• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Click here to download the  free ebook of Alberto Juantorena’s  detailed training workouts leading up to the 1976 Montreal Olympics

SpeedEndurance.com

Success in Track & Field ... and Life

  • Home
    • About
    • Contact
  • Track & Field
    • 400 meters
    • 800m & Mile
    • 1/2 & Full Marathons
    • Long & Triple Jump
    • Hurdles
  • Training
    • Weight Training
    • Abs & Core
    • Injury Prevention
    • Shoes & Spikes
    • Masters
  • Coaching
    • Freelap Friday Five
    • Interviews
    • Sports Nutrition
    • Sport Psychology
  • Archives
  • Shop
    • My account
    • Checkout
    • Basket

Perception or Reality?

You are here: Home / Coaching / Perception or Reality?
3
SHARES
FacebookTwitter

March 3, 2015 by Barry Cook Leave a Comment

By Barry Cook.  Part 4 of a 6 part series.  Read Part 1 titled Personality-Based Winning first, then Part 2 Learning is a Cycle.  Part 3 is Learning Driven.

This article appeared in the Athletics Weekly July 25, 2013 printed edition, reprinted with permission. For more coaching advice, visit http://www.athleticsweekly.com

Perception or Reality?

Perception or reality

An expected win or a surprise defeat can produce over-confidence or insecurities within the athlete or team. How does that happen and how do we ensure that our interpretation as coaches, of what happened are facts and are based on reality? Understanding the process that can lead to either of these behaviours can give some insights into how we jump to conclusions and then consider how we can as coaches help athletes decipher the information that they are receiving.

We all react to what we see and hear in our own unique way. Two witnesses to the same event see it differently. Ask five people following a football match, “what was the game like?” and you will get five differing versions. Why and how does this happen and what are the implications of this for coaches?

[Tweet “We all react to what we see and hear in our own unique way”]

The human brain cannot process all of the information that it’s getting at any one time. It’s far too much. So we select some of the data that is important to us and ignore the rest. We select that information on previous experiences, which is different for everyone.

Research by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon developed the idea of mental models we develop that enable the brain to cope with all the information that it is receiving at that moment in time. Mental models influence how we perceive the world through our senses by filtering the information based on those previous experiences. We all have our own memory bank that we use to decide which selective piece of information we

See also  Learning is a Cycle

We all react to what we see and hear in our own unique way choose at that moment in time that is important to us. See how you perceive the picture below.

Two Faces

Do you see a vase or do you see two faces?

Argyris further developed his ideas to look at the process of how we interpret and draw conclusions from the information we select and in the 1970s developed a model called the “ladder of inference’: This describes the thinking process that we go through, usually without realising it, to get from a fact to a decision or action.

ladder of inferenceImagine an athlete competes in a race. We then debrief them in what they think happened. They begin with something that happens that is based in reality and fact —the kind that would be captured by a video camera. They then select some of that data.

To this selected data they add meaning to it by taking that experience and putting their interpretation on what has happened and develop assumptions about what they see, hear and feel. They then draw conclusions from the information they have now collated and reinforce these conclusions with their beliefs that have developed over their lifetime. This will form the basis of their actions (which in this case is what happened) based on their beliefs.

Case Study

A level-4 hurdles coach recounted a story of an athlete that took part in an indoor hurdles race at Lee Valley athletics centre. The athlete was expected to win but was beaten into second place albeit with the same time as the winner.

See also  Personality-Based Winning

The athlete’s perception was that it was a terrible race and then recounted everything he had done wrong. The reality was, as the coach pointed out, his second fastest time ever over the distance while the winner pulled a PB out of the bag that was far superior to his previous mark and could not have been expected. Things that happen like this are out of the control of that coach’s athlete.

Your view of what you saw may be completely different from the perception of the athlete and your role as a coach is to get to the reality of what happened. We may well be planning the next stage of their training based on this view. There is no time-scale for going from bottom rung to top rung. It could be in seconds. It may happen over a much longer period of time.

The athlete may feel that they have not competed well or they may feel they have performed beyond what they expected. They may not have seen something that is crucial to the outcome or they may not have selected that particular piece of information.

Practice

The coach should also take time to explore their assumptions and the beliefs underpinning them and then consider:

  1. Are my observations and actions taken based on facts or are they the facts as I see them?
  2. Have I ascended the ladder of inference or am I still based in fact and reality?
  3. Do I tend to jump to certain rungs?
  4. Do I tend to select only part of the data?
  5. Did I see a vase or two faces?
See also  How Long do Running Shoes Last?

In a future article I will discuss a communication model that can help communicating reality with our athletes.

Category iconCoaching,  Sport Psychology,  Success,  Track & Field Tag iconBarry Cook

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Recommended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xbs-aWxyLk

Shop Our Store

  • Bud Winter (9)
  • Championship Productions (6)
  • Clyde Hart (2)
  • Derek Hansen (1)
  • Electrical Muscle Stimulation (2)
  • Jim Hiserman (6)
  • Jimson Lee (4)
  • Uncategorised (0)

Articles by Category

Products

  • Jim Hiserman - Developing 800m Runners: Identifying, Categorizing and Developing 400m-800m Type Athletes $42.99 $39.99
  • Private Coaching - Monthly Plan $600.00 $525.00
  • Jim Hiserman-Developing-Distance-Runnersv2 Jim Hiserman - Developing Distance Runners Volume 2: A Systematic Approach to Developing Individual Success within a Dynamic Team Culture $34.95 $29.95
  • Feed-the-Cats-Clinic-3-Pack-701 'Feed the Cats' Clinic 3-Pack $64.99
  • Tony Holler's Feed the Cats": A Complete Sprint Training Program Tony Holler's "Feed the Cats" Complete Sprint Training Program $49.99
  • Bud Winter and Speed City presents Arthur Lydiard 509x716 Bud Winter & Arthur Lydiard MP3 [Download only] $9.99

RECENT POSTS

  • IFAC 2022: The Return of In-Person Conferences (with Virtual option)
  • Here is our 400m Discussion Recording… over 2 Hours Long
  • The Best Free Coaching Book – post Beijing 2022 Olympics
  • The Ultimate 400m Track Webinar for Coaches & Athletes
  • NACAC Athletics Coaching Science Series 2022
  • Top Six 400m Predictor Workouts (Number 4 is my Favourite)
  • Best 6 Podcasts for 2021 (and Beyond)
  • Why Karsten Warholm’s 45.94 400mH WR is my Highlight of 2021
  • Sprinting: 10 Research Articles for Effective Sprint Training [Part 23]
  • Pressure in Sports – Reflections from Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Copyright © 2023. SpeedEndurance.com is owned and operated by Aryta Ltd. Privacy Policy
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy