Knowledge about upcoming actions is fundamentally important to predict their fate ahead of their realization and thus to anticipate rather than react to the actions of other individuals. Influential theoretical models suggest that the human motor system is designed to be an anticipation device and that we predict what others are doing by using our own motor system as an internal forward model. Multimodal, perceptuo-motor, multiple-duty cells (mirror neurons) may play an important function also in action anticipation. I will present data indicating that the fine-tuning of such resonant systems may underpin the superior predictive ability of individuals who become excellent in a given cognitive-motor domain. I will focus on phenomena and neural correlates of the anticipatory action mapping in elite athletes and expert pianists and provide support to the notion that one's own sensorimotor representations are used for the anticipatory 'readout' of actions and intentions of other individuals.