The Art of Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) in Sports 🔑

The Art of Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) in Sports 🔑

SOA is the separation between the onsets of two stimuli. This is the skill that is used to create separation from a defender in fast moving games like football, basketball, hockey, etc. ⬇️⬇️

Processing speed of information suffers when there are 2 closely spaced stimuli that require a reaction. This is why it’s so valuable for an offensive player to “fake out” the defender by initiating one action and then quickly perform another action to completion

For example, in football, a wideout can stick outside to get an inside release or vice versa. In basketball, the player with the ball can jab right to drive left. The goal in these movements is to try to shift the defenders momentum in order to create that separation. If the offense can get the defender to respond to the first movement, there is a refractory period that will make it much more difficult for the defender to respond to the second stimulus. It’s necessary to sell the fake and give the defender enough time to respond to the first stimulus before the second action or the stimuli will be grouped together and the fake wont work. However, the 2nd action cannot be too far after the 1st or the refractory period dissipates. Finding this “sweet spot” of when to couple the initial movement with the actual intended movement is a skill in itself & needs to be PRACTICED

The art of the SOA has to be practiced in sport and in drills related to the specific skill in the sport. For kids to be elite at this skill, they should understand this concept at a young age & consciously work on performing these actions with the optimal temporal sequencing that will set them apart when they continue to get older and play at higher levels