Intuition and Coaching Intution and coaching.pdfIntuition and Coaching ... proactive rather than...

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sports coach UK Research Summary 8 Intuition and Coaching We’ve all witnessed it – the last minute of the match, and the coach makes a decision that turns the game – an inspired moment that confirms the coach has some special talent to make the right decision at the right time. Whatever you call it (inspiration, instinct or intuition), the fact is that it is not a special talent.As researchers recently stated in the journal Strategies, intuition is not a magical ability but an important decision-making tool that can be learnt by anyone. This summary explains the route map to intuitive thinking and expertise in coaching. © John Sibley/Action Images Limited

Transcript of Intuition and Coaching Intution and coaching.pdfIntuition and Coaching ... proactive rather than...

Page 1: Intuition and Coaching Intution and coaching.pdfIntuition and Coaching ... proactive rather than reactive. ... example of such an environment,and this partly

sports coach UK Research Summary 8Intuition and Coaching

We’ve all witnessed it – the last minute of the match, and the coach makes a decision that turns the game – aninspired moment that confirms the coach has some special talent to make the right decision at the right time.Whatever you call it (inspiration, instinct or intuition), the fact is that it is not a special talent. As researchersrecently stated in the journal Strategies, intuition is not a magical ability but an important decision-making tool thatcan be learnt by anyone. This summary explains the route map to intuitive thinking and expertise in coaching.

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sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching

Introduction

When the ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky was askedfor the secret of his success, he replied: ‘I don’t know; I justgo to where the puck is going to be.’ Now, you canbelieve that one of the world’s greatest ice hockey playershad some sort of clairvoyant talents, or you can look forother answers. Researchers in a recent journal articlepreferred the latter and pointed to years of experience,thousands of hours of deliberate practice and theappropriate use of mental processes – one of which isintuition. They argued that Gretzky was subconsciouslymaking very fast decisions based on knowledge, storedmemories and a holistic view of his surroundings.

Intuition is a secret of success, and far frombeing some magical ability, it is a decision-making tool that researchers believe canbe learnt by anyone. Indeed, research inother fields has shown that individuals whowork to develop and trust their intuitionrise to the highest ranks in theirprofession. For a coach, being able todevelop your intuition can save time andenergy in stressful situations – time thatmay be at a premium in the closing stagesof competition.

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sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching

The idea of acting on a gut feeling is not as crazy as itsounds and, in fact, helps explain how intuition works. Theprocess begins in the subconscious part of the brain that isquietly working away in the background. It combines aperson’s knowledge, experience and recognition of patternsdrawn from memory to create an ‘informed judgement’.When this judgement is transferred from the subconscious

The science of the gut feeling

to the conscious mind, you perceive it through somephysical or emotional indicator. This is where the gutfeeling comes from (it’s a physical indicator), or forothers, it may seem like divine inspiration (theemotional indicator). Whatever it feels like, the truth isit did not just appear but is the product of thinking,based on experience and training.

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sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching

Intuition cannot be discussed without mentioningexpertise – the two are inextricably linked. Indeed, asJohn Lyle’s research with coaches pointed out back in1999: ‘One of the characteristics of expert coaches isthat they make decisions in an apparently effortless,intuitive manner.’ Linking intuition and expertise allowedthe researchers to provide a route map to help anyonedevelop intuition in coaching. The route map follows acoach from novice to expert to explain where intuitioncomes from.

Novice coaches – prisoners of their lackof experienceAt the start of the journey are novice coaches, whorely on learning the rules on coaching courses andfollowing these rules as coaches. Although they alsohave their own experiences as players to fall back on,their lack of coaching experience means they have toremain relatively inflexible in their actions.

Advanced beginners – the start of therule breakersAs coaches gain more experience, they start torecognise similarities across contexts (the first stepstowards that subconscious holistic view of events).Although still very much following the rules, they aredeveloping strategic knowledge. In other words,experience of applying what they were originally taughtis teaching them what to ignore and what to follow.

However, advanced beginners still have a long way togo. As with novice coaches, their decisions and actionsare still very much governed by previously learntconcepts, rules and procedures. With experience, theywill start to modify their patterns of thought anddevelop a sense of personal responsibility. Described bythe researchers as a ‘wilful choice’ of what to do, this isthe start of trusting themselves and their own thoughtprocesses.

Competent coaches – takingresponsibility for the situationThe move to competent coaching comes with thischange to wilful choice. The coach realises thateverything happens in context and decisions need toreflect this context rather than simply following or

Intuition and expertisein coaching adjusting rules learnt as a novice – coaching becomes

proactive rather than reactive.

Competent coaches have a sense of what is important andwhat is not, and can deviate from planned activities dependingon the situation. Many coaches who reach this level aresatisfied and choose to remain at the competent level.However, as a result, they will never develop the intuitive skillsof expert coaches.

Proficient coaches – starting to see the wholeProficient coaches no longer rely purely on conscious ordeliberative actions. They are starting to trust their intuitionand can now be seen as fast, fluid thinkers who are lessconscious of their actions. One of the keys to thisdevelopment is the ability to recognise patterns in eventsrather than just see individual events. As the researcherssuggested, ‘the proficient-level coach no longer looks out andsees individual athletes, but instead sees them as part of thewhole athletic environment.’ This pattern recognition is one ofthe subconscious processes that leads to the gut feelingassociated with intuitive decision making.

However, what happens next is what separates the proficientcoach from the expert (and intuitive coach). After recognisingpatterns or perceiving that something is wrong, the proficientcoach is still analytic and deliberative in deciding what to do.Therefore, they are not making those decisions ‘in the blink ofan eye’ that you associate with intuition.

The expert – the arational thinkerThe expert is arational, their thinking is effortless and involveslittle analytic or deliberative behaviour. It almost feels like theyare making things up on the spot. But the fact that they areconsistently successful shows this isn’t just down to luck.Ultimately, we have to conclude that their behaviour is botheffective and rational! So what is happening here? Theresearchers explained that it is the combination of anenormous amount of knowledge in the speciality andthousands of hours of deliberate practice (eg practice activelymotivated by the goal of improving performance). Add all thisknowledge and experience to the holistic pattern recognitionof the proficient coach, and the subconscious mind of anexpert is packed full of everything it needs to make informedjudgements that seem to everyone else (and the coachhim/herself) to come out of nowhere as a moment ofinspiration.

Ultimately, the research suggested that no matter what youcall it – intuition, instinct, gut feeling – it is all the product ofhard work and dedication over a long period of time.

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sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching

Research has shown that arational thinking isespecially valuable in unstable, complex andunpredictable environments. Sport is the perfectexample of such an environment, and this partlyexplains why those who are successful in sport seemto place so much emphasis on intuition as part oftheir competitive advantage. However, this is not aspecial gift only available to lucky individuals. Withexpert coaches, you can look beyond this almosteffortless level of decision making and find a historyof hard work, experience and knowledge.

Therefore, everyone has the potential to become anintuitive thinker ; it just takes a large investment oftime and energy. The researchers provided someideas of how to get there:

• Get the basics on coach education courses.

• Learn everything you can about your sport.

• Learn from a good mentor.

• Observe and converse with expert coaches.

• Strive for a level beyond competency.

Learning from the research

If you are interested in finding out more about thisarea, this summary is based on the article below:

St Pierre, P. and Smith, M. (2014) ‘Intuition incoaching: It’s not magic’, Strategies: A Journal forPhysical and Sport Educators, 27 (2): 37–42.

Other more general reading on expertise andcoaching includes:

Ericsson, K.A. and Charness, N. (1994) ‘Expertperformance: Its structure and acquisition’, AmericanPsychologist, 49: 725–747.

Lyle, J. (1999) ‘Coaches’ decision making’, in Cross,N. and Lyle, J. (eds) The Coaching Process: Principlesand Practice for Sport. Boston, MA: ButterworthHeinemann. ISBN: 978-0-750641-31-9. pp. 210–232.

References

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