Sports and Performance Psychologists have repeatedly found that the key difference between winning and losing in sports, or a good versus a bad performance, “is more psychological rather than physical” (Hodge, 2004).
While physical skills and basic coordination are a must in intricate and quick changing contexts, winning often depends on how an athlete processes information as their brain sees, interprets and responds to occurrences – all before it becomes conscious thought!
Making split-second, decisions draw on different cognitive skills and abilities. Elite athletes are marked out with well-honed cognitive structures that allow them to encode, retrieve and process information selectively and efficiently. They rely heavily on executive functions combining as they do, attributes such as memory, attention, concentration, decision-making, flexibility to produce a result.
Elite athletes are not only skillful at anticipating and connecting the dots, but they make predictive rather than reactive decisions. Think of the player who lunges in the right direction to intercept a pass or return serve, the moment it leaves an opposition player’s hands or racket.
Having broad peripheral vision and rapid scanning skills enables an athlete to quickly identify best options for a winning play. Top athletes seem to have ‘more time’ to execute things, to assess where their opposition is, where they are moving to or coming from.
Whatever the sport, the elite athlete appears to “sense” things out the corner of their eye, that tiny gap to burst through or that sudden sudden lob of a long overhead pass.
As for coaches and trainers, it is worth remembering that:
An athlete’s brain works in response to the quality of information given. Fuzzy explanations can lead to fuzzy preparation and fuzzy performance.
Always break topics down into smaller more easily remembered chunks.
Do not provide too many instructions or information at once. Overload creates problems.
When introducing something new, “a big beginning and a big finish” tends to work; Athletes will remember first and last items and tend to forget the in-between stuff.
Athletes react to the same stimulus in different ways. Become familiar with an athlete’s stronger neurocognitive skills and focus on them. But identify their weaknesses too and ensure that they keep their brain fitness in tip top shape.
Finally, Make the point that the athlete’s brain well trained and sustained creates physiological changes that can make them far more effective in competition.
Dr. Lenny Kristal