Analysis: A number of methods to enhance a player's decision-making skills have already been investigated and actually work
As the intercounty championships in football, hurling and camogie approach their climax, it becomes ever more apparent that the ability to make good decisions at key moments distinguishes the very best players from their peers. How can this ability be developed?
Six methods to enhance a player’s decision-making have been investigated. Five of these methods work and four require minimal technology to implement. Of these four, three can be implemented over the course of a season and the other is a longer-term solution. Understanding the full range of methods by which decision making can be enhanced offers coaches at all levels a means to enhance the experience and performance of the players they are supporting.
The easiest way to enhance decision-making is through playing more games within training. When players have limited opportunities to make decisions during training, then they have limited opportunities to improve. Research from Limerick hurling coach Paul Kinnerk suggested that Gaelic Games coaches have scope to convert drill-type activities, where players are not making decisions, to simplified games where decision making is central.
From GAA Learning in 2017, coach Paul Kinnerk on a games-based approach to training drills
A recent analysis of multiple studies was conducted by researchers at Dublin City University and found that replacing some session activities where no decisions are being made with carefully designed games, often with smaller numbers of players and specific rules to encourage specific scenarios to emerge, is a proven method to enhance decision-making. Critically, this approach to training session design is termed "game-based" not exclusively games. There is still scope for coaches to utilise basic training activities where decisions are not being made. However, these should be sequenced at the right time within a session and should be used with a 'minimum necessary dose’ philosophy.
Another method of enhancing decision making requires a longer-term investment: let the children play. In his autobiography, New Zealand rugby great Dan Carter described how "for all the rugby I played competitively as a kid, though, it was dwarfed by the hours I spent playing with my mates. That’s what I put my skill-set down to – those countless hours after school".
Andre Roca from St Mary's University Twickenham conducted a series of experiments to assess decision-making ability and practice history within a group of soccer players. This found that better decision makers had spent more hours in informal play during their formative years – games played with friends and siblings in gardens or parks or streets which were not organised by coaches.
André Roca on his research study into decision-making practice in youth soccer
While there may not be similar research in Gaelic games yet, former Kerry footballer Tomás O Sé's autobiography The White Heat is one of many which echoes Carter’s anecdote: "playing football in the back garden… home from school, get the homework done, out the back kicking ball for hours. Every day." When considering how to develop better decision makers, coaches should not only give attention to what they do within their sessions, but also to how they encourage or facilitate time spent in informal play.
A third way of enhancing player decision making is to focus on gathering the necessary information to make the decision and not on the decision itself. When a player receives the ball, they lose valuable time when they look around to pick up information on where teammates and opponents are.
Studies in team sports like soccer show that the most skilful players have already looked around before they receive the ball, so that they can get themselves into the best position or predict how the play will unfold and be one step ahead of their opponents. The term that is used within the skill acquisition literature is scanning (sometimes 'visual exploratory activity') and the good news for players and coaches is that it can be trained. This can involve various on-field training exercises as well as using mental practice away from the field of play. To improve a player’s decision-making on the field, it may be first necessary to improve the behaviours that support decision making, such as scanning.
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Various technologies also offer opportunities to develop decision making. In Sport-Specific Vision Training, videos of situations are presented to players and, more recently, scenarios are presented using virtual reality. At a critical moment, the video is paused or blacked out and the player must anticipate what will happen next. The advantage of this approach is that players can encounter a much wider range of practice attempts then is possible during a standard training session on the pitch. For example, within the context of Gaelic football a goalkeeper may be presented with multiple clips of players taking penalty kicks and must decide where to dive, or multiple clips of kick out scenarios and must decide where to deliver the ball.
The key question, though, is 'does it work?' Do goalkeepers who spend time being tested on specifically chosen scenarios demonstrate better on field performance than their peers who have not had such training? While there is a lack of research in Gaelic games specifically, results from a range of other sports suggest that this approach is likely to be productive, and can be especially useful when players are returning from injury.
A common use of technology to enhance decision-making is video review, where players and coaches review clips of particular scenarios, typically from previous matches that they have played. This method is distinct from Sport-Specific Vision Training because there is an opportunity to discuss what is happening in the scenario and what the options are. Sport-Specific Vision Training is more like a test, where players are required to make rapid decisions and there is limited discussion.
The opportunity for discussion is important because decision making is about much more than the visual picture facing the player. A player's decision making process in soccer (as seen in this study from Republic of Ireland Women's National Team Head Coach Eileen Gleeson) and Gaelic football can be influenced by match game plans, player and opposition strengths, match score and time remaining.
There is remarkably little evidence exploring the effectiveness of group reviews of selected clips from matches in enhancing decision-making considering how common they are. Where there is stronger research is in relation to coaches engaging in one-to-one video reviews within individual players. A player's decision making on the tennis, volleyball or basketball court has been shown to improve when a step-by-step process is followed. This sees the player reviewing selected scenarios, explaining the important features they would consider making their decision, and exploring their reasons and alternatives with a coach.
A final method to improve decision making which has been tested in the skill acquisition literature is General Vision Training. The basic concept behind this approach is that the movements of the eyes, whether to track an incoming ball or to identify a teammate well positioned to receive a pass, are controlled by muscles. These muscles can be trained using various computerised tasks in which the player tries to follow an object around a screen, or must locate and respond to some stimulus, such as a light, and press a matched button as quickly as possible.
There are a range of methods by which coaches can develop player decision-making across all stages of their journey in the sport.
While training on these computer tasks makes you better at the computer tasks, does it lead to better performance on the playing field? The best available evidence at this point in time suggests that it does not. Generalised Vision Training may be accompanied by positive testimonials and glossy advertisements, but since it is not accompanied by enhanced performance on the pitch, it is not worth the investment.
Effective decision-making is at the heart of team sports, but understanding what does not work is as valuable for sport scientists and coaches as understanding what does. The science of skill acquisition provides a range of methods by which coaches can develop player decision-making across all stages of their journey in the sport.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
