Action planning can be interpreted as the medium-term programming process we do before descending a slope, which includes path choice, considering terrain configuration, slope inclination, and snow or traffic conditions. It is our mental organization of related actions we will use to guide our motions.
Instead, action anticipation is the immediate process previously performed in each action in particular (turning, braking, jumping, etc.). It is programming in achieving an immediate goal, considered as an action project, corresponding to our goal’s mental representation (the effect of the action) and the means (movements) used to succeed. While action planning is directed towards cognitive aspects, in action anticipating, besides cognition, we take advantage of sensory information.
Definitions and interpretations of Anticipation
We defineskiing anticipation as the mental process based on perception and visualization consisting of predicting future situations. Through this process, we set appropriate actions as also adjust and correct them before alterations in motion conditions occur. This procedure influences the behavior and performance of the racer as well as the common skier.
To anticipate is to‘scan’ the situation quicker than real-time motion, where we must simulate the events faster than the effective time of execution, acting sooner and gaining time to the environment in achieving the desired results. We should foresee the stimuli before they appear, then action processing time starts in advance. Anticipating actions implementation is specifying environmental relevant properties, as well as identifying useful information like ‘when’ and ‘where’ (Fajen et al., 2008).
Prediction as part of anticipating
An important skiing function is our development capacity to predict environmental conditions. We apply our intuition about what we are going to sense in advance towards what is coming, anticipating the perception of sensory information based on our previous experiences.
Anticipating includes predicting that something is going to happen, what other skiers are going to do, or the slope section we are going to ski. Predicting facilitates interpreting sensations to come, allowing recognizing objects and situations with greater speed and precision.
Some theories argue that the primary function of the neocortex is based on the prediction of future states of the environment (Hawkins, 2004; Friston, 2005; Bar, 2009). These theories propose that one of the most important goals of our brain is to deduct the causes of sensory information, reducing surprises to allow successful predictions to interact with the world (den Ouden et al. 2012).
The environment changes constantly so we utilize predictions based on our earlier experiences and current expectations but on occasions, these differ from reality. The capacity to predict what is going to occur is a fundamental function since, when skiing, we are permanently anticipating what we are looking at, hearing, or sensing.
Anticipating is about to something we know that will happen, whether predicting is something we imagine may happen related to our intuition of a potential situation in order to prepare for it. The predictive activity is based on our experience and memory. The skill to project us into the future imagining possible situations is a very useful tool that works in line with anticipation, with the association of experiences stored in our memory, and with a proactive look.
The application and execution of Anticipation
Each action we execute when skiing should be prepared by anticipating it and this is an aspect directly derived from our selective attention level. An indispensable prerequisite for applying anticipation is to know the structure of possible movements so we can immediately identify them according to our intentions.
The source of anticipating is learning: we learn to anticipate. The instructor or coach can guide us on which elements we should take into account during this process but cannot teach to anticipate since this is learned by practicing it.
To anticipate, our brain would need to elaborate two opposite schemas: the past-present schema (past actions brought to present), and the future schema (planned actions). Actions’ anticipation is based on the planning of the motor act that does not exist yet and on what our next actions should be. It is to foresee and to get ahead of the future situation. It implies performing an action before the moment in which we consider its necessity. It is assessing past experiences applying them to the up-front situation by acting proactively.
When skiing, we should give importance to anticipate our actions’ consequences since it will serve us both for the initiation and the execution as for their control. Anticipation activates when beginning to predict and reflect on actions consequences and when distinguishing whether they will be favorable or unfavorable to us or to others.
Not only we must plan our own actions; we should also predict the actions of other people moving on the slope. To be efficient, we must center in the anticipation phase prior to all action because it will allow us to solve inconvenient situations, even if the available information before and/or during the action is partial.
Actions efficacy depends on prior evaluation. The difference between beginners and expert skiers is reflected in distinct information variables that each one depends on to anticipate their own actions. According to Brooks (1991), experts tend not to plan but to use skills and rules of action based on the ability to distinguish perceptual indicators.
Sometimes, during anticipation, we retain an action execution by excessive pondering so the processing and responding time exceeds the time of, for example, the arrival of the next gate in slalom or the next bump on a mogul field. On the other hand, there is an ‘extra time’ available when we apply effective anticipation in, e.g., the effective anticipation of a turn, deciding where to turn, judging speed and skis direction, as well as adopting the appropriate centripetal posture.
We are talking about that anticipating is the precondition to action triggering that not only covers visual anticipation, reflection, and environment perception; it also includes our emotional situation at that particular moment. Is this affective state which induces the execution of actions almost in advance to consciousness and, many times, above it.
