The Playmaker's Decisions
The Science of Clutch Plays, Mental Mistakes and Athlete Cognition
by Daniel Peterson and Leonard Zaichkowsky, Ph.D.
In our 2018 book, The Playmaker’s Advantage", we explored the mind of the playmaker - one that can take over a game with superior “athlete cognition.” Actually, we coined that term trying to describe the mental process that repeated itself hundreds of times a game. Athlete cognition consists of three interwoven sub-processes; Search-Decide-Execute or See-Think-Do. The first and last parts build on decades of research on perception and skill acquisition, respectively. But the mushy middle is still a mystery. What goes on inside the “black box” of decision-making hides from view. We can prepare an athlete with pre-game information and tactics, then recap their decision quality post-game. But getting under the hood to work on the engine of decisions is more difficult.
Buying a new car or evaluating a loan application or planning a vacation are processes that combine the input of data, a decision algorithm, and the output of a plan. And while the consequences of those types of decisions may be significant, there is a unique approach to arriving at the best option. In those scenarios, there is time to collect more information, as well as hours if not days to process, ponder and predict possible outcomes. However, in a game, competition, or any high pressure environment, the crucible of tension dictates a faster process.
In sports, just as in any action-oriented activity, vision and perception provide the input while our well-trained motor skills deliver the output. Go left or go right? Pass or shoot? Foul or don’t foul? Given the same sensory details from a chaotic game environment, how and why do players make different choices? In post-game reviews, they regret the errors, sometimes surprised that they were capable of such a blunder. Just as confusing is the unconscious flow that can place them squarely in the zone where decisions come instantly and effortlessly, leading to an outstanding performance.
And that’s why we continued the search, this time drilling down into the muddy middle. After reading our first book, coaches and players asked us to pull back the curtain to see who is controlling the levers, specifically on what drives decisions and how to train this skill.
The Playmaker’s Decisions is a groundbreaking book that will educate athletes, coaches and parents about this essential creative capability in an accessible, easy to understand method.
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