A Stanford study I read once had two groups of people. One group would go to practice everyday (basketball) while another group would essentially practice all day in their minds. When test how did each group fare

You’re referring to a well-known study on **mental rehearsal (visualization) vs. physical practice** in basketball free throws.

In this study (and similar ones), researchers divided participants into three groups:
1. **Physical Practice Group** – Practiced shooting free throws daily.
2. **Mental Practice Group** – Only visualized themselves making free throws but did not physically practice.
3. **Control Group** – Did neither.

After a set period, all groups were tested on their ability to make free throws. The results were surprising:

– The **physical practice group** improved the most, as expected.
– The **mental practice group** improved almost as much as the physical group, despite not physically touching a basketball.
– The **control group** showed little to no improvement.

This study suggests that **mental rehearsal can be nearly as effective as physical practice** because the brain activates similar neural pathways during vivid visualization as it does during real execution. However, the best results come from combining both mental and physical practice.
What uni was it aty
The study you’re referring to is often attributed to **Dr. Blaslotto at the University of Chicago (not Stanford)** in the 1990s.

In this experiment:
– One group practiced free throws daily.
– Another only visualized making free throws.
– A control group did neither.

After 30 days, the physical practice group improved by **24%**, while the visualization group improved by **23%**, nearly the same.

This supports the idea that **mental rehearsal strengthens neural pathways similarly to physical practice**. While Stanford has done research in this area, the most commonly cited study was from the **University of Chicago**.