NEXT LEVEL COACHING – DECISION MAKING DURING GAMES – PLAYER/TEAM PERCEPTION (PART 3/4)

                                  

NEW TERMS

Meta Cognition - knowing how you know what you know

• Player’s actions are often driven by situation specific intentions but they are determined by a player’s deep declarative and procedural understanding of what, how and why to act on given game information which challenges the view that coupling a player’s perception and action are bound directly and that perception, whilst coupled and refined with salient game information, is often predicated by the retrieval of conscious memory representations that initiate what action is selected and why
• Player’s are self aware of their technical and physical capabilities during the decision making process and tend to engage in meta-cognitive processes in fast paced game situations where players consciously assess whether they possess the technical and physical capability to influence the outcome positively
• “Perceive to act and act to perceive” must be extended to account for the interceding mechanism of memory representation meaning that in order to perceive to act and act to perceive (bottom up), one must possess the knowledge of when, where an why to perceive and act accordingly (top down)
• In time rich situations, memory representations, stored as task specific declarative knowledge, are the key connecting variable between the perception of game information and the decision to act in a certain way so when players do have time, their search for game information followed by their selection of a relevant capability to act, are both guided by knowledge of their teams tactical approach, presenting clear evidence that players store and use memory representations to perceive, interpret and act on tactical roles and responsibilities successfully
• Improved memory representations allow players to form suitable plans of action through tactical roles and responsibilities which enhance their capability to effectively perceive and operate in dynamic game environments
• Such plans of action guide perceptual strategies, the retrieval of memory representations and subsequent action such knowing when, where, why to kick the ball up field in order to relieve defensive pressure
• When humans need to make high pressured decisions they tend to do so based on heuristics which is what has worked before
• When player’s perceive legitimate risks and threats they often use deeper declarative knowledge of the game to update their knowledge in the game as they take the 1^st option that presented itself
• The score, players involved, match difficulty, emotional status an external instruction all influence the decision making process

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