Decision Making - A reflection..

Decision Making - A reflection..

On a number of occasions over recent weeks I have heard the term ‘Decision Making’ used by coaches, it seems to be much more prevalent in conversations & feature much more now in terms of 'coach speak'. You hear it used in sessions, coach education & a variety of informal learning environments.

Delivering practices that allow players to develop their ‘Decision Making’ skills & thought processes are widely accepted as a positive link to building cognitive, creative players.

I recently witnessed a session with a group of under 13's. Positively, the session had been active, fun, directional and game related. Therefore it had a huge amount of positives. However, during a brief chat (& in praising) the coach after, it transpired that along with his plan of working on switching play, he wanted to also develop the players ‘decision making’ for match days in other areas. 

As this was an informal observation & the first session I had seen nothing further was discussed. However, during a mentoring session some weeks later, I was fortunate to see the same team in a game situation. Although the team were enthusiastic, & enjoyed the game they lost narrowly. The coach remained positive:

Listening to the de-brief after: 

(Coach) Well played, I thought you did very well, however, what have we been working on recently? (Player) passing & Decision making (Coach) Good, & I really think we’re 

getting there, there were some great decisions made….  

(Player) But when do I know if what I did was the right thing, I wasn’t always sure?

An excellent reflection from the player I thought...

So, Question: how do we help the young player determine what a good decision is?

The right decision? The better decision? In other words, learn about ‘what are good decisions in context’? 

This surely must come down to the planning, interventions & the environment set by the coach. This coach is certainly on the right pathway..  If  we look for a definition on decision making, one is: 'The cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or course of action among alternative possibilities'. 'the belief’ I feel is really is important here for the players. This can be embedded with some powerful specific, individual praise.

To explain further: We should indeed deliver practices that are close to the game, where the ‘RANDOM’ & unexpected occur. But, for the players to learn what a ‘Good’ decision looks like, surely they must have some guidance on:

1) What we were looking to achieve in context

2) How we achieved it

3) Therefore, why the decision was a good one

A chance to review the outcome & what you the player 'believe' happened?

(A chance for confirmation & reflection)

The skill will come in letting the players play the game, enjoy the game, experiment within the game but being mindful of what the process is and what they are trying to achieve. Why this happened & why this didn’t happen. In other words, we must make mistakes in order to log learning but we must also know ‘why’ a chosen course of action was a ‘good course of action’ a successful course of action. 

Some academic research talks of ‘Decision Making’ as: 

Decision making follows perception & precedes action. It is vital that this takes place for a skilled performance. 

Decision Making (A Definition):- The cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or course of action among alternative possibilities.

Perception (A Definition):- The organisation, identification and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent & understand the environment.

There are a number of definitions & theories, however the common ground that makes the subject so important in the development of our young players is that both perceptual skills & decision making are learned and developed through experience.

Scan, look, notice, adjust, learn. Decide.

‘Doing the right thing at the right time’ is another statement often used, but if we take the simple theory that our decision making is improved via real experiences, being placed in an environment where we are encouraged to ‘TRY’ to ‘LEARN’ to ‘HONE’ and develop this then surely the way our practices are delivered is vital in developing these skills.

In summary, players will need to know the context to be able to understand what is the ‘preferred course of action & Outcome'.

Yes we need the ball rolling but we also need to remember, ‘why and what we are looking to achieve'..