What processes occur during the times when an athlete is not on the field or court, that is there off-time between practices and competitions.  How important are these rest periods for learning sports skills?  Does it matter what an athlete does during these periods?  Could doing something like playing video games possibly interfere with the gains made during practice?  

Links to articles discussed:

Leg muscle recruitment during cycling is less developed in triathletes than cyclists despite matched cycling training loads

Practice With Sleep Makes Perfect: Sleep-Dependent Motor Skill Learning

The restorative effect of naps on perceptual deterioration

Experience-dependent changes in cerebral activation during human REM sleep

Watch and Learn: Seeing Is Better than Doing when Acquiring Consecutive Motor Tasks

Do action video games improve perception and cognition?

Action-Video-Game Experience Alters the Spatial Resolution of Vision

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