ABSTRACT
In order to excel in a sport, in addition to knowing “how” to program skill movements (praxis), athletes need to develop expertise in knowing “when” to act. Knowing “when” includes when to initiate an action, when not to initiate an action, when to persist at an action, and when to terminate an action or series of actions. Executives are responsible for knowing “when.” The executives who work in industry are also responsible for planning, and successful athletes have to plan as well. Knowing how to plan and when to act are executive functions. This chapter describes the executive networks that control the “when” aspects of movements and actions, and that do the planning. Athletic success provides wonderful feelings of reward, and this chapter also describes the anatomy and function of the human reward system.
