What can you take from Sit-i into your sport?

Apply movement insights on the field or in the saddle

Reader question: “During a session with Sit-i Pro, I can recognise more clearly how I move. How do I use that insight during my own sport?”

During a session, something suddenly stands out. You feel more clearly when you start to turn or notice that a different execution takes less effort. On the screen, you see how the seat moves with you. You want to build on that discovery. But as soon as the ball comes towards you or your horse approaches the bend, the sport demands your attention again.

How do you connect those two moments? In research, the application of what you have practiced in a different task is called transfer. [1, 2] For you, that means: discovering what you can do with your experience where you want to use it. Together with your trainer or instructor, you can work on it in a focused way.

Start with a sports action you want to refine. During the Sit-i session, choose which movement option you want to explore for that purpose and give the discovery a follow-up in training. This article works out that step for a hockey player and a rider. The examples show how you choose a follow-up exercise, what you look at in it, and when you adjust the approach.

Start with a moment in your sport

“I want more control” is an understandable wish. Your trainer can do more with it when you tell them where you lack that control. Do you want to turn more easily after receiving a ball? Or do you want to prepare a bend on horseback more consciously and follow the chosen line? This gives your question an action, a moment, and a goal.

Also look at what precedes it. The hockey player must orient themselves while the ball is in motion. The rider approaches the bend at a certain pace and reacts to the movement of the horse. Those circumstances help your trainer determine what you want to look at during training.

From that sports question, you can explore a component on Sit-i. For example, you investigate how you initiate and return from a turn. Afterwards, state what you noticed: “I felt earlier that the seat started to turn” says something different than “I could change direction more easily”. The words help you choose what you want to continue with.

Then agree on a plan for the next training session. Which exercise contains the sports moment your question is about? What do you pay attention to and what does your trainer look at? One clear agreement gives you a starting point, even if the rest of the training simply continues.

What research says about application in your sport

What goes better during an exercise, you also want to see back in your sport. A systematic review with meta-analysis from 2024 bundled 22 studies on training anticipation and decision-making in team sports. On average, the improvements in the trained laboratory tasks were greater than in the match-oriented tasks with which transfer was investigated. Favorable effects were also found there, but less strong. [1]

A meta-analysis from 2025 included 27 randomised studies with 669 athletes. Visual training improved both reaction time in decisions and the investigated sport-specific performances on average. The results for those sports performances differed clearly between studies. [2] So it pays to state exactly which outcome you mean: answering faster on a test, a better execution on the field, or performing in a match.

These reviews investigate visual and perceptual-cognitive training. They do not test an effect of Sit-i. Their significance for this article lies in the distinction between progress during practice and what of that comes back in the sport. For your own session, that yields a useful follow-up question: in which sports action do you want to try out the discovery now?

From a turning movement to a follow-up pass

Suppose that on Sit-i you have started to feel more clearly when you initiate a turn. On the hockey field, you want to be able to turn through and pass after receiving the ball. Your trainer chooses an exercise with a consistent ball delivery and an agreed direction of play. Because of that, you both know which moment you are looking at.

After a short series, the trainer goes through the follow-up pass with you. Could you play the ball to the intended place? How did the transition between receiving and turning go? You tell if you recognized something from the session. The trainer describes what happened with the ball and your follow-up action. Looking back at a few attempts on video can help with that, if you agree on that beforehand.

Then the exercise gets a choice. The position of a teammate determines where you play the ball to. You now have to observe and act during the attempt. The trainer can assess whether that extra question fits your level and the goal of the exercise.

It can happen that you still recognise the turn well, but the pass comes too late. Then the combination with playing through deserves attention. Or ball control demands so much from you that your earlier experience barely comes back. A slower ball delivery or a different task can then be a useful intermediate step.

The outcome guides the follow-up. You contribute your experience of movement; the trainer connects that to the demands of the game. This way, the discovery from the session gets a function in an action you want to perform as a hockey player.

Further practice in the saddle

In horse riding, you take the experience with you to a moving partner. Your instructor looks at you as a combination and can choose a riding task in which you can clearly examine your question. Suppose you want to refine the preparation of a bend. You choose a familiar line, a suitable gait, and a point at which you start preparing.

After several executions, you discuss what you noticed. Did you recognise that starting point? What happened between the preparation and completing the line? Your instructor can indicate which part requires attention. This way, the lesson becomes more than an attempt to find the same feeling as on Sit-i.

The riding task calls for its own way of moving. You tune in to the movement of your horse, the pace, and the line. Therefore, exactly imitating a turn from the practice session is not a goal in itself. Your earlier experience can be a reason to better investigate a moment; while riding, what can be done with it becomes clear.

When you can ride the chosen line comfortably, the instructor can add a next demand. For example, another bend or a change of pace. Record what you want to look at with that. This way, you can distinguish whether an experience also remains usable under those circumstances or if another part of riding first requires attention.

Pro records movement of the seat during the Sit-i session. Statements about the reaction of the horse or the execution of a riding task require observation or appropriate measurements while riding. How do rider and horse move together? deepens that cooperation from rider biomechanics. Here it is about the step that you make with your instructor from a discovery to a riding task.

Choose variation to match the next challenge

You can change an exercise in many ways: the ball delivery, the pace, the available space, or the moment at which you have to choose a direction. First ask which demand you want to add. More speed asks something different than a choice that is only known late.

A review from 2024 investigated the order in which motor tasks were practiced. On average, there was an advantage of alternating practice for transfer, but in practical situations, that effect was small and not convincing. [3] Why do we never move exactly the same way? deepens what variation between executions can mean. For this hockey player or rider, you choose variation from the demand that the sports action now places, not because more variation in itself would be better.

For the training, you can therefore keep a familiar task as long as it offers a meaningful challenge. If the execution becomes more stable, then you choose a change that connects to what you encounter in the game or while riding. Together you choose which change fits the training at that moment.

Use that comparison to see what the added demand changes in the action as a whole. A larger turn helps the hockey player little if the ball is not played on time. For the rider, it counts how the preparation fits the course of the bend. The sports action determines which adjustment has value.

Give feeling and looking their own place

An experience and an observation can provide different information. You think that the movement went easier, while the trainer sees the same hesitation in the follow-up action. That difference deserves attention. Ask at which attempt it happened and which part you both mean.

A conversation becomes more precise when you link it to such a moment. “During the third ball I could immediately turn through” is easier to look back on than “I felt more fluid”. With the rider, it can be about the preparation at a certain letter or the first part of an agreed line. This way, your words get a visible anchor point.

The question you are asked can be simple too. What did you notice before the action, during the execution, or only after? Choose the moment that is relevant for your goal. You can pause to consider a detail after the attempt and during the next execution again give attention to the ball, the line, or the task of your instructor.

Agree at the end what you want to keep. That can be a hint that worked well, an exercise that still requires practice time, or a question that has become sharper. With that, you build further on what the training yielded.

Revisit the action in a later training session

Set aside a little time in the next training session to revisit the agreed action. Start with the execution as you have chosen it earlier. Then discuss what you recognized and whether the previous hint was still usable. This way, you look further than one successful attempt.

Note with a comparison also the circumstances. An opponent in the hockey exercise changes the task. A different gait or a different horse does that as well. If the execution goes differently, you want to know what was asked during that attempt.

A short note is enough: the exercise, what your trainer saw, what you noticed, and the agreement for the follow-up. You can take that information with you to a next Sit-i session. Then you start with a question from your sport, for example how you can change direction more easily or how you can better distinguish the initiating and returning from each other.

If the application remains difficult, then look where the step became too large. Was the experience on Sit-i clear enough? Did the sports exercise contain the moment you wanted to look at? Or did the combination with ball control or riding first ask for a different approach? Those questions help you adjust the route without always starting a whole new program.

Deepen the connection with Pro and Flow Analyst

Sit-i Pro makes direction and angle change of the seat visible during practice. You can place an attempt next to your own experience and the observation of your trainer. Because of that, you can state what you want to take with you to the training, while keeping the seat recording distinct from the sporting performance.

Flow Analyst within the Sit-i Academy helps professionals systematically observe and distinguish perception from interpretation. Coaches, trainers, instructors, and healthcare professionals with Sit-i Pro work on practical tasks from their own work environment. The training therefore connects to carefully formulating and following up a question from sport.

The professional knowledge of your trainer gives direction to the exercise on the field or in the riding arena. Pro provides information about the Sit-i session; during the sport you assess what you can use. How does feedback help you move better? deepens the role of feedback and continued learning. Here the connection between that practice session and the chosen sports action remains central.

Take your discovery with you to the next training

Before your next session, think of a moment at which you want to refine something in your sport. Take that question with you and then reserve with your trainer or instructor the opportunity to try out the discovery. A follow-up pass, a preparation, or a line gives you something to look back on.

See. Feel. Refine. Improve. You see what happens during practice, feel which possibilities you discover, and refine the use of it together with your trainer. Whether it improves your sports action, you assess during that activity. This way, an insight on Sit-i gets a follow-up in what you like to do.

Explore further

View Sit-i for sports and training

View Sit-i Pro technology

Academy · Flow Analyst — view the learning pathway

Sit-i Insights — Explore related topics

Article 7, “How do rider and horse move together?”, deepens rider biomechanics. Article 8, “How does feedback help you move better?”, is about motor learning and biofeedback in sports. Article 10, “What does a movement measurement actually tell you?”, explores how to interpret measurement information.

View Athlete · Pro

Scientific sources

The numbered scientific statements refer to the systematic reviews with meta-analyses below. Sources 1 and 2 investigate perceptual-cognitive and visual sports training; source 3 investigates transfer after different practice orders. The examples with Sit-i, hockey, and horse riding are didactic examples, not tested transfer protocols.

[1] Zhu, R., Zheng, M., Liu, S., Guo, J., & Cao, C. (2024). Effects of Perceptual-Cognitive Training on Anticipation and Decision-Making Skills in Team Sports: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Behavioral Sciences, 14(10), 919.

https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14100919

[2] Guo, Y., Chen, C., Peng, J., Deng, L., & Yuan, T. (2025). Does Visual Training Enhance Athletes’ Decision-Making Skills and Sport-Specific Performance? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 35(10), e70140.

https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.70140

[3] Czyż, S. H., Wójcik, A. M., & Solarská, P. (2024). The effect of contextual interference on transfer in motor learning — a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1377122.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1377122

Scientific justification: source 1 combines randomised and non-randomised research in team sports and makes a distinction between practice tasks and match-oriented transfer tasks. Source 2 includes randomised research on visual training, with varying interventions and sport-specific outcome measures. The two reviews treat related research areas; their numbers of studies may not be added up as a completely independent evidence base. A sport-specific test is moreover not automatically a match performance. Source 3 combines laboratory research and research in practical situations; the average advantage of alternating practice cannot without question be used as a recommendation for every sports training.

None of the reviews investigates transfer from Sit-i to sports performances or riding skills. They show neither that a change in the registration of the seat causes a change in the horse. The proposed tasks, intermediate steps, and evaluations are illustrations for consultation with a trainer, coach, or sports physiotherapist. Product and training information is based on the official Sit-i pages. Pro records movement of the seat; sport-specific application requires assessment during the relevant activity.