels during batting practice, and as each ball flies overhead, he tries to visualize where it will land. “If I’m right,” Hunter says, “I’m ready.”
Giambi said he had always been able to memorize a pitcher’s movements. In an interview, he casually mentioned the way Josh Towers, a Toronto Blue Jays pitcher, threw his curveball. Then Giambi moved his hand to other angles, showing how pitchers can telegraph location.? “I get on deck and I start looking at guys’ release points,” Giambi said. “You can pick things up from the side. I can tell you without even looking at the catcher, from his release point, if that’s a ball or a strike.”
Dr. Vickers says the best goalies and tennis players she’s studied have two skills. First, they use the quiet-eye technique to take a clear snapshot of an approaching object and then, while it approaches them, will instantly compare it to a vast library of memories drawn from years of practice and observation. By matching that object with others, they can make a perfect calculation of where it will go and how to put themselves in position to make the play — even if they aren’t looking at the ball.
Gretzky’s genius at that moment lay in seeing a scoring possibility where no one had seen one before. “People talk about skating, puck-handling, and shooting,” Gretzky told an interviewer some years later, “but the whole sport is angles and caroms, forgetting the straight direction the puck is going, calculating where it will be diverted, factoring in all the interruptions.