NEXT LEVEL COACHING – DECISION MAKING DURING GAMES – PLAYER/TEAM PERCEPTION (PART 1/4)

                                   

NEW TERMS

Actions for the Game - reacting unconsciously to game information through your actions

Implicit Learning - unguided learning

Knowledge of the Task - what tactical, technical an physical tasks make up the action required for specific parts of the game

• Decision making is initiated by the perception of the game
• Rules create context specific game information that individual players are to act on to attain the ultimate goal of scoring or restricting scoring
• Rules constrain players from simply choosing from an infinite list of actions
• Through interactions of the game, decision making of the player is governed through task dependent perception of information where a player's visual fixation and mental descriptions change in line with changes in task demands, as they search for a means to a successful outcome
• Expert players demonstrate an improved connection to the ability offered by the performance environment over time
• Player’s perception of game information is linked with an individual and collective capability to act, more specifically player’s actions for the game, knowledge of the game and knowledge in the game
• Actions for the game are shaped by a players individual physical and technical attributes
• With experience, game information and a players relevant capabilities become coupled and refined as a greater understanding of action capabilities which more effectively guides the player to more highly salient game information
• Decision making in team invasion sports sits on a continuum between direct perception and a process of analysis and execution, with memory acting as a mediator between that perception and analysis
• Human synaptic processes required for decision making processes may be too slow to deal with the actual speed of game situations
• Even when situations remove the possibility for conscious thought, representations create neural embodiments of meaning that allow humans to satisfy a situation meaning even when players rely on intuition and non-conscious decision making and when the time to analyse is absent, networks of neurons fire in a synchronised fashion through mental representations that are deemed meaningful over time, providing evidence that meaningful representations stored in memory are the central mechanism for effective decision making
• Novice players with developed knowledge of the task are advantaged when cognitive complexity is high compared to those who have developed actions for the game rather than knowledge of the task (implicit learning etc) were advantageous when cognitive complexity was low

NEXT POST - PLAYER/TEAM PERCEPTION (PART 2/4)