+ Decision-making in Sport Julia Walsh University College Cork

+ Developing Excellence ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not a act but a habit.’ (Stephen Covey, The 7 habits of highly effective people)

+ “I learnt to fail better” Players need to practice decision-making in an environment where they are also allowed to fail so that each time they fail they fail better. As a coach are you comfortable with allowing players to learn from failure or do you prefer to tightly control the training and game environment.

+ Creating Space Decision-making takes up space. Limited capacity for storing information It takes time to locate information

+ No thinking required Automatic response to some parts of the game. For example, in basketball the following aspects of the game can be practiced to habituate reaction Fast break Defensive traps Press Breakers

+ Scenario Work Game simulation – not scrimmage Progress to this type of training as soon as ready. 40 – 60% of training session Conditioning – in pre-season (don’t blow whistle) Learning plays and testing them in a game-like environment (information for player and coach) Mental preparation – correcting responses (e.g. to bad calls) Making decisions under pressure Understanding ‘TIME’ and recognizing options

+ The Game Simulation experience prepares them for problem solving in real time. There is a greater self-awareness of themselves and the rest of the team They learn to become more plastic with their team plays. We want them to look for opportunity not to be captured by the offense. They develop patience – they have been there before They understand time, how to use it, and what options they have under different conditions. They have fun being challenged by the different scenario Provides opportunity for athletes to be creative

+ In a junior sport context Introduce small game decision making Provide principles for them to work with rather than strict structures Use questions to coach and explore player understanding Introduce simulation to see if skills are robust Let them make mistakes and solve problems (get them to ask questions) In the early stages of teaching decision making look for game opportunity for them to solve a problem. For example, if the team is winning by a large margin, allow them to experiment and make decisions. TGfU – Teaching games for understanding/game sense approach is a sound framework for teaching decision making in sport.

+ Thanks for listening Good coaches matter most!