The development of sport-specific planning, rehearsal, and updating of plans during defensive youth baseball game performance.

The development of planning, rehearsal, and updating of defensive baseball plans was investigated in this study. Thirty-two male shortstops (seven 8-year-olds, eight 10-year-olds, nine 12-year-olds, and eight high school youths) were trained to perform a concurrent talk-aloud procedure before a pitch was thrown to the opposing batter. Participants completed a 40-item baseball knowledge test. Players' ages were highly correlated with their baseball knowledge (omega 2 = .88). Any subsequent age differences reflect differences in players' knowledge. Shortstops ages 12 years or younger frequently did not produce: (a) advanced defensive plans, (b) active rehearsal of plans, or (c) updating of defensive plans. When the young players did produce these strategies, the quality was generally poor; High school shortstops produced all these sport-specific strategies with advanced quality. The younger players' production and quality deficits in sport-specific strategy use may be related to their lack of a highly developed knowledge representation and the types of practice and game experiences they have had playing baseball.