Plus, The Value of Indifferent Transfer
by Ellington Darden, PhD
Caitlin Clark and her basketball playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes were featured throughout the sports world during 2024 March Madness. After the National Championship game, she was the number-one draft pick by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever on April 15, 2024.
It was her training techniques with Iowa in practice, however, that really caught my attention (1). Armed with a PhD in motor learning and exercise science from Florida State University, I want to discuss my insights on her publicized reasons for success.
Then, I want to share what I consider the untold secret of her greatness – and reveal how she can become an even better basketball player.
Motor learning, the domain dealing with movement skill acquisition and its transfer, is fundamentally about efficient learning (2, 3). Caitlin Clark’s training regimen, as directed by Lindsay Alexander, Iowa’s associate strength and conditioning coach (1), is lacking in sound motor learning principles. These methodologies not only risk diminishing skill acquisition but also increase the likelihood of overtraining and injuries.
Alexander’s approach to creating a more durable athlete involves a mix of activities such as strength training, rapid repetitions during exercises, plyometric jumping, and running drills. But there are crucial aspects of motor learning and transfer that seem to be overlooked in this regimen.
Types of Transfer
Activities used as practice may help, harm, or have no effect on competitive performance. Such transfer is discussed in three ways (2, 3):
- Positive: When the activities of practice and competition are identical.
- Negative: When the activities of practice are almost the same as those in competition. Almost-the-same activities cause the neuromuscular pathways frequently to crisscross.
- Indifferent: When the activities of practice are unrelated to what happens in competition.
For the most positive transfer between the teaching session and competition, what is done in practice must be exactly, precisely, and specifically the same as that to be done in competition.
It seems obvious that rehearsal for any skill should be exactly the same as the performance itself. Yet such positive transfer of skills is often ignored by coaches who do not fully understand the confusion caused by negative transfer. To make practice almost the same as the game situation inches a mistake, a big mistake often made by coaches and athletes.
Negative transfer is akin to the frustration experienced in basketball shooting contests at carnivals. Despite the seemingly simple task, players often struggle to succeed due to the subtle differences in hoop size and height, leading to confusion in motor memories.
The key to the sideshow’s confusion and money-making success is directly related to specificity, or the habit of specific practice. The standard basketball goal is 10 feet above the floor and has a diameter of 18 inches. The height of the basket at the sideshow is usually 11 feet, and the hoop’s diameter is slightly smaller than standard. The situations are almost identical, and this is what causes the confusion.
Bull Fighting and the Brave Matador
One of the oldest tricks in the word of sport, if bull fighting can be called a sport, is directly related to specificity. The night before a bull is to be fought, his horns are shortened by approximately a quarter of an inch. The next day, and before he has become accustomed to his shorter horns, he goes into the ring to fight and die.
And there stands the brave matador, being barely missed by the enraged bull, being missed by one quarter of an inch, being missed by the amount that the bull’s horns were shortened.
The bull knows exactly where the tips of his horns are, as he must to use them effectively, and shortening his horns by as little as a quarter of an inch will cause him to miss his target entirely.
Did you ever get a grain of sand inside your sock? It feels like a boulder and changes your entire style of walking and running. When you finally remove it, it turns out to be so small that you can barely see it.
True specificity is just that exact, and hitting or missing the target or goal can easily be determined by a quarter of an inch or a grain of sand.
Arthur Jones
From “Specificity in Strength Training,”
Athletic Journal 57: 70-75, May 1977.
Value of Indifferent Transfer
Most athletes do not understand the advantage of practicing something that’s unrelated to competition. Yet such a little-understood concept offers much to the coach and athlete who are looking for an edge over their opponent.
Unrelated practice falls under the heading of indifferent transfer. Take billiards for example. Billiards has nothing to do with basketball. There’s no confusion in learning both, at the same time.
Note: I’m not suggesting that Clark add billiards to her basketball training. What I’m saying is if she did, there would not be a crisscross-confusing effect involved. Basketball and billiards are indifferent to each other.
Now apply that same concept to muscles and strength training. Muscular strength is the foundation of most movement skill – and strength plays its part in competition by indifferent transfer. The most effective exercises for achieving maximum muscular strength are unrelated to most athletic skills.
If it were possible to design a strength-building exercise in such a way that it simulated a skill, the use of such a device would harm rather than help the player. The more it resembled the skill itself the worse it would hurt the athlete.
Fast repetitions with a barbell and jumping on and off of boxes (plyometrics) are not recommended ways to increase strength. Nor should a basketball player run with ankle weights or throw heavy balls. All of these activities are potentially dangerous.
Strength training should differ from skill practice in form and method of execution. The lifting and lowering of any strength-training tool should be performed smoothly and slowly for approximately 40 to 70 seconds per exercise. Extra attention and time should be directed to the eccentric or lowering phase of each repetition. Lifting and lowering fast in the strength room is not a way to be fast on the basketball court. That concept is a huge misnomer.
It’s the indifferent transfer of strength training that furnishes the stamina and conditioning necessary for the positive transfer from practice to competition – safely, without injuries. That indifferent transfer of strength training combined with the positive transfer of practicing every movement of the game as it is to be played will lead to improved basketball playing.
A Pair of Indifferent Strength-Training Workouts for Basketball
Perform each workout once a week. The exercises and style of lifting and lowering are described in Ellington Darden’s 2024 book: Still Living Longer Stronger.
Workout A
Leg Extension on Machine
Leg Press on Machine
Calf Raise on Machine
Negative-Only Chin
Negative-Only Dip
Workout B
Leg Curl on Machine
Deadlift with Barbell
Seated Calf Raise on Machine
Biceps Curl with Barbell
Bench Press with Barbell
I believe that Caitlin Clark performing the above workouts for six weeks could add at least 6 pounds of muscle to her body. Caitlin is 6-feet tall and weighs 154 pounds. So, she could weigh 160 pounds and be a stronger, faster athlete.
Caitlin Clark’s Untold Secret
What’s Caitlin’s real secret to her basketball shooting ability? It is not her strength training, plyometric jumps, repetition performance, or running drills. Yes, those practices do contribute some to her overall performance. But most of them do so, in spite of the way they are coached.
Caitlin’s untold secret is what’s called “deliberate practice.” This concept was popularized by the late Dr. K. Anders Ericsson (4) of the University of Stockholm, who was a professor of psychology at Florida State University for 28 years. Ericsson initially studied exceptional violinists in Germany. Then, he examined other musicians, as well as champion chess and bridge players, and great swimmers and golfers. He concluded they all had mastered extreme skill acquisition through deliberate practice.
He defined deliberate practice as very specific activity, or doable skill chunks, combined with prompt, accurate feedback.
Ericsson determined that expert performance was due to 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, beginning early (4-8 years of age) and continuing through age 20. According to Ericsson, to be a champion requires deliberate practice of 2.5 to 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 10 to 15 years. “Exceptional performers are not just interested,” Ericsson said, “they are passionate.”
Deliberate practice is Caitlin Clark’s untold secret. It’s the key to her shooting ability. Caitlin started shooting a basketball when she was 4 years old and currently, she’s 22. Her lifetime practice hours are likely 20,000. That’s twice Ericsson’s vital number. Add perseverance to her enduring traits. Indeed, Clark perseveres with passion (5).
Redefining Excellence
Caitlin’s dedication to deliberate practice has undoubtedly honed her skills. But incorporating elements of indifferent transfer into her training regimen could further enhance her performance. By diversifying her strength-training workout to encompass exercises unrelated to basketball, Caitlin could fortify her capabilities and potentially elevate her game to unprecedented heights.
While Caitlin Clark’s shooting prowess is undeniably impressive, there remains untapped potential for improvement through an experienced understanding of motor learning principles. By integrating deliberate practice with elements of indifferent transfer into her training, Caitlin could transcend her current achievements and redefine excellence in basketball.
References
- Minsberg, Talya. “The Secret to Caitlin Clark’s Shooting Power,” New York Times, April 5, 2024.
- Singer, Robert N. Motor Learning and Human Performance, First Edition. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
- Magill, Richard, and David Anderson. Motor Learning and Control. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2020.
- Ericsson, Anders, and Robert Pool. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. New York: Vintage, 2017.
- Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York: Scribner, 2018.”
Ellington Darden is the author of more than 60 books on strength training, bodybuilding, and fat loss. Some of his most popular manuals are The Nautilus Bodybuilding Book (1982), The New High Intensity Training (2004), and Still Living Longer Stronger (2024).