Posted at 6:00am — 6/3/2008
Coach’s Corner: The Other Ninety Percent — Cognitive Functions and Athletic Performance
The first article in the series “The Other Ninety Percent,” demonstrated that there is more than meets the eye regarding change as a process. Still, change is immensely dwarfed in complexity by the second topic, cognitive functions and athletic performance. Tackling and understanding the relationship between cognitive science and athletic success is a difficult venture, an endeavor that takes years and requires expertise across multiple disciplines. The disciplines an advanced cognitively oriented coach should possess a high level of knowledge about include physics, kinesiology (yes, the academic discipline the domers wrongfully mock), behavioral psychology, human learning, communication, brain behavior and structure, and while at it let us add expertise of the skills, strategies, and techniques of the involved sport. All coaches want brainpower and mental toughness, some obtain results in this domain by understanding the power of the mental game and implementing proven strategies.
The first discussion topic is a brief history of the cognitive revolution and the role of competing psychological schools regarding changes in coaching methods and philosophy. The first known cognitive revolution happened in the “golden era” of open cognitive thought, namely, the time of the great Greek thinkers. Socrates would not conform to change, Plato fumbled the rock, and Aristotle lacked the physical skills to play the line. In addition, Alexander the Great was a socially misfit bully. The second cognitive revolution involved the great thinkers in and near the time of the Age of Enlightenment, especially philosophers grouped into the rationalist camp. Finally, the third and most modern cognitive revolution arrived during the 20th Century. Those not so random groundbreaking sparks collectively created a growing fire that resulted in the cognitive school of psychology achieving domination, over your daddy’s and granddaddy’s behaviorist school of psychology (stimulus, response, and reinforcement) that still rules sports coaching today. Now these 20th Century contributors really did make discoveries that have already advanced coaching and learning through an awareness of the other 90%. For some this knowledge is largely unknown but remains potential treasure to be plucked.
In today’s era, top tier football programs have, over the last decade, hired professionals with the title of mental toughness coach or mental conditioning coach, These specialists are not really tutors or study table enforcers. Instead, they create programs designed to maximize cognitive performance and present strategies and routines for cognitive improvement. The benefits are obvious; players that are better prepared, make fewer mistakes, display more confidence, and win more often against players of equal physical talent.
Society, collectively but with individual exceptions, is past, the dumb jock image that once was very pervasive. Still, there are questions that arise regarding connecting athletic performance and intelligence. Try this age old question: How can someone with so much ability play so poorly or make so many mistakes, every single time?
Taking away the variables of effort and attitude, this enigma can be explained by differences in cognitive functions. Cognitive factors can give some athletes an advantage and explain why some kids with abundant physical skills do not succeed. Take this into consideration; the higher up the ladder of competition, the more difficult it is for an athlete to overcome a weakness in cognitive functions. The pros quickly notice deficiencies and either do not draft, sign, or keep questionable players.
College coaches like the physical skills they see in developing athletes, but come to find that sometimes the other 90% is not what was expected. Coaches typically will individualize instruction and attempt to add extra repetitions. Coaches will lend support and attempt to muster maximum confidence. Some of their work is rewarded, but players who keep on demonstrating the same mistakes are labeled as projects. After a year or two some players blossom, due to the extra work of coaches and often just having mental skills further develop because of normal maturation late bloomers). Some players display little success or improvement and are sent to the scrapheap.
In high school, skilled athletes do not need the other 90% to beat players of average skill, so they achieve. In college, huge changes in competition, intensity, and expectations, combined with a greater equality of physical talent across the player spectrum, make for a quick and brutal shock for some student athletes.
Cognitive functions are typically termed executive functions or cognitive controls. Executive functions are brain processes that guide decisions, find patterns, make sense of physical surroundings, make order and analysis of a situation, and provide the thought processes needed to reach a systematic goal. Research indicates these controls are located in the prefrontal area and are clearly related to academic, athletic, and job success
One such cognitive function, linked to athletic success, is field independence. Field independent people tend to succeed more than field dependent people. Someone who gets lost in a phone booth is severely field dependent. Someone who can dissect the entire environment almost immediately and make a great decision is field independent. Great quarterback play is often attested to superior vision, but the reality is that many quarterbacks have a high level of field independence.
I will insert a personal example here that became shockingly accurate during my coaching. After watching incoming freshman and walk-ons settle in for a week, a number of players stood out as having potential but were having difficulty with drills, directions, or any type of execution. The players having trouble were always behind in reacting to any situation and made at least twice the number of mental errors as the other newcomers. These players were taken to a course where there was a bowling pin every 10 feet and every pin was placed at a ninety-degree right angle. The objective was to loop each bowling pin on the inside and go to the next pin and repeat the loop on the inside of the pin (the space between the two pins) until the course was completed up and back. Sending the players up to the end and then back made them reverse mental operations. There were seven pins. Each prospect watched as an upperclassman ran the course fast and without mistakes the first time. Some freshmen that were doing well were added as a control. The successful freshmen ran the course an average of 10 seconds quicker, with one mistake or less.
Those who had trouble in practice would frequently not have a score, stopping at every pin trying to make the correct loop. They simply could not function in an environment where correct and speedy decisions were a prime necessity. Players who committed two or three mistakes, but improved after two or three trials, usually did well with good individualized instruction and by their sophomore seasons were “with it.” The kids who never or marginally improved on the loop-the loop test, rarely played, improved at a slower rate, and were always behind the other players. The problem was not of effort or attitude, it was, I am firmly convinced, linked to field independence. In the forty-yard dash, which takes no field independence, the “slower reacting players” could hold their own with the team studs.
So what benefits can good mental conditioning programs provide athletes and coaches? These programs breed success, but are shunned by some because the commitment needed, expectations and the physical, emotional, and mental intensity can be overwhelming. Many players self-select themselves out, quickly.
Mental conditioning and mental toughness programs, more than anything else, are meant to improve performance across the entire performance spectrum by using powerful physical challenges that can quickly break a player down, both mentally and physically. Gus Hoefling, mentioned earlier, had the best mental toughness program I ever witnessed or incorporated. This program had several levels and most players found level one difficult enough. It is my opinion that mental toughness programs get the best results when starting with flexibility first, then working on strength, then progressing to speed. It takes about six weeks to become proficient at level one. It takes renewed commitment and months to master a second level.
The secret weapon of a mental toughness program is focus. When focus is improved, performance is improved and energy is added to practices. Martial arts workouts help to perfect focus. Imagine a team with two or even three sets of ankle and wrist weights working out with high level marshall art challenges, staring at lines on a wall, not being allowed to look at the ground or around, not being allowed to whine or moan, not being allowed to loose balance, and having the toughest team selected players in the front demanding excellence. Imagine getting to the point of excellence where the entire team has to start at the beginning of the workout after a screwup.
Players with great mental conditioning programs have a quiet arrogance, paired with unshakable confidence. They are taught to pay no attention whatsoever to the other team, outside of what is needed to execute and win. Players from programs like this have tremendous poise and are frequently labeled a machine. They visualize their own success and the team’s success they have worked hard for. Players trained in such programs are fierce in their will to win, despise losing and are willing to pay the price. Players from programs like this show an improvement curve that is consistent and positive, not a plateau, or an up and down slope, or worst of all, a regression. Teams prepared in mental toughness believe in axioms that reinforce the other 90%. One axiom is; there is no easy way and another is; if you are with the program you will get better, if you are not you will soon leave the program. Players prepared with such mental toughness strategies do their best when under fire. They do not accept limited expectations authored by others, or goals that are a dime a dozen. For example, we want to finish .500 in the Big Ten.
What would Yogi say? Maybe this:
To make it work you have to have work, and nothing beats winning.
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff — Doc4Blu
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