I literally just recorded this off the TV 2mins ago, with the TNT crew off Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O' Neal and Ernie Johnson talking about the boost that comes with being named a first-time all-star, and the first game coming off of that which in this case is Jalen Brunson and Tyrone Maxey with both having huge games today after the announcement.
The part that was really interesting was when they were talking about confidence but I want to break this down into a specific skill acquisition terms which may help you in your own quest of developing your own, or your players' skill development.
Here's the video:
KENNY'S CAR ANAOLOGY
If I ever had to explain affordances to a complete stranger, I always thought I'd use this analogy for ease of explanation, so points to the Jet on this one but I'd like a stab at breaking this down even more.
As Kenny says, you're driving on the freeway and you want to change lanes and whoever has the most confidence will do it first.
What initially develops this confidence in the first place though?
First you've got individual action capabilities which is what you are capable of at different levels of confidence.
Then you've got affordances which are the opportunity of action/s that are available to me right now.
Ill park this here for now.
ALL-STARS SEE THE SAME THINGS AS EVERYONE ELSE BUT HAVE THE CONFIDENCE
At the elite level most players will perceive the same (as Kenny mentions - "we all the saw the guys' open"), or similar things, in a single play as they have all received elite-level coaching, but the best players see and then act on them far quicker.
At local level footy this is extremely varied and has huge implications on the 2 points above - action capabilities/affordances.
"I CAN MAKE THIS PASS" (Barkley)
This is a great example of knowing one's action capabilities in that moment of time.
Charles saw the teammate open, and deciding on the passing option based on his body position, confidence levels and what action capabilities he posses there and then, whipped this pass off down the court (54sec mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFoOjZYeKe4
CAR ANALOGY PART 2
Getting back to this, personally I drive shit-box with poor acceleration so if I'm wanting to change lanes here's my process, linking with Kenny's process from above.
I'm assertive, but not aggressive driver and will change lanes/overtake when needed with high confidence I can do so at any time but that alone can decide when I can do these actions on the road.
With my poor acceleration, I need to have what I perceive as enough space and time to do so, with the action capabilities I have (poor acceleration).
If I'm in a brand new car with great acceleration, I'm now seeing the exact same affordances (space and time) but with far better acceleration capabilities now have higher confidence to use smaller gaps in space and time to make the same move, and this opens up far more affordances to me as a result.
PICKED AS AN ALL-STAR
If you are able to make it to the level of an NBA all-star, then that represents that you have been able consistently perform at an extremely high level over a decent period of time.
This banking of repeated high performances has been based on developing your own action capabilities (rounding out your game etc) which presents more affordances for you to potentially act on (greater skill set).
At extreme times of performance you are in the zone, or in a state of flow which surpasses what even high confidence is, as it is an unconscious action for the most part.
Everything feels effortless, you can't miss, you;re racking up possessions at will, you're seeing everything before it happens and unfortunately you actually remember much of the process of how it happened and is hard to replicate.
In Barkley's case here, he had 43 points in a game at Madison Square Garden against as a New York team lead by Patrick Ewing - it's fair to say he had surpassed confidence and entered a flow state at some point during this game and that pass above showed that specifically.
PUT THIS IN FOOTY TERMS PLEASE
Players will often see the same thing, but it's who see's it first and then acts on before anyone else that is better-performed. For example I have the ball and see a free option to pass to but at the same time an opposition player also see's them open. I need my kick to get there before the opposition player but can I kick it low/hard enough to do that or does my action capabilities not allow this and it's a loopy/slow kick that gets cut off?
On the other hand I'll be the defender in the above scenario. The free player is a wide option but I'm also keeping an eye on a more central option, essentially caught in between them and non-committal to either. I'm angling towards the central option and giving teasing distance to the kicker, I'm close enough to where I feel I am fast enough to get there if they decide to kick there. I'm not really worried about them going the wide option as it's to a less dangerous spot for us to defend. Now the kicker has my decision to make above - can I dart that central kick without it being cut off or do I need to go the safe option,based on my action capabilities?
Going deeper, I have already hit a central option this quarter so my confidence is higher then before so if I see a similar affordance/option again, my current perception of my action capabilities provide me the confidence to give it another crack.
If I had missed that affordance/target earlier, then my current perception of my action capabilities can decrease and that affordance is now closed to me, as I look for more open/safer affordances/targets to kick to - this is what we perceive as confidence.
When we are high on confidence our action capabilities increase which then also increases the amount of, and type of, affordances we see.
If this is repeated over time then hopefully this will allow us at times, to enter a flow state during games, but you'll rarely stay in it for the entire game, especially footy which is over about 3hrs from the start of prep to post-game such as Richmond's Nathan Brown kicking 5 goals in the last quarter v Collingwood to win the game after being goal-less to 3 quarter time.
Here's a framework you can use to guide skill acquisition development which I'll go into next week:
1 - What are their current confidence levels (decided by a million factors!)
2 - What information/affordances are they perceiving/processing during the game?
3 - What individual action capabilities do they have to choose from to use in this situation, based on first 3 points?
4 - What action did they choose?
5 - Was it successful? Unsuccessful?
6 - Does confidence increase/decrease because of the outcome?
Back to point 1 and repeat.
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