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A Decision/Action Model for Soccer – Pt 7Feedback in soccer

“For a player to be skillful in football he needs information of three kinds. The first would be concerned with his objective-what it is he is wanting to achieve… Secondly, he needs information from his own performance with regard to the job that he has decided to do…Thirdly, the player requires some knowledge of the results of his actions so that any corrections that are necessary may be made. The writer has found that the cybernetic approach to learning provides an adequate base for the explanation and understanding of skilled behavior.

Eric Worthington – Learning & Teaching Soccer Skills

A cybernetic approach

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Basic cybernetics

Cybernetics; “the art of steersmanship"; "deals with all forms of behavior in so far as they are regular, or determinate, or reproducible"; "offers a method for the scientific treatment of the system in which complexity is outstanding and too important to be ignored.”W. Ross Ashby

“the essential goal of cybernetics is to understand and define the functions and processes of systems that have goals and that participate in circular, causal chains that move from action to sensing to comparison with desired goal, and again to action. Studies in cybernetics provide a means for examining the design and function of any system, including social systems such as business management and organizational learning, including for the purpose of making them more efficient and effective.”Wikipedia

Together, feed forward and feedback are necessary to create “circular, causal chains.”

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Feed forwardPrincipa Cybernetica Web

“In a system where a transformation occurs, there are inputs and outputs. The inputs are the result of the environment's influence on the system, and the outputs are the influence of the system on the environment. Input and output are separated by a duration of time, as in before and after, or past and present.” [2]

F e e d f o r w a r d ->

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FeedbackPrincipa Cybernetica Web

“In every feedback loop, as the name suggests, information about the result of a transformation or an action is sent back to the input of the system in the form of input data.” [2]

Systems are nested and dynamically interconnected through channels of feed forward and feedback. The relationships between a system other systems is in constant flux.

F e e d f o r w a r d ->

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Feedback

Feedback; Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary.

“the return to the input of a part of the output of a machine, system, or process”

“the partial reversion of the effects of a process to its source or to a preceding stage”

“the transmission of evaluative or corrective information about an action, event, or process to the original or controlling source.”

Principa Cybernetica Web

F e e d f o r w a r d ->

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Defining positive and negative feedbackPrincipa Cybernetica Web

“If these new data facilitate and accelerate the transformation in the same direction as the preceding results, they are positive feedback - their effects are cumulative. If the new data produce a result in the opposite direction to previous results, they are negative feedback - their effects stabilize the system. In the first case there is exponential growth or decline; in the second there is maintenance of the equilibrium.” [2]

F e e d f o r w a r d ->F e e d f o r w a r d ->

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End result of positive feedbackPrincipa Cybernetica Web

“Positive feedback leads to divergent behavior: indefinite expansion or explosion (a running away toward infinity) or total blocking of activities (a running away toward zero). Each plus involves another plus; there is a snowball effect. The examples are numerous: chain reaction, population explosion, industrial expansion, capital invested at compound interest, inflation, proliferation of cancer cells. However, when minus leads to another minus, events come to a standstill. Typical examples are bankruptcy and economic depression.” [2]

“In either case a positive feedback loop left to itself can lead only to the destruction of the system, through explosion or through the blocking of all its functions. The wild behavior of positive loops - a veritable death wish - must be controlled by negative loops. This control is essential for a system to maintain itself in the course of time.” [2]

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End result of negative feedbackPrincipa Cybernetica Web – [modified for soccer]

“Negative feedback leads to adaptive, or goal-seeking behavior: sustaining the same level, temperature, concentration, speed, direction. In some cases the goal is self-determined and is preserved in the face of evolution: the system has produced its own purpose... In other cases man [i.e. the coach as a larger system] has determined the goals of the systems [i.e. players, lines, style]. [2]

In a negative loop every variation toward a plus triggers a correction toward the minus, and vice versa. There is tight control; the system oscillates around an ideal equilibrium that it never attains. A thermostat or a water tank equipped with a float are simple examples of regulation by negative feedback.” [2]

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Worthington’s cybernetic model

“Cybernetic theory emphasizes the similarity between human behavior and the feedback mechanisms found in modern self-controlling devices.” [4]

Worthington’s human control system

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Cybernetic models that pertain to soccer

Boyd’s OODA loop Teaching Games for Understanding

Franklin’s LIDA model

KNVB - TIC

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Balancing command and control in learningWhen does giving feedback become giving instructions?

Learning “requires a regular environment, an adequate opportunity to practice, and rapid and unequivocal feedback about the correctness of thoughts and actions. When these conditions are fulfilled, skill eventually* develops, and the intuitive judgments and choices that quickly come to mind will mostly be accurate. All this is the work of System 1, which means it occurs automatically and fast. A marker of skilled performance is the ability to deal with vast amounts of information swiftly and efficiently.” [3]

However

Feedback is constrained by a systems shared (the collective subsystems) experience. Resilient systems (prepared and ready) have the ability to rapidly (fast and frugal) adjust to wicked problems. Rigid, ill prepared systems are limited in the number and variety of responses they have available. The former builds snowmobiles faster than the opponent while the later keeps using the only tool it knows, usually a hammer. [2]

*Timescales. When a system gets stuck in a positive feedback loop a larger system may have to intervene. The larger system can provide instruction which broadens its experience base or changes its goals. This is when command has to exert its authority to the subordinate members. “At some point you have to set things right” Graham Ramsay. Command realizes that the control

system has run out of resources and requires leadership.

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Worthington on cybernetics and soccer

“To complete the description of the player referred to earlier (slide1), he monitors the whole approach to the kick to his colleague. The internal and external feedback loops transmit all the selected information that is being attended to by the senses. As far as the external feedback is concerned, the information may show that the pass needs to be placed ahead of the colleague and with not too much power. His eventual kick is drawn from his store of experience of such actions and the internal feedback loop continues to provide information… The output is concluded but still the external feedback is transmitting information to be retained by way of the memory of the central processing system.” [4]

Players have to attend i.e. monitor more then the ball. Teammates and opponents are also first level concerns. The more players can block out lower level noise the more attention they can pay to these high level issues. This balance between blocking out noise and attending to real issues is at the heart of training.

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Feedback in soccerA qualitative view – feedback is more than a direction

A qualitative view of feedback stresses how an individual interacts with the elements of the game; the artifacts, teammates and opponents. Separately feedback comes to a player as;

Individual feedback, me and the artifacts. Artifacts are those elements that do notcreate or convey intent but demand attention. The ball is the biggest factor but others like the field, weather and so on play a role.

Cooperative feedback, me and teammates. This feedback deals with the level and sophistication of the Teambuilding elements. How quickly a player can recognize and utilize authority structures to match the changing realities.

Competitive feedback, me and a goal. Feedback that informs a player how he or she is doing in regards to achieving a result against resistance, product focused. The goal may or may not include an active opponent.

These three types of feedback overlap each other creating the diagram on slide 14.

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Feedback in soccerA qualitative view – feedback is more than a direction

Together individual, cooperative and competitive feedback create the sweet spot at ‘a’. Activities that include cooperation, competition and individual accountability along with the elements of the game provide a realistic environment for learning. These activities build up from a base of 2v2 soccer like games. By starting here players have to work with a teammate, contend with an opponent as well as the artifacts. When this combine in a results driven game “rapid and unequivocal feedback (individual, cooperative, competitive) about the correctness of thoughts and actions” [3] is freely available. When proper coaching is added, learning occurs.

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Summary

Cybernetics is the study of open, self-regulating systems. These systems use feedback as a control mechanism. In order to maintain control (moving towards a goal) the flow of feedback must be continuous and as accurate as possible i.e. it’s “rapid and unequivocal” in nature.

In order to maintain this state the system has to take in at least as much, or more, information then it puts out. Failure to do this will, over time, starve the system and lead to its collapse.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics drives this relationship. As the system moves through time (feeds forward) it creates waste. The system always loses information (energy/opportunities) during processing, the simple cost of doing business.

Players must “pay attention.” Paying attention includes attending to feedback in order to adjust goals and behavior. Models which stress too many details can become bogged down in them. Fast-and frugal models, like the four main moments, 1st, 2nd, 3rd attacker/defender, individual, cooperative and competitive feedback use chunking to speed up the learning process. These models structure orientation at the global level which allows the system to focus on local issues.

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Selected references

1. BOYD, J. 1976, Destruction and Creation(http://pogoarchives.org/m/dni/john_boyd_compendium/destruction_and_creation.pdf)

2. de ROSNAY, J. Jan. 6 1997, Feedback – Principia Cybernetica Web (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/FEEDBACK.html).

3. KAHNEMAN, D. 2011, Thinking Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux).4. WORTHINGTON, E. 1974, Learning and Teaching Soccer Skills (North Hollywood, Ca:

Hal Leighton Printing).

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Thank you“I’ll live or die by my own ideas.” Johan Cruyff

Presentation created February 2013 by Larry Paul, Peoria Arizona.All references are available as stated.All content is the responsibility of the author.For questions or to inquire how to arrange a consultation or workshop on thistopic or the others in the series you can contact me at larry4v4@hotmail.com, subject line; decision/action model.For more information visit the bettersoccermorefun channel on YouTube.