Meditate before you take that shot!

When you're shooting a basketball, which screws you up more -- neural inconsistencies before you shoot, or while you're shooting?

These Stanford neuroscientists show that some or much of it comes from before you shoot. Makes sense to me. Coordinated muscle movements are well-trained, while the neurochemical conditions (hungry, in love, angry, excited) in which you're about to shoot seem to be all-over-the-map.

An interesting related question would be -- does calling a timeout to ice the free-throw shooter work? If so, it seems that would add credence to this study.

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Why You Can't Shoot the Same Foul Shot Twice -- Repeated motions differ slightly because of the brain's planning mechanism and muscle contractions.

by Nikhil Swaminathan: "'The bottom line is the neural recordings can explain upcoming velocity variability as well as muscle recordings can,' says Afsheen Afshar, a graduate student who worked on the study. He adds that off-line activity probably accounts for half of movement variability, whereas on-line effects influence the other half."